Philippine Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit For Impeachment Of Vice President Sara Duterte

JAKARTA - Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte won a major legal victory on Friday when the Supreme Court rejected a impeachment lawsuit against her. The court called the impeachment lawsuit for the unconstitutional vice president.

The lower house of Congress impeached Duterte in February, accusing her of abusing public funds, amassing unreasonable wealth, and threatening to kill Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady, and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The court said it did not waive Duterte from charges, but the ruling may be a big impetus to his political ambitions.

Sara Duterte is widely seen as a strong candidate for the 2028 presidency, which Marcos cannot challenge because of the limit of one term of office for the president of the Philippines.

However, if Duterte is found guilty in the impeachment trial, he will be banned from serving for life.

Sara Duterte said her impeachment move, which was carried out amid a fierce feud with Marcos, was politically motivated.

"This unanimous decision once again enforces the rule of law and strengthens constitutional limits on the misuse of the impeachment process," Duterte's lawyer said.

Sara Duterte is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte who is now detained by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a bloody war against drugs.

In a unanimous decision, the state Supreme Court approved Duterte's statement that Congress violated constitutional guarantees against more than one impeachment process against the same official in one year.

More than 200 lower house members have approved a fourth impeachment complaint to the Senate, after not following up on the first three filings.

"The impeachment articles, which are the fourth complaints, violated the one-year period ban because there were three previous complaints," Supreme Court spokesman Camille Ting told a news conference.

As a result, the Senate does not then have the authority to hold an impeachment court, the court continued.

While Marcos has distanced himself from legal proceedings against his long-isolated Vice President, saying the government's executive branch cannot intervene in this matter.

His office said on Friday that court decisions should be respected.

A Senate spokesman said the upper house was obliged to respect the court's ruling.

There has been no immediate comment from members of the House of Representatives' panel of prosecutors, but a lower house spokesman said despite respecting the court, "his constitutional obligation to uphold truth and accountability does not end here."

The Supreme Court said new complaints could be filed against Duterte after the ban expired.

"We remain ready to respond to the allegations at the right time and in the right forum," said lawyer Duterte.