While her father, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, remains in detention at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity, his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, is fighting for her political survival before a Senate impeachment court.
By mid-September the trial had reached its 24th hearing day in a case stretching back nearly two years — and the past two weeks have been its most consequential yet.
Prosecutors dropped their remaining witnesses on a confidential-funds article and moved to a new phase covering her unexplained wealth. Meanwhile, a fight over how many Senate votes are actually needed to convict her heads toward a vote on September 23.
Meanwhile, she has also announced a 2028 presidential bid — a bid the impeachment could end before it starts.
How it started
In July 2023, the Commission on Audit flagged the Vice President’s office for spending ₱125 million in confidential funds within eleven days in late 2022. That led to congressional scrutiny of discretionary spending both there and at the Department of Education, which Duterte led from 2022 to 2024.
By December 2024, three House complaints accused her of misusing confidential funds, hiding assets, and — most explosively — saying in a November 2024 briefing that she’d arranged to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then-Speaker Martin Romualdez killed if she herself were killed first. She has said it was a security warning, not a threat.
Round one collapses
The House impeached her by a vote of 215–0 in February 2025. Then the Senate convened as a court that June, but the Supreme Court dissolved it in July 2025, ruling the process violated a constitutional one-year bar on repeat impeachments — later clarifying that the clock started January 14, 2025, so her immunity from a new attempt lapsed on January 15, 2026.
Round two
A renewed complaint, filed February 2026 with Representative Leila de Lima’s backing, repeated the core allegations — now citing ₱612.5 million in misused funds — plus alleged Department of Education bribery, the assassination-threat claim, and accusations of unexplained wealth. April House hearings revealed Anti-Money Laundering Council reports on ₱6.7 billion in flagged transactions and asset statements showing no declared cash from 2019–2024. The House impeached her again on May 11, 2026, in a 257–25 plenary vote, making her the first Philippine official impeached twice.
Four articles
Article I covers confidential-fund misuse at both agencies. Article II covers unexplained wealth, non-disclosure of assets, and continued business interests. Article III alleges Department of Education bribery and procurement irregularities, which prosecutors have signaled they may drop. Article IV covers the alleged assassination plot and incitement to sedition. Conviction requires a two-thirds Senate vote and carries removal plus a lifetime ban on holding public office.
Prosecution moves off confidential funds, onto wealth
Hearings had focused for weeks on Article I. On September 2, defense lawyer and former Department of Education official Michael Poa was called by the prosecution and declared a hostile witness — the trial’s third such ruling. Days later, Philippine Statistics Authority testimony indicated that 37 people listed as fund recipients on official receipts could not be verified against civil-registry records, with some names reportedly matching deceased individuals or infants. The defense has acknowledged some receipt names were aliases.
On September 8, the House prosecution panel dropped all 15 of its remaining witnesses for Article I, shortening that portion of the trial, and turned instead to more than 1,800 bank and corporate records to be marked for Article II. Prosecutors have said only Duterte herself can explain the disbursements and want to call her as a witness; the defense objected on self-incrimination grounds, and the court has yet to rule on whether her testimony can be compelled. Meanwhile, Duterte said she has not received any formal invitation to appear. Prosecutors have also floated calling her husband, lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio, as a hostile witness over financial records tied to him.
Article II proceedings opened on September 14, with retired Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang called to lay out the legal framework for unexplained-wealth cases before the prosecution turns to its bank, tax, and corporate evidence. The panel has been allotted 12 trial days and roughly 14 witnesses to cover three claims: that Duterte amassed wealth disproportionate to her lawful income, that she failed to truthfully declare it in her 2022–2024 statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, or SALNs, and that she did not divest from business interests upon taking office.
The defense tried to exclude Cabotaje-Tang as a surprise witness not named in the articles of impeachment; the presiding officer denied the motion, ruling that her qualifications were fair game for cross-examination rather than requiring formal certification as an expert.
On the stand, Cabotaje-Tang testified that a public official’s repeated omission of required information from a SALN may amount to attempted concealment and dishonesty, and that unexplained-wealth inquiries can reach property held by a respondent’s spouse or minor children. Defense counsel questioned her political leanings during cross-examination; she said she is not anti-Duterte and does not know the vice president personally. A senator-judge separately told the court during the hearing that unnamed people connected to the trial had received threats, without elaborating.
Counting Votes
Presiding officer Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero ruled in July that conviction requires 16 of the Senate’s 24 votes, treating the chamber as having its full membership regardless of who can currently participate. However, four senator-judges are effectively sidelined: Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are being detained on plunder charges; Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, former chief of the Philippine National Police under Rodrigo Duterte, is in hiding, evading a warrant from the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity; and Loren Legarda has been on medical leave since August 3.
Senator Erwin Tulfo appealed that ruling, arguing the threshold should reflect only the senators able to vote — which would lower the bar for conviction.
The court has scheduled a vote on the appeal for September 23, after hearing from four constitutional-law authorities — including two framers of the 1987 Constitution — as amici curiae.
With Escudero excluded from voting on his own ruling and four senators absent, only 19 senator-judges are expected to take part, meaning a simple majority of 10 could overturn the 16-vote threshold; a tie would leave it in place.
Court officials have also indicated the chamber may need to vote twice — first on whether to grant the appeal, then, if granted, on what the new threshold should be. Duterte has publicly questioned why the threshold is being revisited at all, saying it was already decided under the Constitution.
Other developments
On September 4, a Quezon City court issued a warrant for Duterte’s arrest on three counts of grave threats tied to her 2024 remarks; she posted ₱360,000 bail the next day, calling it voluntary surrender. Her lawyers argue she can’t be criminally charged while in office — an argument the court has already rejected once. With the Senate also handling the 2027 budget this fall, senator-judges are weighing longer sessions; a verdict before year’s end remains possible but no longer assured, especially with Article III still to come and Duterte’s own testimony still unresolved.
A note on sourcing: Allegations in this piece — the assassination-plot claim, unexplained wealth, and confidential-fund misuse — are formal charges before the Senate impeachment court and remain unproven; Duterte has denied wrongdoing and disputes several rulings against her.
Bryce McIntyre, PhD, resides in San Andres. He holds a doctoral degree from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA. Claude and Perplexity AI aided in the research for this article.