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Sam Beltran

A court in the Philippines has issued a warrant of arrest against Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio over death threats she made against President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.
The warrant involves three counts of grave threats, according to a court order that also set bail at 120,000 pesos (US$1,900) for each count. The charges were first filed last month, based on a National Bureau of Investigation criminal complaint in February 2025.
Duterte’s lawyer, Paul Lawrence Lim, on Friday confirmed the Quezon City regional trial court “has issued a warrant of arrest against the vice-president”.
His client “has no intention of evading the law and will continue to exercise all her legal remedies”, he added.
In November 2024, the vice-president claimed after a late night news briefing that she had hired an assassin and instructed him, if she were ever murdered, to kill Marcos, his wife, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and his cousin, then house speaker Martin Romualdez. Duterte-Carpio has since denied making those threats.
The alleged ‌threats are also among the allegations included in the impeachment ⁠complaint against Duterte, who is being tried before the Senate ⁠sitting as an impeachment court. A conviction could remove her from office and derail her presidential bid ‌in 2028.


Duterte-Carpio also faces accusations of misappropriating over US$10 million in “confidential funds” from her time as vice-president and education secretary, a position she held between 2022 and 2024.
Observers say the latest move marks a “significant development for the rule of law”.
Duterte-Carpio’s arrest was the “first time in Philippine politics that a sitting vice-president was issued a judicial arrest warrant”, said Cleve Arguelles, a political scientist and CEO of the polling firm Momentum Research.
“It is significant precisely because of how rarely the coercive power of the law reaches people at the very top of Philippine politics,” he added.
The timing was “inevitably politically charged”, he said. “But political rivalry cannot, by itself, invalidate legal process. Otherwise, every powerful politician could escape accountability simply by declaring themselves persecuted. Her best protection against both executive overreach and trial by publicity is to participate fully in the court process and avail herself of due process under the law.”
Both sides benefited from this due process, said Darwin Angeles, a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Diliman’s College of Law. “The process favours both the state, which will be given the opportunity of presenting the merits of its case, but also the vice-president, who will be afforded due process, which includes the right to a fair, impartial, and speedy trial.”
Jean Encinas-Franco, a political-science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, called the arrest warrant a matter of “the law finally catching up”, but acknowledged that the move would be seen by Duterte supporters as political persecution amid the ongoing impeachment trial.
The vice-president has not shown up to a single session since the impeachment court convened in May. If impeached, she will be barred from seeking public office. Duterte-Carpio declared in February that she planned to run for president in the 2028 elections.
Political impact
“The supporters of Sara will raise hell and will still invoke political persecution. At least law enforcement officials have already decided that there’s enough of a case to issue a warrant of arrest,” Encinas-Franco said. “But that’s not the end in itself for the accused. It means that she will have a day in court to face her accusers.”
In terms of optics, the arrest warrant would be seen as “very political” and a result of the ongoing fallout from Duterte-Carpio’s partnership with Marcos, once known as the “UniTeam”, she said. “People will say that they’re doing this because Sara is running [for president]. But these two things can be true at the same time.”
As grave threats are a bailable offence, Duterte-Carpio’s lawyers intended to “post bail ASAP”, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla told ABS-CBN News.
Angeles said the warrant of arrest would not affect the impeachment trial.

“As a matter of law, the criminal case and the impeachment trial involve different legal liabilities: criminal responsibility vs fitness to remain in office. Both the Senate impeachment court and the regional trial court possess jurisdiction to hear and decide the cases before them,” he said. For the Senate, this comes under the constitution while the regional court will try it under the penal code.
Technically, both can happen simultaneously, according to Nathaniel Candelaria, an assistant professor of political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Meanwhile, observers agree that the arrest will lead to a hardening of each political faction’s supporter base especially heading into the 2028 polls.
“Her supporters will definitely see this as a politically motivated arrest. Her critics will see this as part of the rule of law. Regardless of how one sees this, this may affect her chances in 2028, especially those who are undecided,” Candelaria said.
Arguelles said the warrant gave the Duterte camp a powerful narrative of persecution to cement support. “Rodrigo Duterte in The Hague, Sara Duterte impeached and now facing arrest – the family can present these not as separate accountability processes but as one sustained campaign to eliminate the Dutertes from national politics,” he said.
However, overarching national sentiment may complicate this, as 80 per cent of Filipinos say they find her threats against Marcos and his family unacceptable, according to a Momentum Research poll in July.
“The political danger for the Marcos camp is overreach: a process perceived as selective or politically directed could also turn this into political capital and give the Duterte base another reason to close ranks,” Arguelles said.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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The alleged ‌threats are also among the allegations included in the impeachment ⁠complaint against the Philippine ‌vice-president


The alleged ‌threats are also among the allegations included in the impeachment ⁠complaint against the Philippine ‌vice-president.


Sara Duterte-Carpio

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr

Philippine court orders Sara Duterte to be arrested for threatening President Marcos, his wife

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The alleged ‌threats are also among the allegations included in the impeachment ⁠complaint against the Philippine ‌vice-president

The alleged ‌threats are also among the allegations included in the impeachment ⁠complaint against the Philippine ‌vice-president