MANILA, Philippines – Much anticipated The impeachment trial that will determine the political future of Vice President Sara Duterte will begin on Monday, July 6, weeks after the Senate was thrown into chaos and mayhem by her top allies.
The prosecution team will face defense lawyers in televised trials that could last for months aimed at persuading jurors to convict Duterte of betrayal of public trust, innocent violations of the Constitution, and other serious crimes.
If convicted, Duterte would be removed from office and barred from seeking future government positions, dashing his 2028 presidential bid. announced in February this year, more than two years before election day.
Alleged offenses, the first group of witnesses
The case against the Vice President is imminent four main accusations: that he misused secret money, amassed untold wealth, bribed government officials, and threatened the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
His a threat to kill it will be the first article of the charge to be dealt with by the prosecution team, which has already found out the first three people who will take the witness stand this week.
They are National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc, NBI Senior Agent John Mark Calilung, and Captain Belinda Bello, who is the executive director of the security office of the House of Representatives.
Bello was at work when Duterte locked himself in the office of his brother, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, at the Batasang Pambansa complex in November 2024, after visiting his chief of staff. Zuleika Lopezwho was blocked by Parliament. The Vice President then held a Zoom press conference where he uttered the dire threat against Marcos.
During the hearing of the House justice committee in April, Calilung confirmed the authenticity of the video, while Lotoc testified that Duterte had reached the killer.
Calilung and Lotoc are among them 17 participated as witnesses between prosecution and defense teams. The prosecution asked the impeachment court to compel the Duterte camp to state the purpose of “passing” the list of prosecutors, amid concerns that the men would be treated as hostile witnesses.
The The charges have a total of 57 witnesseswhen the defense has 96.
Test days are from Monday to Wednesday at 2 pm from July 6 to 28, after which the schedule will move to Tuesday to Thursday at 3 pm.
With 62 trial dates for the prosecution’s witnesses and 30 for the defense, the trial may last at least 7 months, Senate Secretary Renato Bantug has said.
Unresolved issues
The impeachment court’s reconvening on Monday will give the prosecution and defense a chance to make their opening statements, and the senators a chance to address unresolved issues during a week-long pretrial hearing in June.
They include arguments on the opening of Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Box. containing Vice President Duterte’s tax documents, and allowing private prosecutors to cross-examine witnesses.
Duterte’s lawyers had agreed to open the BIR box but only in executive sessionand he had objected to giving private lawyers for the prosecution the opportunity to cross-examine people taking the witness stand.
The private attorneys for the prosecution they are expected to level the playing field in court, as Members of parliamentwho have little recent courtroom exposure, will face a defense team made up of highly experienced prosecutors.
Senator-judges, threshold of guilt
Another unresolved issue that is expected to cast a long shadow over the case is the threshold for conviction.
The traditional view is that 16 senators, or two-thirds of the 24-member Senate, are needed to secure a conviction against an impeachable official, but the growing number of inactive senators has sparked debate about what the constitutional threshold of two-thirds corresponds to.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada is in jail for looting, while Senator Bato dela Rosa is in hiding amid an active International Criminal Court warrant. Both are supporters of the Vice President.
Senator Rodante Marcoleta, another Duterte ally, is also expected to be arrested this week for lack of bail. open robbery case against him before the Sandiganbayan last Friday, July 3. This development also raises doubts about whether Marcoleta will show up in the upper room and try to use it as a refuge to avoid detention.
Some legal experts – and even people from the prosecution – have floated the possibility of lower the threshold for conviction to 14 or 15, although Senate President and presiding officer Sherwin Gatchalian has maintained that 16 remains the magic number in the case.
Getting 16 senators to convict the Vice President is a big question due to the very divided Senate.
Gatchalian’s Senate majority is made up of only 13 members, and not every one of them directly supports the impeachment. On the other hand, many senators in the minority camp – the two Cayetanos, the two Villars, Bong Go, and the President’s brother Imee Marcos – have strong ties to at least one member of the Duterte clan and are more difficult to sway.
Defense of Duterte
It is unclear whether Duterte will appear in person in the case, despite the prosecution team repeatedly daring to do so.
Duterte is the only Philippine official to be impeached twice. He was He was first impeached by Parliament in 2025but Senate shenanigansas well intervention by the Supreme Courthe effectively killed the trial that should have taken place.
Parliament, fearing that the Supreme Court would again question the constitutionality of its efforts to impeach the Vice President, took a long way earlier this yearto refer the complaint against him to the justice committee for a lengthy hearing instead of taking the short cut that had been marked by the judges.
Duterte has hit a a team of 16 lawyers to defend him in the case, even if he has repeatedly questioned the authority of the Parliament and the Senate on his impeachment.
Duterte has invoked freedom of speech among other arguments to defend his perceived threats to Marcos’ life, and has asked the impeachment court to dismiss the case against him.
The prosecution has insisted that the Senate He can’t spoil the case early without proceeding with a full trial.
Accused history
The Philippines, after the restoration of democracy in 1986, has had a rich history of complaints filed against public officials who cannot be accused of corruption, but only two (not including Sara’s first case in 2025) were brought to trial in the Senate. (READ: How did the previous prosecutions end?)
If convicted, Duterte will follow in the footsteps of Chief Justice Renato Coronawho was removed from his post and barred from seeking a future post after his trial in 2012.
He may also resign from office, a fate that befell former president Joseph Estrada in 2001 when his impeachment trial was halted by the military-backed civil uprising known as EDSA 2 People Power.
Prosecutors, however, have insisted that the case should continue if Duterte resigns to determine if impeachment will be imposed.
Duterte remains the frontrunner for the 2028 presidential election, but the highly publicized trial will test the strength of his popularity, especially if it can air all his dirty laundry.
The President has distanced himself from the removal of the Vice President, but analysts say Duterte’s return to Malacañang could pose a threat to the Marcos family’s political — and perhaps even physical — life. The Dutertes blame the Marcos administration for extraditing the patriarch to The Hague, where he is being held on charges of crimes against humanity stemming from his bloody drug war. – Rappler.com
