The impeachment trial of Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte opened in the Senate in Manila on July 6 and resumed on July 7, the first time a sitting Philippine vice president has faced trial and a proceeding that could end her political career. The House prosecution panel began presenting its evidence, with witnesses expected to include officials from the National Bureau of Investigation.
Duterte faces charges of culpable violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, bribery and other high crimes, centred on the alleged misuse of confidential government funds during her time as vice president and education secretary. Investigators say her bank transactions flagged more than $110 million in suspicious activity, and the charges also cite her failure to properly disclose wealth.
The most incendiary count stems from a November 2024 news conference in which Duterte said that if she were killed, she had instructed someone to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez. "If I get killed, go kill BBM, Liza Araneta and Martin Romualdez," she said at the time — remarks prosecutors frame as a betrayal of public trust.
Conviction is a high bar. Under the constitution, a two-thirds majority of the 24-member Senate — 16 senators sitting as judges — must vote to convict. Removal from office would be automatic, and the Senate could also impose the far more consequential penalty of permanent disqualification from any public office.
That disqualification clause is why the trial carries national weight beyond Duterte herself. She has openly signalled a run for president in 2028, when Marcos will be term-limited, and is among the early front-runners. A guilty verdict would remove her from that race entirely; an acquittal would let her emerge as the opposition's standard-bearer against the Marcos bloc.
The trial is the culmination of a spectacular collapse. Marcos and Duterte ran together on a "UniTeam" ticket in 2022, uniting the country's two most powerful political dynasties and winning in a landslide. The alliance disintegrated over Senate investigations into her fund use and sharp policy differences, including over relations with China and the South China Sea, leaving the president and vice president as open rivals.
The Senate's arithmetic is also being shaped by events outside the chamber. Senator Rodante Marcoleta, a Duterte ally, was arrested on corruption charges just before the trial began — a development that could subtract a friendly vote and tighten an already narrow path to the 16 votes required either way.
Proceedings are expected to run for months, and the House prosecutors must now convert a politically charged case into evidence that can persuade a two-thirds supermajority. For a country whose politics has revolved around two dynasties for a generation, the verdict will help decide which one carries into the post-Marcos era — and whether the vice president reaches the 2028 ballot at all.