Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte has been impeached on various allegations, including conspiring to assassinate the president, engaging in large-scale corruption, and failing to adequately condemn China’s aggressive actions against Filipino forces in the contested South China Sea. This development, initiated by legislators in the House of Representatives—many of whom are allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.—intensifies the political divide between the two top leaders of one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies.
Marcos has strengthened defense relations with the United States, the Philippines’ treaty ally, while Sara Duterte’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, fostered close ties with China and Russia during his tumultuous presidency, which concluded in 2022. Although Sara Duterte has not publicly responded to her impeachment, her brother, Representative Paolo Duterte, characterized it as “a clear act of political persecution.” He claimed that rival lawmakers swiftly gathered signatures to advance a “baseless impeachment case” to the Senate.
Sara Duterte has accused Marcos, his wife, and his cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, of corruption, ineffective leadership, and attempts to silence her amid speculation about her potential presidential run in 2028, following Marcos’s six-year term. At least 215 legislators in the lower house signed the impeachment complaint, surpassing the necessary threshold to expedite the petition to the Senate, which would act as a tribunal for the vice president, as stated by House of Representatives Secretary-General Reginald Velasco during a plenary session before a four-month recess.
Among the signatories of the impeachment complaint were the president’s son, Representative Sandro Marcos, and Romualdez. The petition called for the Senate to convene as an impeachment court to try the vice president, “render a judgment of conviction,” remove her from office, and prohibit her from holding public office in the future. The complaint asserted that Duterte’s actions throughout her term demonstrate a severe breach of public trust and an abusive exercise of power, indicating her unfitness for public office and disloyalty to the laws and the 1987 Constitution.
Duterte ran alongside Marcos in the 2022 elections, promoting a message of unity in a deeply divided Southeast Asian nation. Both candidates are descendants of strongmen accused of human rights abuses, yet their substantial regional support contributed to their decisive electoral victories. Marcos is the son and namesake of the late dictator ousted during the 1986 pro-democracy uprising, while Duterte’s father led a controversial anti-drug campaign currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for potential crimes against humanity. The political alliance formed during the campaign quickly deteriorated once they assumed office.
The impeachment complaint against the vice president centers on a death threat she allegedly issued.
