Metro Manila, Philippines – The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has subpoenaed a former information aide of Sara Duterte in relation to allegations of helping deliver bribe money to the vice president.
Rodulfo Gracioso Jr., who claims he was then a chief security aide of former Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, said Jeffrey Tupas, former Davao City information officer who later worked at the Office of the Vice President (OVP), helped deliver the suitcases of cash to Duterte between 208 to 2020.
The NBI required Tupas to face the bureau on Oct.1, but his lawyer, Cesar Europa, informed the NBI that his client cannot comply on “short notice” as he is based in Mindanao.
It added that because of previous communication with the agency, Tupas thought he would be offered protective custody, not served a subpoena, over a “threat of abduction.”
A sworn statement by Tupas was attached to the letter denying Gracioso’s claim of handing Tupas the gifts and suitcases of cash meant for Duterte on numerous occasions, including details of his supposed whereabouts in the dates mentioned by Gracioso in a separate sworn statement.
“Talagang malas si PCPL. GRACIOSO sa kanyang gawa-gawang kwento… Yung paratang niya na may petsa ay palaging natataon na wala ako sa Pilipinas,” Tupas wrote.
[PCPL. GRACIOSO is very unlucky with his made-up stories… His allegations with dates coincide with times when I was not in the Philippines.]
Tupas attached copies of past passport stamps, flight tickets, and social media posts.
A copy of an executive order (EO) from then-Mayor Sara Duterte was included to back up his claim that he was not in Cebu with Duterte, where Gracioso said he delivered three suitcases of cash in the summer of 2020, as the EO suspended all domestic air travel from and to Davao City because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tupas denied ever meeting Gracioso and said that if there are pictures of them together, it would only be if Gracioso was actually a security aide to Velasco and attended the same event where Tupas would have been with Duterte.
Tupas was a city information officer at Davao from 2016 to 2021 and worked at the OVP from 2022 to 2025.
