Philippine court orders arrest of VP Duterte over President Marcos threats

Warrant follows charge she threatened to have Marcos, his wife and a cousin killed by a hitman.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte faces and impeachment and now an arrest warrant (File: Reuters)

A Philippine court has ordered the arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte over allegations that she arranged the assassination of the president.

The warrant was issued on Friday by a court in Quezon City, near Manila, after judges rejected a bid by her lawyers to delay it.

list 1 of 2 Why has the Philippine peso plunged to a record low?

list 2 of 2 Asia looks to store oil, gas closer to home after Strait of Hormuz crisis

Duterte is accused of threatening to kill former political ally President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, as well as his wife and a former speaker of the House of Representatives.

Bail was set at $1,900 for each of three charges of “grave threat” filed against her last month. It adds to the legal issues for the vice president, who is already fighting for her political survival.

The threats are central to an impeachment trial launched in the upper house Senate. A guilty verdict would remove her from office and end her 2028 presidential ambitions.

The dispute dates back to November 2024, when Duterte said she had arranged for a hitman to kill Marcos, his wife, and his cousin, Martin Romualdez, then speaker of the House of Representatives, should she be killed.

She insisted that she had only been voicing fear for her safety after falling out with the president.

Her lawyer, Paul Lawrence Lim, said in a statement that Duterte had “no intention of evading the law and will continue to exercise all her legal remedies”.

A justice department spokesman confirmed the warrant, rejecting her legal team’s argument that she cannot be prosecuted while the same conduct is being examined in her impeachment trial.

She is unlikely to be detained soon, however. Officials expect her to post bail quickly.

A conviction on the criminal charge carries at most a sentence of six months in jail, far lighter than the political cost she faces.

The House of Representatives, Congress’s lower chamber, impeachment process is also based on charges related to corruption and unexplained wealth allegations, stemming from her time as vice president and earlier as education secretary.

The Senate hearing, in which she denies any wrongdoing, has been running for nine weeks.

Duterte – the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte – and Marcos ran as running mates in 2022 before their alliance collapsed into open hostility.

Her father is now in International Criminal Court custody in The Hague, awaiting a trial over the deadly anti-drugs campaign he ran as president, which is estimated to have cost tens of thousands of lives.

逮捕令是根据她威胁要雇杀手杀害马科斯、他的妻子和一位表亲的指控而签发的。

菲律宾副总统萨拉·杜特尔特面临弹劾和逮捕令（图片来源：路透社）

菲律宾一家法院下令逮捕副总统萨拉·杜特尔特，指控她策划了总统遇刺事件。

周五，马尼拉附近奎松市的一家法院签发了逮捕令，此前法官驳回了她的律师提出的推迟签发的请求。

（共 2 个问题，第 1 个）为什么菲律宾比索暴跌至历史新低？

（共2条）霍尔木兹海峡危机后，亚洲寻求在更靠近本土的地方储存石油和天然气。

杜特尔特被指控威胁要杀害前政治盟友、前总统费迪南德·马科斯二世及其妻子和一名前众议院议长。

上个月，她被控三项“严重威胁”罪名，每项罪名的保释金定为1900美元。这无疑加重了这位副总统的法律困境，她目前正面临着政治生涯的生死存亡。

这些威胁是参议院启动的弹劾审判的核心内容。如果罪名成立，她将被免职，并断送其2028年竞选总统的希望。

这场争端可以追溯到 2024 年 11 月，当时杜特尔特表示，如果她被杀，她已经安排了一名杀手来杀害马科斯、他的妻子和他的表弟、时任众议院议长马丁·罗穆亚尔德斯。

她坚称，自己只是在与总统闹翻后表达了对自身安全的担忧。

她的律师保罗·劳伦斯·林在一份声明中表示，杜特尔特“无意逃避法律，并将继续行使一切法律救济手段”。

司法部发言人证实了逮捕令，驳斥了她的律师团队的论点，即在她接受弹劾审判期间，不能对她提起诉讼。

不过，她不太可能很快被拘留。官员们预计她会很快缴纳保释金。

刑事指控成立最多只会判处六个月监禁，远比她面临的政治代价要轻得多。

国会下议院众议院的弹劾程序也基于与腐败和不明财富指控相关的罪名，这些指控源于她担任副总统期间以及更早担任教育部长期间。

参议院的听证会已经持续了九周，她在听证会上否认自己有任何不当行为。

杜特尔特（前总统罗德里戈·杜特尔特的女儿）和马科斯在 2022 年作为竞选搭档参选，之后他们的联盟破裂，演变成公开敌对。

她的父亲目前被关押在海牙国际刑事法院，等待审判，罪名是他担任总统期间发起的致命禁毒运动，据估计这场运动夺去了数万人的生命。