Sara Duterte's Impeachment Trial Opens in Manila, Putting Her 2028 Presidential Bid on the Line

The impeachment trial of Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte opened in Manila this week, launching a historic and bitterly divisive proceeding that could strip the country's second-highest official of her office and permanently end her ambitions for the presidency.

The trial began July 6 before the 24-member Senate, which will sit as an impeachment court. Duterte faces charges that include two alleged violations of the constitution and a broad count of betrayal of public trust. Prosecutors accuse her of misusing confidential government funds, failing to disclose her wealth as required by law, accepting bribes, and — most explosively — making death threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Duterte, who has denied wrongdoing and whose legal team says the allegations "have no basis," did not appear in person on the opening day and was represented by counsel. To convict, at least two-thirds of the Senate — 16 members — must vote to find her guilty. Such a verdict would remove her from the vice presidency and bar her from ever holding elected office again, a punishment that would abruptly end a political career many analysts had assumed was headed to the presidential palace.

The stakes are enormous. Duterte has remained the clear frontrunner for the 2028 presidential election, drawing 51 percent support in polling conducted in late May, and the trial will unfold over an unusually long stretch — prosecutors have lined up 62 trial dates for their witnesses and the defense has been allotted 30, meaning proceedings could stretch on for at least seven months. Hours before the trial began, one of her allies, Senator Rodante Marcoleta, was arrested on plunder charges, an arrest her supporters cast as politically timed.

The case is the wreckage of a once-formidable alliance. Duterte ran on a joint ticket with Marcos in 2022, uniting two of the Philippines' most powerful dynasties, but the partnership collapsed spectacularly and turned into open warfare — a rupture that deepened after her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested on an International Criminal Court warrant over the thousands of killings in his signature "war on drugs." The younger Duterte's trial now becomes the arena in which that family feud, and the future shape of Philippine politics, will be settled.