Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte has been impeached on a range of accusations that include plotting to assassinate the president, large-scale corruption and failing to strongly denounce China’s aggressive actions against Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea.
Wednesday’s move by legislators in the House of Representatives, many of them allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, deepens a bitter political rift between the two highest leaders of one of Asia’s most rambunctious democracies.
Marcos has boosted defence ties with his country’s treaty ally, the US, while the vice-president’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, nurtured cosy relations with China and Russia during his stormy term that ended in 2022.
Sara Duterte didn’t immediately comment on her impeachment, but her brother, representative Paolo Duterte, said it was “a clear act of political persecution.” Rival lawmakers manoeuvred to quickly collect signatures and push a “baseless impeachment case” to the Senate, he said.
