Fresh impeachment case filed against Philippine VP Sara Duterte

Members of the Philippine clergy on Monday filed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, marking the third such move against her in a little over one week.

Sara Duterte, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, had been impeached by the House of Representatives last year, but the case was later dismissed by the Supreme Court due to procedural flaws.

Under the Philippine Constitution, the filing of an impeachment complaint can lead to a trial in the Senate.

If found guilty, the vice president would be removed from office, barred from holding public office in the future and effectively ruled out of contesting the 2028 presidential election.

Monday’s filing, brought by some of those behind the former complaint,  accuses Duterte of bilking taxpayers of at least $10 million while serving as vice president and as secretary of education.

“This is not political, we are not politicians,” Reverend Joselito Sarabia, a Catholic friar and one of the complainants, told reporters outside the House complex.

“We believe there is a moral concern. That’s why we are here again,” he said, adding it was time for Duterte to “answer all accusations”.

The complaint also cites an alleged death threat against President Ferdinand Marcos made during a late-night press briefing that Duterte has since said was misinterpreted.

Representative Leila de Lima, who endorsed the complaint, said she was confident it would advance to a House vote, calling it an “improved version of the articles of impeachment” sent before.

De Lima spent more than six years behind bars on drug charges that rights groups have said were trumped up by the vice president’s father.

Last week, Philippine civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition filed separate similar impeachment complaints against Duterte.

They were filed just days before a House justice committee dismissed a pair of impeachment complaints against President Marcos, saying they lacked the necessary substance to move forward.

Analysts who spoke to AFP had said the move against the president had been unlikely to succeed given the support he enjoys among House lawmakers.

Former allies, Marcos and Duterte have been engaged in a high-stakes political brawl that erupted within weeks of their winning a landslide victory together in the 2022 presidential election.

Duterte supporters widely believe Marcos engineered Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and subsequent transfer to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands to face charges related to killings that took place during a brutal crackdown on drugs.

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