MANILA, Philippines - The legal counsel of Vice President Sara Duterte denied claims by the lawyer of self-confessed security consultant Ramil Madriaga that there were threats to his life and that he was offered up to P1 billion just to stop him from testifying. In an interview, Madriaga's counsel, Raymund Palad, claimed that his client was being threatened by a fellow inmate at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology compound in Taguig. He also said that Madriaga was being offered from P500 million to P1 billion by two government officials just to recant his testimony. In a statement, Duterte's lawyer, Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. said that Duterte has nothing to do with any death threats to Madriaga. "[W]e join any calls to provide him with additional protection. We want him alive and in the pink of health because he’s the only one who can admit that he made up his testimony against the Vice President, and identify his handlers," Panelo said. He also said that the alleged payoff against Madriaga was a "ridiculous claim,"stressing that Duterte's camp wants Madriaga to testify so his "lies can be dismantled on cross-examination for the world to see," "There’s no sense for us to stop him from revealing himself as a fraud," Panelo said. Duterte filed perjury charges against Madriaga in Taguig City on Wednesday.