REUTERS, Manila

Philippine lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte yesterday, setting the stage for a trial in the Senate that could kill off her hopes for a presidential run in 2028.

Duterte was accused in an impeachment complaint of misusing public funds, accumulating unexplained wealth and threatening the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, his wife and the former House speaker, which she denies.

The complaint by activists, religious groups and lawyers was backed yesterday by 255 lawmakers, easily passing the required threshold of one-third of house seats, with 26 voting against and nine abstentions.

With her ally-turned-enemy Marcos limited by the constitution to a single term in office, Duterte, 47, has been the clear favourite to succeed him in 2028, but the impeachment could derail her bid.

The Senate must now convene a trial with its members as jurors and if convicted, she faces removal from office and a ban from politics.

“We are fully prepared to defend the Vice President before the Senate sitting as an impeachment court, where it is incumbent upon the prosecution to discharge the burden of proof,” Duterte’s legal team said in a statement.

The impeachment is the latest in a series of setbacks for the influential Duterte family, with the vice president feeling heat from her bitter feud with Marcos and her father Rodrigo Duterte awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court over a war on drugs that killed thousands of people during his 2016-2022 presidency.

The House had also voted to impeach the vice president last year, but that was later struck down by the Supreme Court over a procedural flaw.

But in what could be a major boost for Duterte, as the lower house prepared to vote yesterday, drama unfolded in the Senate, where a motion was passed to remove its president and replace him with Alan Peter Cayetano, a staunch loyalist of her family.