MANILA, Philippines — In a major development roiling the country’s already fractured political landscape, a Philippine congressional justice committee announced a unanimous ruling Wednesday that confirmed “probable cause” exists to advance impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte. The 53-member panel’s decision moves two separate impeachment complaints forward to a full debate and vote by the 300-plus member House of Representatives, marking a critical escalation of allegations that include unexplained personal wealth, misuse of public funds, and direct threats to the life of sitting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The core accusations against Duterte focus on her alleged illegal misappropriation and mismanagement of confidential intelligence funds, allocated both to her current office as vice president and to the Department of Education, which she led before Marcos took office in 2022. While Duterte has issued a broad denial of all wrongdoing, she has repeatedly declined to address the specific claims levied against her in detail.
During Wednesday’s public hearing, officials from the National Bureau of Investigation testified that comments Duterte made during a 2024 online press conference constituted a clear threat to national security. In those remarks, Duterte allegedly stated that if she were assassinated, orders would be carried out to kill President Marcos, the first lady, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Committee chairperson Rep. Gerville Luistro publicly criticized Duterte for her repeated refusal to testify at six televised impeachment hearings, as well as her decision to petition the Supreme Court to halt the inquiry over the allegations, which include unreported large-scale bank transactions that Duterte was legally required to disclose. “If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct,” Luistro stated at the opening of Wednesday’s session. “The only people who fear the disclosures of these transactions are those with dirty secrets.”
In the aftermath of the committee’s ruling, legal representatives for Duterte pushed back aggressively, arguing that the entire proceeding deviated from the Philippines’ constitutional framework for impeachment. “Instead of confining itself to the verified complaints and their attachments, the process expanded into matters that properly belong to a full trial,” the legal team said, offering no further details on their objection.
The political clash has already spilled into additional legal action: Duterte’s husband, Manases Carpio, filed criminal complaints Monday against Luistro and multiple other legislators and inquiry officials after records of the couple’s bank transactions were publicly released during a recent House hearing. The Duterte camp maintains the disclosure violates the country’s strict bank secrecy laws.
Sara Duterte, the daughter of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, carries notable political baggage from her father’s tenure: the former leader is currently facing prosecution before the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands on allegations of crimes against humanity, stemming from the thousands of extrajudicial killings that occurred during his nationwide anti-drug crackdown between 2016 and 2022.
This is not the first impeachment effort against the vice president: she survived a similar attempt last year on a procedural technicality, after the Supreme Court ruled that the House had violated constitutional rules limiting the body to processing just one impeachment proceeding per calendar year. Most of the current allegations against her were carried over from that unsuccessful 2023 complaint.
Notably, despite the mounting legal and political pressure, independent public opinion polls still rank Duterte as one of the most popular political figures in the Philippines. She has already publicly confirmed her intention to run for the presidency in the 2028 national election, a declaration that has amplified opposition scrutiny of her conduct and financial history.
If the full House of Representatives, which is currently controlled by allies of President Marcos Jr., votes to impeach Duterte, she will next face an impeachment trial conducted by the Philippine Senate. A conviction would remove her from the vice presidency immediately.
The current standoff between Duterte and Marcos caps a rapid collapse of what was once a powerful political alliance: the two ran as a joint presidential-vice presidential ticket in the 2022 national election, but their relationship has devolved into open, bitter conflict in recent years, adding a new layer of instability to Philippine politics that has long struggled with systemic governance challenges and recurring political upheaval.