Philippine lawmakers start impeachment hearings against V-P Duterte
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Protesters call for the impeachment of Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte outside the House of Representatives in Manila.
PHOTO: AFP
Manila - A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings March 2 that could dash Vice-President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives in 2025
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Ms Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Ms Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice-president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy”, University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” she said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death”.
Dr Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Ms Duterte in February tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Mr Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Mr Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Ms Duterte’s defence team, said they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied. AFP
