Philippine court issues arrest warrant for Vice President Sara Duterte over threats against Marcos

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MANILA — A Philippine court ordered the arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday over charges that she publicly made assassination threats against the country’s president and two relatives. Duterte's defense team said she would “exercise all her legal remedies”.

Duterte was already impeached by the House of Representatives in May on the same charges as well as alleged financial anomalies. Her troubles are part of a high-stakes political showdown pitting her against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Duterte was charged last month with “grave threats” stemming from a late-night news briefing in which she claimed to have hired a hitman to kill President Marcos, his wife, and then-House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself was assassinated as their political disputes escalated.

She later said she wasn’t threatening Marcos but was expressing concern for her own safety. Her remarks set off a criminal investigation and national security concerns.

The alleged assassination threat also forms a crucial element of her ongoing Senate impeachment trial, where a guilty verdict would see her removed from office and permanently banned from politics.

A conviction could derail her plans to seek the presidency in 2028, when Marcos’ six-year term ends. Under the Philippine legal code, a criminal conviction on the charge would carry a jail term of up to six months.

Justice department spokesman Polo Martinez confirmed the warrant had been issued, noting that a court in Metro Manila’s Quezon City had quashed a motion to defer it.

But the warrant seemed unlikely to result in Duterte being taken into custody.

Paolo Tamase, associate dean at the University of the Philippines College of Law, told AFP that Duterte’s lawyers could now be expected to file for bail, perhaps before day’s end.

“The easiest thing for VP Sara to do is to file for bail with the regional trial court,” Tamase said, noting Duterte would likely not need to be present.

He added that the warrant could yet be challenged at a higher court.

“She can potentially question the issuance of the warrant of arrest, which means she would go up to the Court of Appeals or potentially the Supreme Court,” he said.

The vice president’s legal team issued a statement saying she had “no intention of evading the law and will continue to exercise all her legal remedies”.

Justice department officials have rejected arguments by the vice president’s legal team that she cannot be prosecuted for offenses that are also tied to her impeachment.

The vice president is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos’ predecessor. Rodrigo Duterte was arrested last year on orders of the International Criminal Court and detained in The Hague, where he is scheduled to face trial over alleged crimes against humanity on Nov. 30.

The charges are in connection with brutal anti-drugs crackdowns that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead while Duterte was in power. He has denied authorizing extrajudicial killings but repeatedly threatened suspects with death while in office.