DOJ starts probe on Alvarez’s ‘seditious’ statements

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has begun its probe on the statements issued by former House speaker and incumbent Davao del Norte 1st District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez who was reported to have urged the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to withdraw its support to the administration of President Marcos.

“I have ordered an investigation on the statements of Congressman Pantaleon Alvarez to determine whether it has risen to the level of sedition, inciting to sedition or even rebellion,” said Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla in a statement issued on Tuesday, April 16.

“As a former lawmaker myself, I would like to remind Congressman Alvarez to act in accordance with the highest standards of ethics, morality and nationalism, and avoid remarks unbecoming of a member of the House of Representatives,” Remulla said.

Camiguin Rep. Jurdin Jesus M. Romualdo had earlier called on the DOJ to file the charges against Alvarez.

Romualdo said “what former Speaker Alvarez remarked during a rally in Tagum City falls within the purview of sedition.”

“The response to the seditious statement should be the immediate filing of a criminal case so that the move to incite people, including the military, to rebel against the government will be nipped in the bud,” he said.

Alvarez responds

Alvarez, however, insisted that his remarks in Tagum City over the weekend were neither seditious nor illustrative of “disorderly conduct”.

Alvarez said in a statement that under the Revised Penal Code (RPC), sedition is committed by rising publicly and tumultuously to attain by force, intimidation, or by illegal means, unlawful objectives.

“On the other hand, the general clause for an ethics complaint, based on the Rules of the House of Representatives, warrants disciplinary action for ‘disorderly conduct’; which was the ground used to expel former [Negros Occidental 3rd District] Rep. Arnie Teves last year,” read the statement.

“How did my remarks become seditious or constitute disorderly conduct, when everything was peaceful and orderly,” Alvarez said.

The Davao del Norte lawmaker is widely known to be a close ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, father of Vice President Sara Duterte. It is the younger Duterte who will take over Malacañang should Marcos resign.

The main motivation for Alvarez’s statements is his belief that the pro-American Marcos administration is leading the Philippines to war with China over the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue.

Alvarez also claimed that there’s “dissatisfaction” in the AFP.