Philippine VP Duterte hit with criminal charge over Marcos 'threat'

Manila: Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte was hit with a criminal charge on Tuesday over an alleged death threat against the country's president, a key part of the case against her at her ongoing Senate impeachment trial.

The charge of "grave threats" was filed Tuesday afternoon in a Quezon City courtroom, Department of Justice spokesman Polo Martinez said.

It stems from a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) criminal complaint filed in February 2025, months after a late-night news briefing in which Duterte claimed to have hired an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos, his wife and a former congressman cousin should he have her cut down first.

Lawyers for Duterte on Tuesday argued the case could not be pursued while she was being impeached.

"As a sitting impeachable officer, the Vice President may not be prosecuted for an alleged offense that is also the subject of an impeachment case," defence lawyer Paul Lawrence Lim said in a statement.

Asked if the justice department believed the case could be pursued simultaneously alongside the impeachment trial, Martinez told AFP: "That's correct", adding it was now in the court's jurisdiction.

"That's for the prosecutors in that ongoing trial to present," he said, adding they had met a "high threshold" before moving forward with the case.

Professor Dante Gatmaytan, of the University of the Philippines College of Law, told AFP there was nothing to prevent the cases from proceeding independently of each other.

"This is not unconstitutional," he said in a phone interview.

"There might be theories that can be applied later on, but right now, nothing will stop the DOJ from proceeding with the criminal case."

Under the Philippine legal code, a conviction on the charge of "grave threats" carries a jail term of between one and six months.

An additional complaint of "inciting to sedition" included in the original NBI complaint was dismissed.

Duterte was impeached in May on charges that also included graft and corruption.

Tuesday marked Day 14 of a Senate impeachment trial where her political career -- and planned 2028 presidential run -- hangs in the balance.

A guilty verdict would see her removed from office and permanently barred from elective politics.