Sara Duterte files 2nd perjury complaint vs Ramil Madriaga
MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Sara Duterte filed another perjury complaint against alleged bagman Ramil Madriaga on Monday, August 17.
Duterte personally filed the criminal complaint for alleged violation of Article 183 of the Revised of the Penal Code with the Taguig City prosecutor’s office. This was in response to Madriaga’s April 11, 2026, supplemental affidavit for the House clarificatory hearing on Duterte’s impeachment.
Madriaga is among the prosecution’s key witnesses in the impeachment trial of Duterte.
Perjury is is filed against people who made “untruthful statements and not being included in the provisions of the next preceding articles, shall testify under oath, or make an affidavit, upon any material matter before a competent person authorized to administer an oath in cases in which the law so requires.”
According to Duterte’s lawyer, Paolo Panelo, the complaint was filed due to Madriaga’s “malicious and deliberate falsehoods with sworn testimonies of the Vice President herself and twelve (12) corroborating witnesses, government, and other official documents and certifications, and contemporaneous messages, photographs, and public records.”
“It [the filing] had to be done to ensure that Madriaga is held accountable under the law, and to unmask the malicious, baseless, and desperate character of the impeachment effort against the Vice President and of those behind it,” Panelo added.
Duterte’s legal action is still a complaint, which means the prosecutors will assess whether this legal action has strong evidence to become a case. The threshold or the required level of evidence for a complaint to become a case is prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction or an assurance that the filing of the case will lead to a guilty verdict against the accused.
The Vice President filed her first perjury complaint against Madriaga in March due to the former intelligence officer’s December 2025 affidavit.
There, Madriaga claimed that he delivered millions of money and had worked with two officers connected to Duterte: Colonel Dennis Nolasco (Madriaga’s student at the Presidential Security Group) and Colonel Raymund Lachica (former head of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group).
In his second affidavit, Madriaga made new allegations, including the claim that the Office of the Vice President’s P125-million confidential funds not within 11 days, but within 24 hours. – Rappler.com
