PNP deploys 25 cops to VPSPG amid probe

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has deployed 25 police personnel to the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) assigned to guard Vice President Sara Duterte.

In a press briefing at Camp Crame on Thursday, PNP spokesperson BGen. Jean Fajardo said these police officers were requested by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to augment Duterte's security details pending the investigation into some VPSPG members involved in a confrontation at the House of Representatives Detention Center and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.

“The other day, we turned over 25 police officers as requested by the AFP to replace security personnel involved in an incident last Saturday,” she said.

“So we will have to wait if they will accept these 25 or if it will be the same with respect to the 31 remaining before last July, who were underutilized. But just the same, we are just responding to the request made by the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” she added.

Fajardo noted there’s a strict vetting procedure in deploying security details for both the President and the Vice President.

“But since this involves the President and Vice President, this will undergo a strict vetting process po to make sure na lahat po nang i-deploy with respect sa security detail po ng President and Vice President has to go to pass po the strict vetting of the Presidential Security Command,” she noted.

Fajardo said the PNP has not yet received any report of threats against Duterte.

“I also confirmed that question but on the part of the PNP, we don’t have any information with respect to the alleged threat against the VP, but the PNP is open to collaboration and cooperation, and if there is, I am pretty sure and I am just assuming as part of security protocols, this should have been communicated. Any threat against the VP should have been communicated with the PSC (Presidential Security Command) since it is the command responsible for the security and safety of the VP,” she explained.

In the same press briefing, PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief PBGen. Nicolas Torre III said Duterte, along with VPSPG commander Colonel Raymund Dante Lachina, and several others, will be facing cases of direct assault, disobedience, and grave coercion due to the recent confrontations.

According to Torre, Duterte and her security detail forcibly took the custody of her chief of staff, Atty. Zhulieka Lopez, causing a commotion with the police officers who were just serving the House order.

He noted that the VP and her security actions became the grounds for the PNP to file a disobedience case against them.

“In that process, kita-kita naman sa mga video na sila mismo may ginawang pagtulak sa pulis ng security ni VP Sara. Specifically, in that video, nagawa rin naman nila. So ang pag-tulak na yan, that is direct assault,” Torre said.

He noted that the PNP is also looking into Duterte’s liabilities for her actions.

“That is preventing bodily contact sa isang pulis na nagtatrabaho naman (on a police officer who is just doing his job). So that cannot be forgiven. We cannot let it pass,” he added.

The Vice President is facing intense scrutiny after reportedly cursing at President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, while also allegedly threatening to have them assassinated if she were to be killed first.