Government prosecutors on Thursday said they will file a formal comment on Vice President Sara Duterte’s motion to quash grave threats charges filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC).

In a press briefing, Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon said they are waiting for a formal order from the RTC to comment on the motion to quash filed by Duterte’s defense lawyers.

“We just received information that the court had already received the motion to quash coming from the defense, and the prosecution was given a period of five days within which to file its comment to the same before it will resolve the issue,” Fadullon said.

“So, on the matter of the details pertaining to the case itself, it will all depend on how the court will resolve the motion,” he added.

He said they are expecting to receive the court’s order “before the end of the week and we will be filing our comment forthwith.”

“After that, we’ll find out what the ruling of the court is on the motion to quash,” Fadullon said.

In a press statement, lawyer Paul Lim, Duterte’s counsel for the grave threats case, confirmed that they have filed a motion before the court to quash the charges.

“We confirm having filed a motion to quash the grave threats information filed against the Vice President, on the ground of lack of jurisdiction. As lawyers bound by our Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability, however, we cannot give any further discussion on this matter that is now sub judice,” Lim said.

Fadullon said they will leave it to the RTC how it will dispose of the charges they filed against the Vice President after she claimed in an online press briefing in November last year that she has contracted assassins to kill President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she is killed.

“Whatever it is that’s going on before the impeachment court is different from the one that we have now. This is before the regional trial court; that’s why we would leave it to the ruling of the court how it will dispose of the same, whether it believes that the charges can be sustained even if the accused in this case is an impeachable officer. Kasi wala namang nagba-bar na hindi siya pwedeng file ng kaso. (After all, nobody is preventing us from filing a case against her),” he said. (PNA)