JAKARTA - The Philippine Senate held a trial to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte, which could lead to her removal from office and end her bid to run for president.
In the process, the Senate will discuss a number of allegations against Duterte, including the misuse of public funds, threats to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and having unexplained wealth.
As reported by ANTARA from Kyodo, the trial was held after the Philippine House of Representatives in May agreed to impeach Duterte for the second time, following the failure of the first impeachment attempt last year due to procedural errors.
Sara Duterte is considered one of the strong candidates in the 2028 Philippine presidential election. This is because the President of the Philippines can only serve for one six-year term, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. cannot run again.
Duterte, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, strongly denied the charges against her and called the impeachment process "politically charged". He did not attend the Senate hearing on Monday, although he was still represented by his legal team.
According to the Philippine constitution, two-thirds of all 24 members of the Senate, equivalent to 16 votes, are needed for impeachment to be passed.
However, the detention and absence of pro-Duterte senators sparked speculation about whether the threshold could be lowered.
A senator allied with Duterte is now on the run from authorities after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of conspiring to commit crimes against humanity.
The ICC's detention order was issued in connection with Rodrigo Duterte's anti-narcotics operations, which reportedly killed thousands of people in the period 2011-2019.
Marcos and Sara Duterte are running as a pair in the 2022 presidential election, but the relationship between the two has frayed after winning the election.
Their relationship worsened after the Marcos administration in March 2025 decided to hand over Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC in The Hague for the killings that occurred during his anti-narcotics operations.
Moreover, in an online press conference in November 2024, Sara Duterte said she had asked a hitman to kill Marcos, his wife, and his cousin, Martin Romualdez, who is the Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives, if he was killed.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
