Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte was the subject of an impeachment complaint today as she faces legal proceedings over death threats against the President and alleged misuse of public funds.
The impeachment petition filed today by several political opponents and activists in the House of Representatives accuses Duterte of violating the Philippine Constitution, corruption and other “serious crimes”, including the death threats she made against the head of state and his family and the speaker of Parliament.
The vice president’s threats show the “extent of the respondent’s mental incapacity, depravity and unfitness to continue to hold the high office of vice president of the Philippines”, says the complaint seen by the US news agency Associated Press.
“This constitutes not only a betrayal of public trust, but also a serious crime that would justify immediate removal from office”, the same document adds.
Duterte, a 46-year-old lawyer, has also been accused of having “unexplained wealth” and of allowing extrajudicial killings of drug traffickers initiated by her father, a former head of state and former mayor of Davao City.
The vice president’s legal disputes have been playing out amid political tensions with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his supporters.
At a Nov. 23 press conference, Duterte said he had hired a hitman to kill Marcos, his wife and Parliament Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed.
He later said he was not threatening the head of state but was expressing concern for his own safety.
The impeachment complaint will be considered by the Philippine Parliament, which is dominated by Marcos allies and his cousin and main supporter, Romualdez, who has also been at odds politically with the vice president.
The impeachment process could take weeks or months.
Parliament will begin a Christmas break on December 20 and resume on January 13.
Parliament is also investigating the alleged misuse of 612.5 million pesos (€9.80 million).
Duterte has accused Marcos and Romualdez of corruption, poor leadership and trying to silence him for running for president in 2028.
Marcos and Duterte won significant victories as allies in the 2022 election, but have since fallen out.
In the Philippines, the two offices are elected separately.
Marcos and Duterte differ in their approaches to Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and in their views on the anti-drug crackdown led by Duterte’s father, Rodrigo Duterte.
State repression has led to the deaths of thousands of suspects, mostly disadvantaged citizens, in killings carried out mainly by the police and which are being investigated by the International Criminal Court as possible crimes against humanity.
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