Philippine police officials filed criminal complaints Wednesday against Vice President Sara Duterte and her security staff for allegedly assaulting authorities and disobeying orders during a recent Congress altercation, marking a significant escalation in the conflict between the country’s two most powerful political families.
The charges come amid separate concerns over Duterte’s public threats to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife, and the House Speaker assassinated if she were killed in an unspecified plot. Presidential adviser Larry Gadon filed a Supreme Court petition Wednesday to disbar Duterte, citing these threats as “illegal, immoral and condemnable.”
Speaking at a news conference, Duterte broadly denied the allegations while claiming the actions aimed to remove her from office, freeze her assets, and prevent international travel. “This is really oppression and harassment for remarks taken out of logical context,” she said, adding that reconciliation with Marcos appears impossible. “I really believe that we have reached a point of no return.”
The criminal complaints stem from a weekend incident at the House of Representatives involving Duterte’s chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, who was temporarily detained during an inquiry into alleged misuse of confidential funds. The situation escalated when authorities attempted to transfer Lopez to a women’s prison, prompting intervention from Duterte and her staff.
“The rule of law is fundamental to our democratic system. No one, regardless of their position, should be above accountability,” national police chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil said. “Resistance and disobedience to a person in authority not only violates the law but also undermines public trust.”
The Department of Justice is additionally investigating potentially seditious remarks by former President Rodrigo Duterte, the vice president’s father, who suggested only the military could correct what he called “fractured governance” under Marcos.
The conflict highlights a dramatic collapse of the alliance that saw Marcos and Sara Duterte win landslide victories in 2022 on a unity platform. Their subsequent falling out centers on differences over China policy in the South China Sea and approaches to the elder Duterte’s controversial anti-drug campaign.
Duterte resigned from Marcos’s Cabinet in June as education secretary and anti-insurgency body head, becoming a vocal critic of the president, his wife Liza, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin who leads a Congress dominated by administration allies.
Marcos, in a televised address, characterized the vice president’s threats as a criminal plot and promised to uphold the rule of law. The situation underscores the challenges of the Philippines’ system where presidents and vice presidents are elected separately, sometimes placing political rivals in the nation’s top positions.
