Vice President Sara Duterte of the Philippines was impeached again on Monday, as lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to charge her with misusing public funds and betraying the public\u2019s trust by threatening to assassinate the president.<\/p>\n
The vote, in the Philippine House of Representatives, was the latest chapter in years of acrimony<\/a> between President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Ms. Duterte \u2014 two political scions who had joined forces to run together in 2022 but fell out publicly soon after.<\/p>\n Ms. Duterte was first impeached by the House last year, not long after she claimed to have arranged for an assassin<\/a> to kill Mr. Marcos if she were murdered. But those proceedings were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and the Senate shelved the complaint<\/a>. (In the Philippines, as in the United States, the Senate tries and decides whether to convict an official impeached by the House of Representatives.)<\/p>\n This time too, it is unlikely that she will be convicted in the Senate of the Philippines because it is stacked with allies of the Dutertes.<\/p>\n Adding to the drama on Monday was a shake-up in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed for any conviction. Senator Alan Cayetano, an ally of Ms. Duterte, was elected the new Senate president as the House started its vote on Ms. Duterte\u2019s impeachment.<\/p>\n The vote in the House was 255 to 26. Nine lawmakers abstained.<\/p>\n Ms. Duterte\u2019s legal team has called the process a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d and a \u201cfishing expedition.\u201d<\/p>\n Why It Matters<\/p>\n Ms. Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, is widely considered to be the front-runner for the 2028 elections. She and her family have said the impeachment vote is an all-out attempt by allies of Mr. Marcos \u2014 who is constitutionally limited to one term \u2014 to prevent her from becoming president.<\/p>\n But the lawmakers who endorsed the impeachment say they have questions about the wealth they say she started accumulating when she became mayor of Davao in 2019, as well as the use of funds during her time as vice president and simultaneously as education secretary from 2022 to 2024.<\/p>\n The House had looked at evidence presented by the Anti-Money Laundering Council, which said that it recorded bank transactions that did not match her declared annual net worth.<\/p>\n \u201cOur vote today is not a declaration of guilt, it is a declaration that when serious allegations are raised against one of the highest officials of the land, Congress cannot look away,\u201d Representative Bienvenido Abante Jr. said, explaining his \u201cyes\u201d vote.<\/p>\n Even though the Senate is unlikely to convict Ms. Duterte, the airing of the accusations against Ms. Duterte for weeks could have tarnished her brand, said Cleve Arguelles, the chief executive of WR Numero Research, a polling firm in the Philippines.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a well established precedent in Philippine politics that those who experience this kind of exposure end up losing public support by the time of the election period,\u201d said Mr. Arguelles. \u201cSo that should worry her a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s Next?<\/p>\n The Senate is set to convene as an impeachment court as early as Wednesday.<\/p>\n The Senate president will preside over the trial. But analysts say the appointment of Mr. Cayetano now raises questions about whether the Senate will even move forward with the process. The former Senate president, Sen. Vicente Sotto III, was a senior member of the body that helped formulate the impeachment rules, and thus potentially more of a stickler.<\/p>\n If there is no conviction, Ms. Duterte would remain the vice president and is constitutionally protected from another impeachment complaint for one year.<\/p>\n If convicted, she would immediately be removed from office and disqualified from holding any public office in the Philippines for life.<\/p>\n There Was More Drama in the Senate<\/p>\n In another surreal element on Monday, Sen. Ronald \u201cBato\u201d dela Rosa, the alleged enforcer behind the former President Duterte\u2019s brutal war on drugs, suddenly returned to the Senate, about six months since he was last seen in public.<\/p>\n