Vice President Sara Duterte was impeached by the Philippine lower house on Wednesday after being charged with numerous offences, including failing to strongly condemn China’s aggressive actions against Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea, large-scale corruption, and plotting to assassinate the president.
Allegations that Duterte abused public funds while serving as vice president and education minister, accumulated mysterious wealth, and threatened the lives of lower house speaker, first lady, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. were the basis for his impeachment. She has denied any misconduct on several occasions.
After former President Joseph Estrada in 2000, she became the second-highest elected person in the Philippines to be impeached. The action is a serious blow to the powerful Duterte family, whose popularity skyrocketed when Rodrigo Duterte was elected president in 2016 as a crime-busting, maverick mayor who flipped Philippine foreign policy and started a “war on drugs” that claimed thousands of lives.
Following the breakdown of a strong family alliance that gave them a massive victory in the 2022 election, she and Marcos have been embroiled in a severe public feud that has culminated in their impeachment.
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