A Philippine trial court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Vice President Sara Duterte, in connection with charges against her for threatening the life of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and others.
Duterte faces three counts of issuing “grave threats” against the president, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos, and his cousin Martin Romualdez, who was speaker of the Philippine House at the time she made the threats in November 2024.
Vice-President Duterte, the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, came into office in June 2022 as the running mate of another political scion, the son of former president Ferdinand Marcos. They took their oaths of office together as political allies whose landslide election victories would help to heal deep political divisions in the country.
Their political narrative was also one of redemption for controversial parents, as the elder Ferdinand Marcos was a notorious dictator, while Rodrigo Duterte faces allegations of crimes against humanity for his brutal war on drugs.
The Marcos-Duterte alliance broke down rather quickly amid bitter disagreements over major issues, including relations with China and the United States. President Marcos is pro-American, while Duterte leans strongly toward China. They also disagreed over constitutional reforms, peace talks with communist rebels, and independence for the island of Mindanao, the home turf of the Duterte dynasty.
President Donald Trump and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines participate in a bilateral meeting, Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
The disagreement is personal as well, with first lady Aranaeta-Marcos being particularly obvious about her disdain for the Dutertes, and the two families both aspire to control the presidency after the current term ends in 2028. Marcos, Jr. cannot run again due to term limits, so he has a proxy candidate picked out, while Sara Duterte wants a promotion from vice president to the top job.
During an online press conference in November 2024, Sara Duterte shocked the audience by declaring she had retained the services of an assassin to kill President Marcos, Jr., his wife, and the speaker if anything should happen to her.
This was a few weeks after Duterte said she “wanted to cut his head off” and claimed she had told the president’s sister that she would dig up the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. and “throw it in the West Philippine Sea” if the younger Marcos did not stop politically attacking her.
Marcos, Jr. let the beheading and corpse desecration talk slide, but his administration took Duterte’s claim of hiring a hit man very seriously. The Philippine national police and military beefed up the president’s protective details, and charges were soon brought against the vice president for her death threat.
Duterte tried to walk her comments back by saying they had been taken out of context and she was merely expressing concern for her own safety. “Why would I kill him if not for revenge from the grave? There is no reason for me to kill him. What’s the benefit for me?” she asked.
Sara Duterte was impeached by the Philippine House of Representatives in May due to her death threats and some charges of financial impropriety. She has been on trial in the Philippine Senate since July, and if convicted, she could be permanently disqualified from holding office.
Duterte’s lawyers said on Friday she would not seek to evade the arrest warrant but would post bail and fight the charges in court. Her bail has been set at $1,900 U.S. for each of the three counts.
“Today, the Quezon City RTC has issued a warrant of arrest against the Vice President. Regardless of the question on jurisdiction, she has no intention of evading the law and will continue to exercise all her legal remedies,” Duterte’s attorney Paul Lawrency Lim said in a statement on Friday.
It was not immediately clear why the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) chose this moment to issue a warrant for Duterte’s arrest. Duterte’s lawyers said the court heard oral arguments on a defense motion challenging the RTC’s jurisdiction last week. The motion invoked the “limited procedural immunity” of the vice-presidential office to argue the court had no authority to prosecute her.