Crumbling Alliances

The Philippines’ lower house of parliament impeached Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday for a variety of crimes, including threatening to assassinate the president, the misuse of millions of dollars in public funds, and failing to take a stand on Chinese actions against Filipino forces in the South China Sea, the Associated Press reported.

The impeachment complaint described Duterte’s conduct as displaying “gross faithlessness against public trust” and “tyrannical abuse of power,” while saying she is unfit to hold public office.

Duterte denied the accusations and argued she is the victim of a political vendetta perpetrated by lawmakers allied with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Among the representatives who voted for the impeachment are Marcos’ son and cousin.

The shock impeachment – signed by the great majority of legislators – is widely interpreted as an escalation of the bitter rift between the president and the vice president. Duterte’s brother, lawmaker Paolo Duterte, described it as an “act of political persecution.”

The vice president has, in turn, accused Marcos, his wife, and the lower house speaker of corruption, weak leadership, and sabotaging attempts with speculation that she wants to be the next president.

Duterte and Marcos – the former the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, the latter the son of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos – ran together in 2022, managing to win the majority of votes in the deeply divided Southeast Asian archipelago.

The alliance, however, started crumbling even before the two took office.

Once in office, they pursued separate political agendas and differed on important fronts such as diplomacy.

While Marcos has strengthened military ties with the US, Duterte’s father had fostered relations in the opposite direction, turning to China and Russia.

The feud peaked in November when during an online news conference, Duterte said she had hired an assassin to kill Marcos, his wife, and the parliamentary speaker if she were to be assassinated.

While Marcos dismissed the threat, the vice president said she was not threatening the president but expressing worries for her own safety.

The impeachment petition will now go to the upper chamber of parliament, which will convene as a court to try Duterte, who remains in office until a final judgment is issued, the BBC reported.

If found guilty, she will be forced to step down, becoming the first vice president in Philippines history to be successfully impeached.