A Philippine congressional committee agreed overwhelmingly Wednesday to advance the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, setting the stage for a potential vote that could decide her political future.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who in February announced a 2028 presidential bid, was impeached last year, only for the Supreme Court to toss the case out over procedural issues.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment by the House of Representatives triggers a Senate trial, where a guilty verdict would ban Duterte from elected office for life.
The new complaints, ruled "sufficient in substance" by a vote of 54-1 Wednesday, accuse her of graft and corruption while in office and of making a death threat against former ally President Ferdinand Marcos.
She will now have 10 days to respond before the start of a hearing of probable cause necessary to move the complaints to a House vote.
"Our vote today is not a verdict of guilt nor an act of condemnation. It's simply a decision on whether the constitutional process should move forward," Representative Ferdinand Hernandez said minutes before the vote.
The alleged death threat against Marcos stems from a late-night press briefing in which she claimed to have hired an assassin to kill the president and members of his family should he have her cut down first.
