The House of Representatives voted Monday to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte for a second time, reviving allegations of corruption and misconduct that could jeopardize her expected 2028 presidential bid.
Lawmakers voted 257-25, with nine abstentions, to approve the impeachment complaint against Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The articles of impeachment accuse her of graft, corruption, bribery, unexplained wealth, misuse of public funds, and allegedly threatening the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
If convicted by the Senate impeachment court, Duterte would be removed from office and permanently barred from holding public office, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“This is no longer just about politics. This is about conscience, duty and the future of our nation,” Rep. Bienvenido Abante said after the vote.
Abante said the proceedings were about “whether we still believe that no one is above the law.”
Duterte’s defense team said it was prepared to contest the allegations before the Senate.
“We are fully prepared to defend the Vice President before the Senate sitting as an Impeachment Court,” her counsel said in a statement, adding that the burden of proof rested on her accusers.
The case now moves to a Senate seen as more favorable to Duterte after allies of her family performed strongly in the 2025 midterm elections.
Shortly before the House vote, senators elected longtime Duterte ally Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president, a development analysts said could strengthen her position ahead of a trial.
Dennis Coronacion, chair of the political science department at the University of Santo Tomas, told AFP before Cayetano’s election that an acquittal remained “highly possible” because of the Senate’s composition.
Still, Coronacion said the impeachment proceedings themselves could damage Duterte politically.
“I’m expecting that by the next survey cycle, we’ll see the change in the public perception about the vice president. Filipinos really hate corruption,” he said.
The impeachment complaint also revived scrutiny over Duterte’s remarks during a late-night online briefing in which she said she had hired an assassin to kill Marcos should she herself be harmed.
She later said her remarks had been misinterpreted.
Monday marked the second time Duterte was impeached on largely similar allegations. Her first impeachment did not proceed to trial after the Supreme Court ruled against it on procedural grounds.
Duterte and Marcos ran on a joint ticket in 2022 but later fell into a bitter political feud after she was denied the defense portfolio she sought and instead appointed education secretary.
The split deepened following the arrest and transfer of former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court in The Hague over killings linked to his administration’s anti-drug campaign.
