MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte declared Tuesday that she will emerge battered but defiant as her high-profile impeachment trial gets underway before the country’s Senate.
Duterte, who has publicly stated her intention to run for president in mid-2028, was impeached by the House of Representatives in May. That legislative body is largely controlled by allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The 48-year-old lawyer and politician has called the charges against her politically motivated.
The trial, broadcast on television and conducted before the 24-member Senate serving as an impeachment court, began Monday.
On Tuesday, senators took up the first of four major charges against her. That charge accuses Duterte of threatening during an online news conference in November 2024 to arrange the killings of Marcos, his wife, and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez through an unidentified individual — a threat she allegedly made as tensions between her and the president’s camp were intensifying.
Video evidence presented at the trial showed Duterte making the threat and emphasizing that she was serious. She also stated in the footage that the person she asked to carry out the killings had agreed to her plan.
A separate video shown during the proceedings captured the vice president saying she wanted to cut off the president’s head.
Duterte briefly appeared at the Senate building Tuesday in casual clothing and rubber shoes to meet with her legal team, but left before the trial resumed. Speaking to reporters outside, she declined to answer questions.
“In this bloodbath and bludgeoning, I will be bloodied but unbowed,” she told the gathered media.
In prior statements, Duterte has denied all allegations against her. The charges extend beyond the threat and include accumulating unexplained wealth, misappropriating confidential funds, corruption, bribery, and inciting sedition, though no specific details have been provided on those counts.
Duterte and Marcos ran together as a ticket in the 2022 elections, combining the political strength of two of the Philippines’ most powerful dynasties. That alliance, however, quickly unraveled after they took office.
Supporters of the vice president have accused Marcos and his inner circle of using the justice system to sideline her and her political allies in order to block her presidential ambitions.
Adding to the turmoil surrounding the trial, three senators who back Duterte have been removed from the political picture by separate legal troubles. Two were recently arrested and detained on alleged large-scale corruption charges, while a third went into hiding after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest. That senator is accused of being a co-conspirator of former President Rodrigo Duterte — the vice president’s father — in alleged crimes against humanity.
Those charges relate to the killings of thousands of mostly low-income drug suspects during anti-narcotics crackdowns ordered by the former president between 2011 and 2019. Rodrigo Duterte, currently held by the ICC in The Hague, is scheduled to face trial on November 30.
Justice officials and state prosecutors have insisted the legal troubles facing the three senators are based on solid evidence and are entirely separate from the vice president’s impeachment proceedings.
Sara Duterte holds Marcos responsible for her father’s arrest last year and his subsequent transfer to ICC custody.
To secure a conviction, prosecutors must obtain at least 16 votes — two-thirds of the 24-member Senate. A guilty verdict would effectively end her presidential ambitions.
Even an acquittal would not guarantee her freedom from legal jeopardy. Anti-graft prosecutors are separately investigating criminal charges against her, including large-scale corruption, that mirror some of the impeachment allegations.
