MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City Regional Trial Court postponed Vice President Sara Duterte's arraignment on grave threat charges on Friday after her legal team filed a motion, which it did not disclose.
Lawyer Paul Lawrence Lim, Duterte's counsel, said, "The arraignment will not proceed for now, so it is suspended. That is all I can say."
"I cannot disclose the nature of the motion. But among our requests was to postpone or defer her arraignment while the judge studies the motion. The judge granted the deferment," he added.
Duterte's camp filed a motion for certiorari and prohibition on Aug. 21, 2026 against the information filed before the local court (Branch 98), seeking an injunction on the cases and asking that they be rendered void.
On Sept. 4, they filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to order the recall of the warrants. On Thursday, they filed an urgent motion with the Supreme Court to resolve her application for a temporary restraining order in the grave threats case.
The vice president arrived at the Quezon City Hall of Justice at 8:30 a.m. accompanied by her brother, Rep. Paolo Duterte where they briefly greeted supporters before proceeding to the court. Duterte left the Hall of Justice at 9 a.m.
She posted bail on Saturday last week after the court issued an arrest warrant the day before.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed three counts of grave threat charges against Duterte on Aug. 11 in connection with remarks she made during an online press conference in 2024.
During that conference, Duterte said she had spoken to someone to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then speaker Martin Romualdez if anything happened to her.
