Impeachment complaints filed against Philippine V-P Sara Duterte
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Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte has been accused of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary.
PHOTO: EPA
MANILA – Philippine civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition filed impeachment complaints against Vice-President Sara Duterte on Feb 2, restarting a process that was sidelined by the country’s Supreme Court in 2025.
Both cases accuse Ms Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Mr Marcos, who is accused of corruption tied to a spiralling scandal over bogus flood control projects
Under the Philippine Constitution, an impeachment by the House triggers a Senate trial, where a guilty verdict means expulsion from office and a lifetime ban on political service.
Ms Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, is widely considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
“It’s about time that V-P Sara must be held accountable,” Representative Leila de Lima, who endorsed one of the fresh complaints, said on Feb 2.
“The complaint basically... raises the same grounds as the previous complaint, just much condensed and streamlined.”
Key to both filings on Feb 2 are allegations surrounding about US$10 million (S$12.7 million) in unexplained spending while Ms Duterte was education secretary.
Ms Duterte was successfully impeached by the House in 2025 on similar charges brought by a group backed by Ms de Lima and other lawmakers.
In addition to questions over her spending, that complaint alleged that she had made an assassination threat against the President during a late-night press briefing, charges she has denied.
An abortive Senate trial that followed saw the senior body kick the case back to the House while questioning its constitutionality.
The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the impeachment was a violation of a constitutional rule against multiple complaints being filed in the same year.
The court upheld its ruling last week.
In a statement, lawyers for the Vice-President said they were confident the accusations would be proven baseless.
President Marcos is separately facing impeachment complaints accusing him of systematically bilking taxpayers out of billions of dollars for bogus flood control projects.
Rage over so-called ghost infrastructure projects has been building for months in the archipelago country of 116 million, where entire towns were buried in flood waters
The House Justice Committee began hearings over the Marcos complaints on Feb 2.
Outside, a group of about 100 protesters gathered by the left-wing Makabayan bloc held aloft banners calling for the ouster of both Mr Marcos and Ms Duterte.
Mr Raymond Palatino, 46, told AFP: “We are protesting... to remind the lawmakers that their loyalty should be to the people, not to their political patron, not to their political dynasty, not to the President.” AFP
