MANILA: Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte has asked the Senate to throw out the impeachment case against her ahead of the trial, in a bid to thwart a second attempt by opponents to ban her from politics.
"First and foremost, what we want is for the articles of impeachment to be dismissed,” Duterte’s lawyer Michael Poa told reporters on Monday (June 1) after submitting Duterte’s response to the case.
The Senate is set to start the impeachment trial in July.
Duterte, 48, who was impeached by the House of Representatives last month, is accused of threatening the life of ally-turned-rival President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., misusing public funds and amassing unexplained wealth, among other allegations.
She has denied any wrongdoing, and said earlier that the accusations were politically motivated and were "recycled” from last year.
Duterte was also impeached by the House in February 2025, but the Senate later shelved it after it was nullified by the Supreme Court on procedural grounds.
The daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte will participate when the trial kicks off "without prejudice to the constitutional infirmities” that warrant a dismissal of the case, according to Poa.
"The fact that we filed an answer now means the vice president will face this,” Poa said, adding that Duterte’s legal team is confident she will be acquitted.
The vice president earlier filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to nullify the impeachment complaints.
Sara Duterte has announced plans to run for president in the next election in 2028 for which she’s the frontrunner, according to surveys.
She faces removal from office and disqualification from politics if two-thirds of the 24-member Senate vote to convict her.
Duterte and Marcos, both children of former presidents, partnered to win the 2022 election by a landslide, but political differences ruptured their alliance.
Political tensions have been rising in the Philippines, particularly the developments in the Senate where a power grab last month was followed by a chaotic shootout that deepened the divide between those who support Sara Duterte and those who do not.
The escalating conflict at the upper chamber is tied to the Marcos-Duterte feud and comes as the Philippines grapples with a slowing economy and rising inflation due to the energy shock from the Iran war.
Earlier in the day, Senator Jinggoy Estrada who previously voted to shelve Duterte’s first impeachment case, surrendered to police after a court ordered his arrest on corruption charges.
He’s the highest-ranking government official to be charged in a graft scandal surrounding the nation’s flood infrastructure that has hurt the South-East Asian economy and led to mass protests.
Another senator, Ronald Dela Rosa who’s wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, remains at large and is the subject of a police manhunt.
Estrada and Dela Rosa, the police chief from 2016 to 2018 who oversaw former President Duterte’s war on drugs that killed thousands of people, are part of the slim Senate majority aligned with Duterte’s daughter Sara.
The ex-leader has been detained in an ICC facility in The Hague since March last year and his trial over charges related to his anti-drug crackdown is set to start on Nov. 30. - Bloomberg
