Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte on Saturday posted bail, a day after a court issued a warrant for her arrest over an alleged threat to have the country’s President Ferdinand Marcos Jr assassinated.
Duterte appeared at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, where she was fingerprinted and posted a cash bond of 360,000 pesos, equivalent to around 5,740 US dollars, on three counts of grave threats.
What is the vice-president accused of doing?
Prosecutors allege Duterte made the threat during a late-night online news conference in 2024, in which she claimed to have arranged for a hitman to kill Marcos, his wife and a cousin who serves in Congress, should she herself be killed first. Duterte has since said her remarks were taken out of context and has denied the allegations against her.
Why does this case carry such political weight?
The alleged threat forms a central plank of Duterte’s ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate, after she was impeached by the House of Representatives in May. A guilty verdict in either the criminal case or the impeachment proceedings could see her removed from office and permanently barred from seeking public office again, including the presidency in 2028, when Marcos’s six-year term is due to end.
Justice department officials have already rejected arguments from Duterte’s legal team that she cannot face criminal prosecution over conduct that is also being examined as part of her impeachment.
How did the vice-president respond outside court?
Speaking to reporters before entering the courthouse, Duterte said she feared for her safety and suggested she was being targeted unfairly by police. “Will they throw me into the jail and then one night I die in my sleep?” she said, adding that she did not want to post bail unless journalists were present to witness it. She also asked reporters to stay close to her as she left, saying she had felt unsafe due to what she described as ongoing police harassment since 2023.
Emerging from the courthouse in a black outfit, Duterte was met by supporters chanting her name, with witnesses describing her comforting a distressed woman in the crowd before leaving with a copy of the court order lifting her arrest warrant.
What has her legal team said about the charges?
Her lawyer, Paul Lawrence Lim, said Duterte had voluntarily appeared before the court that issued the warrant, meaning there was no need for her to be formally arrested. He said in a statement that she had no intention of evading the law and would continue to pursue all available legal options to fight the charges. Under Philippine law, a conviction on the grave threats charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
How does this connect to her father’s own legal troubles?
The case comes against the backdrop of a wider reckoning for the Duterte family. Sara Duterte’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested last year on the orders of the International Criminal Court and remains detained in The Hague, where he is due to stand trial in late November over allegations of crimes against humanity linked to his government’s deadly anti-drugs crackdown. He has denied authorising extrajudicial killings, despite having repeatedly threatened suspects with death while in office.
Sara Duterte has previously criticised the Marcos administration for allowing her father to be handed over to a foreign court that she argues has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, a grievance that has further inflamed the political rivalry between the two families as the country heads toward the next presidential race.
