Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte Posts Bail on Arrest Warrant Over Marcos Assassination Threat

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte posted bail on Saturday, a day after a Quezon City court ordered her arrest over charges that she publicly threatened to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assassinated, sharpening a political rupture that is already playing out in a parallel Senate impeachment trial.

The Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 issued the warrant on Friday, charging Duterte with three counts of grave threats under the cybercrime law, with Judge Maria Angelica de Ramos setting bail at 120,000 pesos, or roughly $1,900, for each count. Court staff fingerprinted Duterte on Saturday and her legal team posted the full 360,000 pesos, about $5,740, clearing the arrest order.

The case traces to an online news conference in November 2024, when Duterte said she had arranged for an assassin to kill Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed amid escalating political disputes. She later said the remarks reflected fear for her own safety rather than a threat against the president, but the Department of Justice pursued charges of grave threats in relation to Republic Act 10175, the Cybercrime Prevention Act, and the court found probable cause on all three counts.

Duterte, 48, has denied wrongdoing. Emerging from the courthouse in a black outfit to supporters chanting her name, she said she did not feel safe surrounded by police and asked journalists to stay close to her car.

"I do not feel safe with all these police personnel who are harassing those at my home, harassing me since 2023," Duterte said. "What does this administration really want to do with me?"

Her attorney, Paul Lawrence Lim, said she "has no intention of evading the law and will continue to exercise all her legal remedies," while a Department of Justice spokesman said the agency "respects the Court's ruling and reaffirms its commitment to the rule of law." The National Bureau of Investigation, which helps enforce arrest warrants, said the criminal case would move forward regardless of the impeachment proceedings, arguing the two tracks are legally distinct. Some allies of Duterte, including Sen. Bong Go, questioned the timing of the warrant, noting it landed in the middle of her Senate trial.

The warrant compounds a broader legal and political crisis for Duterte, whose father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested in 2025 on an International Criminal Court order and is being held in The Hague ahead of a trial over his drug war, scheduled to begin in late November. Sara Duterte previously accused the Marcos administration of engineering her father's surrender to a court that has no jurisdiction inside the Philippines.

The vice president was elected on a joint ticket with Marcos in 2022, uniting two of the country's most powerful political families, but the alliance collapsed amid rival ambitions and mutual accusations. The House of Representatives impeached Duterte for a second time in May over four articles, including alleged misuse of confidential funds, unexplained wealth and the assassination remarks, and the Senate opened her impeachment trial in July, sitting as an impeachment court with the power to permanently bar her from public office if convicted by a two-thirds vote.

A criminal conviction on the grave threats charges could likewise disqualify Duterte from holding office and running for president in 2028, when Marcos's term ends, raising the stakes on both fronts. Her legal team is expected to continue challenging the criminal case on jurisdictional grounds even as she remains free on bail and the impeachment trial proceeds in the Senate in the coming weeks.