The Philippine Senate yesterday began the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, following a week of chaos in which the feud between the Duterte and Marcos families reached a high pitch of tension.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach Duterte for a range of transgressions, including corruption, misuse of government funds, and plotting to kill her former ally, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
If convicted, which requires a two-thirds vote in the 24-seat chamber, the 47-year-old would lose her post and be banned from holding elected office for life.
Duterte, who has announced her plan to seek the presidency in 2028, has denied the charges. Her lawyers said that they are “fully prepared to defend the vice president before the Senate,” and that it would be “incumbent upon the prosecution to discharge the burden of proof.”
Dressed in red robes, the senators yesterday were sworn in as senator-judges, while Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, an ally of Duterte who was elevated to the Senate presidency in a leadership coup last week, assumed the role as the court’s presider.
