Sara Duterte impeachment: 5 things to know about it

(FILES) Vice President Sara Duterte speaks during a press conference at her office in Manila on December 11, 2024. Philippine lawmakers on February 5 voted to send articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte to the Senate, a day before the current congressional session was set to end. | Photo by TED ALJIBE / AFP

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte was riding high not so long ago, sailing to a landslide 2022 election victory with her then-ally and fellow political scion Ferdinand Marcos.

Less than three years later, the alliance between their powerful families lies in ruins and she is facing a battle for her political life in a Senate impeachment trial, accused of fraud, corruption and plotting to assassinate her former running mate.

AFP looks at how Duterte rose to prominence and what precipitated her spectacular fall.

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Where did she come from?

The 46-year-old lawyer and mother of three, tattooed and fond of motorcycles, is the eldest daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte and goes by the nickname Inday Sara.

She punched her way into the national consciousness in 2011 while mayor of the family’s southern stronghold of Davao, slugging a sheriff as television cameras rolled when he ignored her plea to delay the court-ordered demolition of a slum community.

It established her credentials as a politician who would fight for the poor — a huge voting demographic in the archipelago nation of 117 million.

As her popular father’s presidency entered its final months, she surged in the polls to become the frontrunner in the May 2022 presidential election.

But in a shock last-minute deal, she agreed to step aside and run as vice president alongside Ferdinand Marcos, son and namesake of the man who ruled the Philippines for 20 years before his toppling in 1986.

Speaker of the House Martin Romualdez (C) presides over a session where lawmakers voted to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte at the House of Representatives in Quezon City, Metro Manila on February 5, 2025. | Photo by JAM STA ROSA / AFP

Why is she being impeached?

On Wednesday, 215 members of the 306-seat House of Representatives voted to impeach Duterte, charging her with “violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes”.

The 44-page document accused her of hiding unexplained wealth, the murder of drug users while mayor of Davao, and plotting the assassination of President Marcos and members of his family.

While Marcos has previously disavowed the impeachment movement, his cousin and fellow assassination plot target, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, is the man who managed the process that has led to her looming trial.

Duterte was already the subject of a House investigation into her spending habits, and three separate complaints were filed against her in December.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (left) and Vice President Sara Duterte. —Official Facebook page of Bongbong Marcos/Inquirer file photo/Lyn Rillon

What happened to the Marcos alliance?

Cracks in the Marcos-Duterte “Unity” alliance were visible within days of their landslide victory in the 2022 presidential election.

Marcos embarrassed Duterte when he refused to give her the defense portfolio she had publicly lobbied for, instead naming her education secretary.

Later accused of mishandling her budget, Duterte resigned the cabinet post in June 2024, at which point the long-simmering resentments exploded.

Former president Duterte stoked the flames by calling President Marcos a “drug addict” and urging the military and police to take over the government.

Facing a House probe into her spending, the vice president held an expletive-laden news conference claiming to be the victim of an assassination plot and saying she had ordered the killings of Marcos, first lady Liza Marcos and Romualdez if she was assassinated first.

IMPEACHMENT DOCUMENTS. Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. (left) receives the documents containing the impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte from House of Representatives Secretary General Reginald Velasco on Wednesday (Feb. 5, 2025). He assured Velasco that every page of the complaint would be accounted for as the Senate Secretariat begins its review. (Senate photo via Philippine News Agency)

What happens now?

The 24-seat Senate must now convene an impeachment tribunal to decide the fate of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Sixteen votes are needed to convict on the charges, any one of which would result in her removal from office and disqualification from future public posts.

While the accused is not subject to arrest based on the Senate ruling, a conviction does not mean she is immune to prosecution in other venues.

According to the Philippine constitution, she would remain “liable and subject to prosecution, trial, and punishment” for any charges that include illegal activity.

Only four Filipino officials have ever been impeached, with just one conviction, then-Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona. His 2012 trial lasted five months.

Speaker of the House Martin Romualdez acknowledges the applause after lawmakers voted to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte at the House of Representatives in Quezon City, Metro Manila on February 5, 2025. | Photo by JAM STA ROSA / AFP

Does she have a political future?

Despite her legal woes, Duterte told local television two days before the House vote that she would “seriously consider” a presidential run in 2028.

She has the effective backing of the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ), a bloc-voting sect that organised a mammoth rally last month opposing her impeachment.

House Speaker Romualdez is widely expected to be Duterte’s opponent in the presidential election should she be legally allowed to run.

Jean Franco, political science assistant professor at the University of the Philippines, said Duterte’s popularity, currently at 49 percent, has been dented after months of congressional hearings that detailed many of the charges in the impeachment case.

An independent December survey showed 41 percent of adult Filipinos would support the vice president’s impeachment, with 35 percent against and 19 percent were undecided.