MANILA: A bid to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte won the required backing of the lower house on Monday, voting results showed, setting the stage for a trial in the Senate that could derail her hopes of running for president.
The impeachment complaint was backed by 255 of 318 lawmakers, surpassing the one-third threshold required.
Duterte is accused of misuse of public funds, amassing unexplained wealth, and of making threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the first lady and the former house speaker, which she denies. If convicted in a Senate trial, Duterte would be removed from office and could be disqualified from holding office for life.
Duterte’s defense team said on Monday that it is fully prepared to defend the vice president before the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court.
“The burden now rests on the accusers to substantiate their claims in accordance with the Constitution, the law, and rules on evidence,” her defense team said in a statement.
The Philippine Senate meanwhile elected a long-time Duterte ally minutes before the impeachment vote.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who served as foreign secretary under former president Rodrigo Duterte, replaced Vicente Sotto III as Senate president after a 13-9 vote, with two abstentions.
The vote had not been tipped beforehand.
The change in Senate leadership could play a significant role in the outcome of the attempt to impeach the vice president.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a trial in the Senate, where a guilty verdict would see her removed and banned from elected office for life.
Cayetano denied there was any connection to the House impeachment vote and his move to claim the Senate presidency.
“I do not blame you if you’re saying that the change in leadership was due to the impeachment, it was not,” he said immediately after the Senate vote.
The last Senate charged with putting Sara Duterte on trial convened an impeachment court on live television in June 2025 only to send the case back to the House, a decision one lawmaker called a “functional dismissal.”
A slate of candidates loyal to Duterte outperformed expectations in May 2025 mid-term elections, winning five of 12 open seats and strengthening her odds of surviving a trial.
One of the men who led the charge to reject the previous Senate trial, Senator Ronald dela Rosa, national police chief during Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs, was present for Monday’s vote.
He had not been seen publicly since November last year.
Dela Rosa and fellow Senator Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named by International Criminal Court prosecutors as “co-perpetrators” in former president Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial over his so-called drug war.
Dennis Coronacion, chair of the political science department at Manila’s University of Santo Tomas, told AFP before Monday’s vote he believed an acquittal was “highly possible.”
“There are new senators who have been very vocal that they are supporting the vice president,” he said.
