27 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleJoel Guinto
Senate of the PhilippinesThe impeachment trial of the Philippines’ popular vice-president, Sara Duterte, has started, in a case that will determine whether she can run for the top job in 2028.
She is accused of misusing public funds and threatening to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assassinated. If convicted, she will be removed as vice-president and barred from running in any upcoming elections.
She has dismissed the case as political harassment, with some analysts suggesting that the trial is a bid to block her presidential ambitions.
The 48-year-old is the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is himself being detained at The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity.
The younger Duterte’s trial is the latest theatre in the explosive feud between the Duterte and Marcos families, who formed a powerful political alliance which has since spectacularly unravelled.
In 2022, Duterte formed an alliance with Marcos ahead of the then upcoming election – a duo hailed as a “political dream team” – both hailing from prominent political dynasties.
They went on to win by a landslide.
But the alliance quickly unravelled as they pursued separate political agendas.
The first sign of a crack in their alliance came when Duterte publicly said she wanted to be the defence secretary – and she was made education secretary instead.
She served in that position for two years, and the alleged misuse of millions of pesos in public funds is linked to that time. She has denied wrongdoing and decried the charge as political harassment.
At the height of the inquiries, which began in 2024, Duterte said in an explosive late-night live stream that she told one “person” that “if I get killed, go kill BBM [President Marcos], [First Lady] Liza Araneta, and [House Speaker] Martin Romualdez.”
Months later, in March 2025, the feud took another dramatic turn when Marcos allowed Interpol to arrest Rodrigo Duterte and bring him to The Hague.
In March this year, Duterte announced she would run for president in the 2028 elections.
Getty ImagesAs vice-president, Duterte has no official duties aside from succeeding Marcos in case he is unable to finish his term.
The president and vice-president are elected separately in the Philippines. The president is limited to a single six-year term while the vice-president can run for president at the end of their term.
Historically, this dynamic has resulted in friction between the two officials. A single-term president would want to hold as much influence during their term while the vice-president would use their term as springboard for a presidential campaign if the presidency is their ultimate goal.
The trial at the Senate started on 6 July. Ninety-two trial dates in total have been scheduled, spread thrice weekly.
The proceedings are livestreamed by local media outlets, with tens of thousands of viewers tuning in to watch each one.
Under Philippine law, officials like the president, vice-president and chief justice of the Supreme Court can be impeached by the House of Representatives if they commit an impeachable offence – culpable violation of the constitution, treason, graft and corruption, bribery, high crimes and betrayal of public trust.
Once impeached, the case is transmitted to the Senate for trial, which would result in an acquittal or a conviction – in which case, the official will be removed from office and disqualified from running in elections.
The vote of sixteen of the 24 sitting senators is required to convict Duterte.
In their opening arguments, prosecutors said the case was about holding the powerful to account while the defence argued that the case was aimed squarely at removing the vice-president, even as she received 32 million votes – the highest of any incumbent national official – in the last election in 2022.
Getty ImagesDuterte had earlier already been impeached by the House in February 2025, also for alleged corruption and threats to the President. But this was later struck down by the Supreme Court six months later on technical grounds.
Impeachments in the Philippines have marked periods of political turmoil. In late 2000, then President Joseph Estrada was impeached for alleged corruption.
Estrada’s trial at the Senate gripped the nation and ended abruptly after his lawyers blocked evidence of his alleged secret bank accounts. That sparked a military-backed uprising that toppled his government.
Since the restoration of democracy in 1986, only one impeachment process was completed – that of former Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona, who in 2012 was convicted of betrayal of public trust, which stemmed from misdeclaration of his wealth.
Sara Duterte’s political future is on the line as a conviction in the Senate will disqualify her from running for president in 2028.
She is seen as the strongest contender to succeed Marcos. A survey by respected pollster Pulse Asia in March showed the vice-president with a 55% approval rating compared to the president’s 36%.
In the 2025 mid-term elections – considered as a barometer of public support – senatorial candidates allied with Marcos did far worse than expected compared to Duterte’s allies.
If Duterte is shut out of the 2028 presidential race, analysts say Marcos will have wider scope to push for a friendlier successor, one that will not harbour a political vendetta against him.
If Duterte survives impeachment, analysts say she could come out stronger.
However, protracted impeachment proceedings that are carried live on television and the internet risk affecting public support for her.
Getty ImagesThe pathway to convict Vice-President Sara Duterte is extremely tight, with votes from 16 of the 24 senator-judges needed for an impeachment.
The Senate is basically split between the Duterte and Marcos camps. This year alone, the Senate has had four presidents and each leadership change, called a “coup” by the local press, has been decided by the defection of just a few senators.
This underscores how evenly matched the camps are in the Senate, and how alliances in the chamber are constantly shifting.
Complicating matters is the fact that two senators – both allies of the vice-president – have been arrested in recent weeks to face plunder charges.
Another senator who is a Duterte ally – who has gone into hiding from the International Criminal Court – faces charges in Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity case.
It is unclear whether all three are able to vote in absentia.
Ultimately, what is at stake is power beyond 2028.
The Duterte and Marcos families both succeeded in rallying Filipinos around their respective narratives and regional affiliations – which run strong in the nation of 7,100 islands.
Marcos billed himself as the “tiger” of the Ilocano-speaking north who pledged to restore the Philippines’ to its “golden age”, when his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was in office.
Duterte, on the other hand, positioned herself as the “eagle” from the Visayan-speaking country’s south, who would continue her father’s fight for ordinary folk who had been shut out by Manila’s oligarchs and political elite.
Four years ago, they were the unstoppable dream team, now they are the bitter rivals in a drawn out battle where only one survives.
Rodrigo DuterteFerdinand Marcos JrPhilippinesAsia
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