AS a nonlawyer, I am not qualified to discuss the merits of any of the legal actions the government has brought against Vice President Sara Duterte. I do not even want to do that even if I were knowledgeable enough to do it. This is not a legal commentary.
I could not help but have a wry smile, almost a smirk on my face, when I read that Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 had issued a warrant of arrest against Sara in relation to charges of grave threats filed against her by prosecutors. The charges stem from her online declaration that she had talked to someone to avenge her would-be death by having certain political personalities killed as well. Her exact words (my transcription) during the online live video in question were:
“Huwag ka mag-alala, ma’am, sa security ko. Kasi may kinausap na ako na tao. Sinabi ko sa kanya: ‘kapag pinatay ako, patayin mo si BBM, si Liza Araneta(-Marcos, the first lady – VY), at si Martin Romualdez.’ No joke. No joke.”
Considering that there is also an ongoing impeachment trial against the vice president — one that was delayed by a year due to a technicality — I daresay that Malacañang is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Sara Duterte. Before explaining the previous statement, I proffer a preface.
The impeachment of President Joseph “Erap” Estrada in 2001 was the only one not to have the imprimatur of Malacañang. For those who were too young to remember, 115 congressmen — a minority — signed the impeachment complaint against Erap. When Estrada was elected president in 1998, his allies from the newly formed Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino only won 55 seats in Congress. The majority party during the previous administration of President Fidel Ramos, the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas), won 111 seats. However, many Lakas members transferred to the new majority coalition under the Estrada presidency, with Las Piñas representative Manny Villar, who ran under the Lakas banner in the previous congressional elections, becoming the speaker with the blessings of Erap.
What this means is that there was a residual minority from the remnants of the previous majority during the administration of Ramos who formed the backbone of the 115 congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint against Estrada. Speaker Villar, a bosom friend of Estrada at the time, then transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate under unusual circumstances. The majority coalition responded by ousting Villar from the speakership, replaced by representative Arnulfo Fuentebella.
That was the last time impeachment proceeded without the blessings of Malacañang.
Let us not be coy. No House speaker or Senate president sits in office without the manifest support of the president through their congressional allies even as lawmakers practice shameless turncoatism immediately after the elections, transferring with haste to the majority coalition under the banner of Malacañang.
After the Estrada impeachment of 2001, all the subsequent impeachment trials have had the blessings of Malacañang. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada exposed the administration of President Benigno Aquino III allegedly bribing senators with Disbursement Acceleration Program funds in exchange for convicting then-Chief Justice Renato Corona during his impeachment trial in 2012.
In the fourth impeachment complaint filed against Vice President Sara signed and endorsed by 215 congressmen, and transmitted to the Senate as articles of impeachment on Feb. 5, 2025 — subsequently unanimously declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on July 25, 2025 — Duterte claimed that the congressmen who signed and endorsed the complaint did not read the articles of impeachment they had signed. Sara, according to a news report, also claimed that congressmen received “a budget or an amount of money in exchange for their signature.”
The claim was vehemently denied by several congressmen. As Sean Connery was fond of saying, “But of course!”
However, Sen. Rodante Marcoleta claimed that he was told by congressional colleagues — he was still a party-list representative at the time of the fourth impeachment complaint against Duterte — that they signed the complaint without reading it. Marcoleta quoted former colleagues saying:
“Hindi naman namin binasa noong pinirmahan namin. Basta may binigay lang na mga signature pages. Doon lang kami pumirma.”
What it means for me is that Malacañang, through its congressional allies, is patently pushing for the impeachment of Duterte. Incidentally, the president’s son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, was the first signatory of the fourth impeachment complaint in 2025.
Sara has accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of plotting against her and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, for some years now. Rodrigo was surrendered to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by Philippine security forces in 2025. Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said that he, President Marcos, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año were in a “group effort” meeting before Rodrigo was arrested and sent to the ICC.
Thus, this recent grave threats case is the latest in a Black Nazarene traslacion-style procession of moves against Sara Duterte by Malacañang, which the latter vehemently denies. Again, as Sean Connery likes to say, “But of course!”
The way I see it, Malacañang is signaling an intense sense of dread toward an inevitable Sara Duterte landslide victory in the 2028 presidential elections. According to the Pulse Asia survey of presidential preferences of June 28, July 3 and 6, 2026, 49 percent of Filipinos would vote for Sara Duterte in the 2028 elections, distributed as follows:
– 39 percent of the National Capital Region voters (first).
– 31 percent in Balance Luzon (tied for first).
– 53 percent in the Visayas (first).
– 87 percent in Mindanao (first).
– 46 percent in class ABC (first).
– 48 percent in class D (first).
– 59 percent in class E (first).
Given the fractious relationship between President Marcos Jr. and the Dutertes, culminating in the surrender of Rodrigo to the ICC and the impeachment of Sara, it seems to me that Malacañang is hell-bent on derailing Sara’s 2028 date with destiny.
That is how I interpreted the recent grave threats charge against Sara. Prosecutors will claim that they simply followed the law. Again, I refer to Sean Connery’s famous line in his movies, “But of course!”
