Allies of Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte have urged the Supreme Court to junk her impeachment, calling it a politically driven attack.
In a Tuesday filing, Duterte’s lawyers said the impeachment—based on articles of corruption and betrayal of public trust—was conducted in a manner without due process and has to be made null and void. They also want to prevent a looming Senate trial that could remove her from office.
“There was no due deliberation. There was no due discussion,” attorney Israelito Torreon, a petitioner of the 29, told reporters outside the High Court in Manila. “The Vice President was not even summoned to respond to the charges, so there was no due process whatsoever.”
Torreon theorized that the impeachment proceedings appear to be aimed at precluding Duterte from the 2028 presidential election. Duterte, who was once a close friend of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was impeached last 5 February by the House of Representatives and will undergo an actual trial in the Senate this summer.
One of the serious allegations against her is a conspiracy to kill Marcos purportedly in league with her, after Duterte made a contentious broadcast accusing her of instructing a man to kill Marcos in case she would be killed first. She thereafter explained that her words were only an expression of her frustration with the administration.
Moreover, Duterte is accused of misusing intelligence funds when she was vice president and education secretary prior to her resignation last year following a falling out with the president. Up to this point, she has not made a complete public statement on the charges of corruption.
