MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QC-RTC) has again deferred the arraignment of Vice President Sara in connection with the three counts of grave threats filed against her.
Duterte personally appeared on Oct. 9, 2026 at the Quezon City Hall of Justice for the scheduled hearing but only to leave the court premises after Judge Maria Angelica de Ramos of Branch 98 announced the postponement for the second time.
The vice president’s counsel, Paul Lawrence Lim, said the judge’s decision to defer Duterte’s arraignment was due to pending motions, including a motion for reconsideration regarding the denial of an inhibition request against the presiding judge, as well as a pending petition before the Supreme Court.
The lady judge set another date for the arraignment but Lim refused to publicly disclose citing the sub judice rule.
Last month, the same judge dismissed Duterte’s motion for her to inhibit from the case for lack of merit.
She said there was “no cogent reason for her to inhibit or recuse herself from hearing these cases.”
The Department of Justice filed three counts of grave threats against Duterte arising from her controversial remarks during an online press conference in the early hours of Nov. 23, 2024, concerning President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then-speaker Martin Romualdez.
She was quoted as saying that she had already contracted someone to kill Marcos, Araneta-Marcos, and Romualdez if she herself were killed.
The vice president issued the statement after the House of Representatives Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, which was investigating alleged irregularities in the use of confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), ordered the transfer of her chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, from the House detention facility to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Duterte posted bail on Sept. 5, a day after the court issued an arrest warrant against her over the three counts of grave threats.
