Marcos’ sister flags support for Philippine V-P Sara Duterte ahead of Senate trial

MANILA – Senators seeking to lock impeached Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte out of politics for good may face an uphill battle, with one of her staunchest supporters calling the movement against her family “insane and wicked”.

Senator Imee Marcos, the older sister of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, said it was a “tragedy” that her own family had been given a second chance and “instead of grabbing it and leveraging it into great development and prosperity for the Filipino people, we’ve just wasted it”.

“It’s been wasted on this insane and wicked campaign against the Dutertes,” she said in an interview from her family’s ancestral home in Manila on May 27, as a painting of her mother, Imelda, and late dictator father Ferdinand Marcos hung behind her. “Stagflation is around the corner. It’s a very scary moment for Filipinos.”

Ms Marcos, who said she has a “non-existent” relationship with her brother and last spoke with him at her son’s birthday three years ago, is among 13 lawmakers from the 24-member Chamber allied with the Vice-President. Ms Duterte will be tried in the Senate in a trial that is set to start in July.

Given the two-thirds hurdle needed for a conviction, she is likely to be acquitted by the Upper Chamber after being impeached for a second time in the Lower House. But if she is convicted, the mandatory penalty would be removal from office and permanent disqualification from politics.

Ms Marcos, 70, said she would prefer that only evidence pertinent to the case be presented and hopes everything can wrap up by September.

While she vowed to be an impartial judge, she said she believes that Ms Duterte, who is locked in a bitter feud with her younger brother, would make a good leader if she wins the 2028 election, for which she is the front runner. 

“I have great confidence in Sara,” she said. “She has manifested great executive ability and compassion.”

The action in the Philippine Senate has gripped the nation, with a power grab earlier in May leading to a dramatic evening shootout that deepened the divide between those who support Ms Duterte and those who do not.

On May 26, senators in the minority bloc walked out of a plenary session after a heated discussion with colleagues who were pushing a plan to allow some senators to participate remotely. 

The dispute can be traced back to a huge falling out between the President and his deputy when their relationship collapsed over policy differences following the duo’s landslide win on a joint ticket in the 2022 election.

The latest escalating tensions come at a particularly bad time, with the Philippine economy expanding at one of the slowest paces in South-east Asia and inflation at a three-year high owing to the energy shock from the Iran war.

Ms Marcos declined to speculate on whether Ms Duterte, who is accused of misusing public funds and threatening to assassinate the President, would be acquitted or convicted.

“I cannot answer that,” she said. “There have been allegations that we’re incapable of being impartial, that those of us who are in the Duterte bloc are clearly going to let her go.”

But “we need to determine what’s going to be allowed as evidence and who the witnesses” will be to prevent any grandstanding.

“At the end of the day, all of us are politicians in the Senate. And it’s true that the impeachment is a political process,” she added.

A pre-trial proceeding is set to start on June 15.

Ensuring no damaging evidence will be presented against Ms Duterte may be “exactly the game plan” of senators allied with her, according to Professor Jean Encinas-Franco, a political scientist at the University of the Philippines.

“Senator Marcos’ statement tells us that the majority is indeed trying to control the political space of the trial to shield Sara Duterte,” Prof Franco said.

Ms Duterte, daughter of former leader Rodrigo Duterte, was first impeached in early 2025 but the Senate that year shelved the complaint against her after the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional on procedural grounds.

Her father, who led the nation from 2016 to 2022, is in the custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, facing trial over crimes against humanity during his drug war that killed thousands of people.

During an interview with Bloomberg in March, President Marcos said it is a “great worry” for him that Ms Duterte may reverse his policies should she become the next leader. Philippine presidents are limited to a single six-year term.

Mr Marcos’ office said on May 27 that “Imee appears to have been influenced by the Dutertes, who are known for their ability to stir up drama, create intrigue and plant evidence against their opponents in order to divert attention from the issues at hand”.

“Having already revealed her close connection to the Dutertes, the lady senator appears ready to go to extreme measures to defend them,” Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said.

She added that President Marcos “has been working hard to keep his promises for the best of the country and all Filipinos”. BLOOMBERG