How Philippines’ Sara Duterte won round 1 of impeachment battle
The deliberation process on whether to impeach the vice-president has been thrown back to the Lower House for consideration
Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio has won round one of her impeachment battle after her allies in the Senate tossed back the bid to the Lower House on claims it was “defective” and “unconstitutional”.
The unprecedented move on Tuesday, which was settled by a vote of 18-5, has triggered an intense debate online about the senators’ actions and Duterte-Carpio’s political future.
“I think, for now, Sara has momentum even if the president still has three years left in his term of office,” political risk analyst Rolando Llamas told This Week in Asia, referring to the country’s leader, Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.
There has been widespread speculation that Duterte-Carpio is expected to contest the 2028 presidential election, and her ally, Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, told his colleagues on Tuesday that the impeachment trial was meant to derail that.
But whether she could clinch the presidency even if she were to escape impeachment would depend on her support from youth and millennial voters, with these groups seen as more demanding of accountability from officials, according to Llamas.
This demographic enabled the Akbayan party list group to unexpectedly win the recent Senate midterm elections, with Francis Pangilinan and Bam Aquino, two opposition senators who are not allied with either the Duterte family or Marcos Jnr, coming into office, according to Llamas.