'VP Sara visited Teves in October, not Madriaga'

December 23, 2025 | 1:50pm

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte visited former lawmaker Arnie Teves Jr. at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility in Camp Bagong Diwa in October, not Ramil Madriaga.

This is according to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, who shared this information at a press conference Tuesday, December 23.

"Pumunta sya doon pero kinausap nya si Arnie Teves, hindi si Madriaga (She did go to the facility, but it was Arnie Teves she visited, not Madriaga)," Remulla said at a press conference held by the National Police Commission (Napolcom).

When asked if there was CCTV footage of Duterte's visit to Teves, Remulla said records were kept by the warden, who was present during the visit.

"Wala daw pinagusapan masyado (They did not talk about much)," he said, adding that was the extent of what he knew about the encounter. 

The statement contradicts claims by Madriaga's lawyer Raymund Palad, who said at a press conference last week that Duterte visited Madriaga twice this year at the facility — once to offer assistance in dismissing his kidnapping case in exchange for dropping his exposé about her, and again on October 19 when Madriaga allegedly refused to meet with her.

Duterte yesterday denied Palad's claims in a statement, stressing that she had never had a personal relationship with the former military agent. "I have never visited him in prison, nor have I spoken to him about anything at any time," she said.

Teves, a former three-term congressman, is detained at Camp Bagong Diwa facing multiple murder charges, including for the March 2023 killing of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and 10 others. The Anti-Terrorism Council has designated him as a terrorist. He was deported from Timor-Leste in May and transferred to BJMP custody in June.

Madriaga, meanwhile, is being held at the same facility on kidnapping charges. He submitted a sworn affidavit to the Office of the Ombudsman earlier this month alleging that Duterte's 2022 vice presidential campaign was bankrolled by Philippine offshore gaming operators and drug dealers, and that he personally delivered duffel bags filled with cash to various locations on her orders.

He also claims to have helped organize the "Inday Sara Duterte Is My President" movement in 2020 and later worked under colonels Dennis Nolasco and Raymund Dante Lachica in the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group, transporting large sums of money from July 2022 to April 2023.

Duterte has dismissed Madriaga's allegations as baseless, calling them an attempt to "obstruct and undermine" her possible presidential candidacy in 2028. She said in her statement that Madriaga, who has a prior criminal record, appears to be "acting out of desperation to secure his release from detention."

The vice president has at one point compared herself to Teves in terms of their shared legal troubles. In November last year, Duterte accused the Marcos administration of using the "Arnie Teves playbook" against her, claiming to be the target of the same "tactics" used to go after the former congressman, including baseless anti-terror charges and efforts to freeze assets. 

Testimony from multiple arrested suspects named Teves as the mastermind in the Degamo killing, while Duterte made her remarks about ordering a retaliatory hit on the president last year in a virtual press conference.