Published: 10:53pm, 17 Feb 2025Updated: 7:42am, 18 Feb 2025
Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte faced a criminal complaint on Monday over comments he made during a campaign rally when he said 15 senators should be killed in a bomb attack to allow more vacant seats for his political party’s candidates to contest.
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The alleged illegal utterances and inciting to sedition were contained in a complaint filed by police Major General Nicolas Torre III to the Department of Justice.
They were the latest legal trouble to face the former president and his family under President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.
Campaigning is under way for half of the 24 Senate seats for the May 12 midterm elections in the Philippines.
The former president’s camp said his remarks were just a joke uttered to liven up a political rally on Thursday for the nine senatorial candidates of his PDP-Laban party.
“Let’s kill senators now so there will be vacancies,” Duterte said at the proclamation rally of his party’s senatorial candidates. “If we can kill about 15 senators, we’re in … the only way to do it is, let’s just stage an explosion.”
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