MANILA – An impeachment complaint was filed Monday against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing a legal storm over a death threat she made against the president and her alleged role in extra-judicial killings of drug suspects, corruption and failure to stand up to Chinese aggression in the disputed South China Sea.
The impeachment bid filed by several prominent civil society activists in the House of Representatives accuses Duterte of violating the country’s Constitution, betrayal of public trust and other “high crimes,” including the death threats she made against the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives.
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Duterte did not immediately issue any response to the impeachment bid, which accused her of about two dozen alleged crimes.
“We're hoping that with this complaint, we can end the nightmare that our vice president has brought to the people,” said Rep. Percival Cendana, who gave the required endorsement of the complaint.
The vice president’s threats showed the “extent of respondent’s mental incapacity, her depravity and lack of mental fitness to continue holding the high office of vice president of the Philippines,” said a copy of the complaint seen by The Associated Press. “The same constitute not only betrayal of public trust but also a high crime which would warrant her immediate impeachment from office.”
Duterte, a 46-year-old lawyer, was also accused in the complaint of having unexplained wealth and of allowing a continuation of the extra-judicial killings of drug suspects begun by her father, a former mayor of southern Davao City, when she held that position in the past.
The vice president’s legal troubles have unfolded with the backdrop of her increasingly bitter political feud with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his allies. She said in online news conference on Nov. 23 that she has contracted an assassin to kill Marcos, his wife and Speaker Martin Romualdez if she were killed, a threat she warned was not a joke.
She later said she was not threatening him but was expressing concern for her own safety.
The impeachment complaint will be scrutinized by the Philippine Congress, which is dominated by allies of Marcos and his cousin and key backer, Romualdez, who also has been politically at odds with the vice president.
The process could take weeks or months. Congress is to start its Christmas recess on Dec. 20 and resume on Jan. 13. Many legislators will then start campaigning for reelection before May 12 midterm elections.
The House has been investigating the alleged misuse of 612.5 million pesos ($10.3 million) of confidential and intelligence funds received by Duterte’s offices as vice president and education secretary. She has since left the education post.
She has refused to respond to questions in detail in tense televised hearings. Duterte also vehemently protested when her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, was ordered temporarily detained for allegedly hampering the inquiry. Lopez has been released from hospital detention.
Philippine police have filed criminal complaints against Duterte and her security staff for allegedly assaulting authorities and disobeying orders in an altercation in Congress over Lopez’s detention.
Duterte has accused Marcos, his wife and Romualdez of corruption, weak leadership and attempting to muzzle her because of speculation she may seek the presidency in 2028.
The National Bureau of Investigation subpoenaed Duterte to face investigators about her threats against them.
The police, military and the national security adviser immediately boosted the security of the Marcoses after the threats.
The president has said an impeachment of Duterte would waste time while the country faces other challenges, but her opponents have said they will proceed to foster accountability and the rule of law.
Marcos and Duterte won landslide victories as running mates in the 2022 election but have since fallen out over key differences. The two offices are elected separately in the Philippines, which has resulted in rivals occupying the country’s top political posts.
Marcos and Duterte differ on their approaches to China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and their views on the deadly anti-drug crackdown conducted by Duterte’s father, Rodrigo Duterte, who was the previous president in addition to ex-mayor of Davao.
The complainants in the impeachment, including former military officers from a group called Magdalo, accused her of refusing to condemn Chinese aggressive actions against Philippine forces in the South China Sea. The complainants did not cite China by name.
The brutal drug crackdown left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead in killings mostly by police that are being investigated by the International Criminal Court as a possible crime against humanity.
The impeachment complaint cited a key witness to the killings, former police officer Arturo Lascanas, as saying that Sara Duterte allowed the extra-judicial killings of drug suspects to continue in Davao city when she served as its mayor. The drug crackdown was launched by her father when he was mayor.
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Associated Press journalists Aaron Favila and Joeal Calupitan contributed to this report.