Philippine Court Orders Arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte Following Threats Against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr

A Philippine court has officially ordered the arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte following allegations that she arranged an assassination plot against the president. Issued on Friday by a court in Quezon City, near Manila, the warrant came after judges rejected a legal bid by her lawyers to delay the decision.

Vice President Sara Duterte faces charges of threatening to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, as well as his wife and a former speaker of the House of Representatives. Bail has been set at $1,900 for each of the three charges of “grave threat” filed against her last month, further escalating her mounting legal troubles as she fights for her political survival.

These threats are central to an ongoing impeachment trial launched in the upper house Senate. A guilty verdict in the Senate would remove her from office and effectively end her 2028 presidential ambitions. The political dispute originated in November 2024, when Vice President Sara Duterte stated she had arranged for a hitman to target President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, his wife, and his cousin, Martin Romualdez, who was then speaker of the House of Representatives, in the event that she herself was killed. She later insisted her remarks were merely an expression of fear for her personal safety following a bitter falling out with the president.

Her lawyer, Paul Lawrence Lim, released a statement asserting that Vice President Sara Duterte had “no intention of evading the law and will continue to exercise all her legal remedies.” A justice department spokesman confirmed the issuance of the warrant while dismissing her legal team's argument that she is immune from prosecution while the same conduct is being examined in her impeachment trial.

Despite the warrant, she is unlikely to be detained for long, with officials expecting her to post bail promptly. A criminal conviction carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison, which is considerably lighter than the severe political repercussions she currently faces.

Meanwhile, the impeachment process initiated by the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress, also includes charges of corruption and unexplained wealth allegations dating back to her tenure as vice president and her earlier service as education secretary. The Senate hearing, during which she denies all allegations of wrongdoing, has now been running for nine weeks.

Vice President Sara Duterte, who is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, initially ran alongside President Ferdinand Marcos Jr as running mates in 2022 before their political alliance collapsed into open hostility. Currently, her father remains in International Criminal Court custody in The Hague, awaiting trial over the deadly anti-drugs campaign conducted during his presidency, which is estimated to have resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.