Sara Duterte's Impeachment Trial Opens in Manila as 6,000 Police Lock Down the Senate

The impeachment trial of Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte opened in Manila on Monday, a landmark proceeding that could end the political career of one of the country's most powerful figures and reshape the run-up to the 2028 presidential election.

Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, is the first vice president in Philippine history to face an impeachment trial. The charges against her include two alleged violations of the constitution and betrayal of public trust: the misuse of confidential government funds, a failure to disclose her wealth, bribery, and making death threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife, Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Security around the Senate was extraordinary. More than 6,000 police officers, including anti-riot squads, were deployed as roughly 400 anti-Duterte demonstrators gathered outside the building. The vice president herself did not appear at the opening session and was represented by her lawyers. The trial is scheduled to run for 92 days, an unusually long timeline that reflects both the gravity of the charges and the political stakes.

The proceedings were thrown into fresh uncertainty just before they began. Senator Rodante Marcoleta, a key Duterte ally, was arrested on a plunder charge shortly before Monday's opening, casting doubt on how much support the vice president can count on in a chamber that will act as her jury. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate, and every senator's allegiance is now under intense scrutiny.

The case is the culmination of a spectacular falling-out between the Philippines' two most prominent political dynasties. Marcos and Duterte swept into office together in 2022 on a joint ticket, but their alliance collapsed amid bitter public feuding, and the rupture has since consumed national politics. Duterte's threat to have Marcos killed if she herself were harmed — remarks she later said were taken out of context — became a central grievance driving the impeachment push.

The proceedings also unfold against the backdrop of a separate legal reckoning for the Duterte family. Rodrigo Duterte, Sara's father and the former president, faces charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague over the thousands of killings carried out during his signature "war on drugs." That parallel case has kept the family at the center of the country's most explosive political and legal fights, and lent Monday's opening an added charge of dynastic drama.

The outcome carries consequences far beyond Duterte's current office. A conviction could bar her from ever holding public office again, foreclosing a widely expected presidential bid in 2028 as Marcos approaches the end of his single constitutionally permitted term. With the Marcos and Duterte camps both maneuvering for advantage, the trial has become the defining battle of Philippine politics — a 92-day contest whose verdict will help determine who leads the country next.