An impeachment complaint has been filed against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing a judicial storm over death threats against the president, alleged misuse of public funds by her office and other criminal charges.
The impeachment petition filed by several prominent opponents and activists in the House of Representatives accuses Mrs. Duterte of violating the country’s Constitution, massive corruption and other “high crimes,” including death threats she made against the President, his wife and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The vice president’s threats showed “the extent of the defendant’s mental incapacity, her depravity and lack of mental fitness to continue to hold the high office of Vice President of the Philippines,” according to a copy of the complaint made available to reporters.
Mrs. Duterte, a 46-year-old lawyer, is also accused of unexplained wealth and authorising extrajudicial executions of drug suspects started by her father, Rodrigo Duterte, a former president and formerly mayor of the southern city of Davao when she held the post in the past.
The vice president’s legal troubles are unfolding amid her increasingly bitter political feud with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his allies.
Vice President Duterte held a midnight press conference on November 24, saying the president and his political allies had threatened to kill her. Duterte announced that she had ordered the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Lisa Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, a cousin of the President, if she herself was assassinated. Her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, called on the military to move against Marcos and Romualdez in a speech broadcast live on Facebook, an apparent call for a military coup.
The Philippine vice president runs a vast network of government agencies and aides, forming a kind of shadow presidency, a rival to the incumbent president-in-waiting.
