BEST CHANCE TO SECURE CONVICTION
The impeachment trial follows a high-profile fallout between Duterte and her former ally and running mate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and the outcome could shape the 2028 presidential election, which Duterte intends to contest.
Marcos is limited by the constitution to a single term in office and is expected to back a successor.
Duterte, a frontrunner in early opinion polls, faces a ban from holding political office if convicted by the court and would be out of the presidential running.
She stands accused of misusing public funds, amassing unexplained wealth and threatening the lives of Marcos, the first lady and a former House Speaker. Duterte denies wrongdoing.
“This is the best chance to secure a conviction,” Michael Henry Yusingco, a senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center in Manila, said of the court’s decision to lower the voting threshold.
After the ruling, Duterte’s lawyers said the vice president “does not shrink from accountability, nor does she fear the outcome of this impeachment trial”, but said that her participation in the trial would be undertaken “with caution”.
Duterte’s lawyers added she reserved the right to pursue all legal remedies available under the law, while continuing to seek what they described as a fair and impartial trial.
Marcos and Duterte won office in 2022 on a joint “UniTeam” ticket, securing a landslide victory after uniting two of the Philippines’ most powerful political dynasties. Their alliance later unravelled amid escalating disputes over policy, power and control of Congress.
The vice president is also facing separate criminal charges of grave threats arising from threats against Marcos and members of his family. She has denied criminal liability and is out on bail.
