MANILA: Philippine Catholic priests filed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte on Thursday, the third bid to oust her following an explosive feud with President Ferdinand Marcos.
The 46-year-old was tipped to succeed her father Rodrigo Duterte in 2022 elections but stepped aside to back Marcos, and later ran for vice president on his ticket.
But ahead of mid-term polls next year their alliance has publicly imploded. Last month, she delivered an expletive-laden news conference saying she had ordered someone to kill Marcos if she herself was slain.
She later denied making a death threat, describing her comments as an expression of “consternation” with the Marcos administration’s failures.
Two impeachment complaints have already been made to parliament by separate coalitions of activists. The third was lodged Thursday by seven Manila-based Catholic priests.
It accused her of “anomalous disbursements” of millions of dollars as vice president and when she headed the education ministry — a role she quit in June — as well as plotting Marcos’ assassination.
“Impeachment is the necessary, ultimate line of defence against corruption at the highest rungs of officialdom,“ it said. “She cannot be Vice President a minute longer.”
Impeachment will only take place if it is backed by a third of lawmakers in the Philippines’ lower house of parliament and two-thirds of the upper house.
Prospects of the vice president’s removal remain unclear.
The justice committee of the lower house said Thursday none of the three complaints against Duterte have been scheduled for public hearings, a requirement before they vote to dismiss or endorse it.
President Marcos has also attempted to publicly dissuade lawmakers from voting to impeach her.
“None of this will help improve a single Filipino life,“ he said last month. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a storm in a teacup.”
