Philippine court orders arrest of VP Duterte over President Marcos threats

A Philippine court has ordered the arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte over allegations that she arranged the assassination of the president.

The warrant was issued on Friday by a court in Quezon City, near Manila, after judges rejected a bid by her lawyers to delay it.

Duterte is accused of threatening to kill former political ally President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, as well as his wife and a former speaker of the House of Representatives.

Bail was set at $1,900 for each of three charges of “grave threat” filed against her last month. It adds to the legal issues for the vice president, who is already fighting for her political survival.

The threats are central to an impeachment trial launched in the upper house Senate. A guilty verdict would remove her from office and end her 2028 presidential ambitions.

The dispute dates back to November 2024, when Duterte said she had arranged for a hitman to kill Marcos, his wife, and his cousin, Martin Romualdez, then speaker of the House of Representatives, should she be killed.

She insisted that she had only been voicing fear for her safety after falling out with the president.

Her lawyer, Paul Lawrence Lim, said in a statement that Duterte had “no intention of evading the law and will continue to exercise all her legal remedies”.