A Philippine congressional committee agreed overwhelmingly on Wednesday to advance the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, setting the stage for a potential vote that could decide her political future. The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who in February announced a 2028 presidential bid, was impeached last year, only for the Supreme Court to toss the case out over procedural issues. Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment by the House of Representatives triggers a Senate trial, where a guilty verdict would ban Duterte from elected office for life.
The new complaints, ruled “sufficient in substance” by a vote of 54-1 on Wednesday, accuse her of graft and corruption while in office and of making a death threat against former ally President Ferdinand Marcos. She will now have 10 days to respond before the start of a hearing of probable cause necessary to move the complaints to a House vote. Duterte’s 2025 impeachment effectively bypassed the committee process, when the necessary one-third of House members signed an impeachment complaint, sending it directly to the Senate.
“Our vote today is not a verdict of guilt nor an act of condemnation. It’s simply a decision on whether the constitutional process should move forward,” Representative Ferdinand Hernandez said minutes before the vote. The vice president’s legal team said Wednesday they would not comment on specific allegations.
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“For now, we will refrain from discussing the substance of the case in the media and will instead address these matters through the proper constitutional processes,” lawyer Michael Poa said in a statement. While a probable cause hearing still looms, Michael Tiu, assistant professor of law at the University of the Philippines, told AFP he believed nothing would derail the path to a House vote.
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