Philippine VP Duterte hit with criminal charge over Marcos ‘threat’

On Tuesday, Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte faced a criminal charge for allegedly making a death threat against President Ferdinand Marcos, his wife, and a former congressman cousin. This came during her ongoing Senate impeachment trial, which accused her of graft and corruption. The charge of grave threats was filed in a Quezon City courtroom by the Department of Justice.

The National Bureau of Investigation filed the criminal complaint in February 2025, following a late-night briefing in which Duterte claimed to have hired an assassin to carry out the alleged killings if Marcos removed her first. Duterte's defense argued that her current impeachment case should prevent any prosecution for the alleged offense, stating that a sitting impeachable officer cannot be prosecuted for an offense that is also the subject of an impeachment case.

The Department of Justice confirmed that the case could proceed alongside the impeachment trial, as it was presented to the court and met a high threshold for moving forward. Professor Dante Gatmaytan, from the University of the Philippines College of Law, affirmed that nothing prevented the separate cases from proceeding independently.

The punishment for a conviction on the charge of grave threats under Philippine law is between one and six months in jail. The impeachment trial, now on Day 14, has put Duterte's political career and her planned 2028 presidential run in jeopardy. A guilty verdict would result in her removal from office and a permanent ban from elective politics.