Will the Impeachment against VP Sara Duterte be Successful?

Vice President Sara Duterte is the daughter of the former Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. President Duterte is so popular because he is the first president from Mindanao. In the past, leadership of the Philippine republic has always been a monopoly of the North. The people of Luzon and Visayas dominated the politics of imperial Manila.

Hailed from poor south, President Duterte revolutionized Philippine governance. He was so controversial in the world stage but in the local level he was seen as a living legend. His administration was marked by greatness especially to the people of Mindanao.

In 2022, Sara Duterte ran for Vice President to continue his father’s legacy. She ran as teammate of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The political tandem received the massive support of the Philippine voters because they stood on the ground of continuity. They pledged to continue the projects and services of President Duterte.

The uniteam of President Marcos and VP Sara enjoyed the immense support of the Filipinos but political ambitions sneakily entered the alliance. The 2028 presidential election dominated the political discourse inside the alliance. VP Sara supporters assured that she would become the next president. However, quarter of elites within the uniteam wanted to push the House Speaker Martin Romualdez to presidency in 2028.

The deepening Marcos-Duterte rift engulfed the entire political establishment, with Speaker Romualdez’s role, the former alliance can no longer mend the broken pieces. Under Romualdez’s watch, the house denied VP Sara’s request for confidential funds to be used for education department’s Reserved Officers’ Training Corps, being the education secretary, but speedily passed the same funds for the office of president Marcos. This led to former President Duterte to suspect the collusion of Speaker Romualdez and the Makabayan Bloc, an alliance in the House aligned with Communist group.

Subsequently, VP Sara resigned as the education secretary. In 2024, the Marcos-Duterte uniteam came to an end. The supermajority of Philippine congress supports President Marcos while the minority supports VP Sara Duterte. The Clash of the Titans shook the entire Philippines until it reached to the point of impeaching VP Sara.

Impeaching VP Sara Duterte

Impeachment is the legislative power of congress to charge a top government official like the President, Vice President, Justices of the Supreme Court, Members of the Constitutional Commissions and the Ombudsman with impeachable offenses such as culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.

Vice President Sara Duterte is the last top official to be impeached. Notably, many top officials were impeached before her namely, former President Joseph Estrada, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Corona, and election commission chairman Andres Bautista. Only Corona was convicted as Gutierrez and Bautista resigned after they were impeached by the House of Representatives.

President Estrada’s trial prematurely ended after some senators-judges stopped the hearing. On January 20, 2001, Estrada resigned as president. Then, Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took oath as the Philippine president.

On February 5, 2025, the House of Representative impeached VP Sara Duterte on the charges of allegedly violating the constitution, graft and corruption, and betraying public trust. She is also accused of misusing the confidential funds and threatening the lives of the President and the First Lady. The President Duterte’s suspicion proved to be true because the members of the Makabayan Bloc are now at the forefront of the impeachment.

Although President Marcos repeatedly denied his involvement in the impeachment, saying that it is pure political process under congress’ power, VP Sara’s supporters including her team believed that the impeachment is under President Marcos’ watch.

Pool of political analysts argued that the impeachment is “railroaded” to cover up the bigger issue on blank items in the 2025 Bicam report. During the bicam session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, there were blank items in the 2025 General Appropriation Act (GAA). Former President Duterte said that the budget items should not be left empty to be filled up later on because tampering with the budget could face criminal prosecution.

Concluding Remarks

The process of impeachment is that the House of Representatives – i.e. Lower House – impeaches the Vice President while the Senate - i.e. Upper House – will serve as the court. After impeaching the Vice President, the House of Representatives sent the articles of impeachment to the Senate. But the Senate would not be able to convene because it is on recess. The session of the senate will be on June 2.

Despite the fact that Senate President Chiz Escudero announced June 2 as the resumption of the senate session, there is a powerful bloc in the House of Representatives pressuring the senate to convene and conduct trial even if it is on recess time. Accordingly, the senate has a constitutional duty to fast track the impeachment trial.

As to the decision, the senate has the sole power because the senators are the judges. The senate as the court of the trial may decide the case, either VP Sara is convicted or censured. If convicted, she would be removed from office and disqualified from holding any future government position. Her political career will end.

In order for VP Sara to be convicted, two-third of the members of the senators shall vote against her. There are 23 senators in the current senate structure. Senator Sonny Angara resigned as senator after he was appointed as the education secretary. Thus, 15 senators-judges are needed to convict or censure VP Sara. In contrary, If VP Sara can secure 9 senators-judges, the whole process will go on her favor.

Moreover, the timing of the impeachment is interesting as the campaign season begins to unfold. Speculation arises that the delay of the hearing is intentional to ensure that the administration’s senate bet will get the majority seats in the senate after the election. Accordingly, the current senate composition will favor VP Sara.

On VP Sara’s camp, they are not affected by her impeachment, thinking that it will not survive the test of constitutional scrutiny. She has already formed her defense team.

Simply put, the supporters of VP Sara and President Marcos are at odds with so many social issues besetting the Philippines and will potentially lead to an unnecessary collision. The two opposing groups have pieces of evidence against each other and are equipped with arguments to be used in the worst-case scenario.