Quezon City court issues arrest warrant for Vice President Sara Duterte

Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 issued a warrant on 4 September for the arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte on three counts of grave threats. The court found probable cause after oral argument and set bail at 120,000 pesos, about $1,900, on each count. The Department of Justice said the warrant went to law-enforcement channels in the ordinary way. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla told reporters that Duterte's lawyers had received it and planned to post bail at once.

Lawyer Paul Lawrence Lim said that whatever the jurisdiction question, she has no intention of evading the law and will use her remedies. Paolo Tamase, associate dean at the University of the Philippines College of Law, told AFP the practical next step is a bail application, which may not require her to appear, and that the warrant itself can be taken to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

The remarks

The Department of Justice filed the three counts in early August. They rest on a late-night briefing in November 2024 in which Duterte said she had spoken with an assassin and given instructions covering President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and then-Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed. Weeks earlier she had spoken of beheading the president. Marcos did not name her when he later spoke of "criminal intent." She has said the comments were taken out of context. Her allies argue a sitting vice president cannot be tried criminally while in office. The trial court has now disagreed at the probable-cause stage.

The same remarks sit inside the impeachment complaint now before the Senate. A conviction there would remove her from office and block a 2028 presidential run. The criminal case is separate. Bail keeps her out of a cell. It does not end either proceeding.

What the warrant changes

A vice president under a live arrest order is a new fact in the Marcos-Duterte break. The families ran together in 2022. They are now in open conflict across the House, the Senate and the courts. The Quezon City order does not decide the impeachment. It does decide that a regional trial judge will hear a threats case against the sitting vice president unless a higher court stops it. Remulla's comment that bail would come "ASAP" is the government's way of saying it expects surrender on paper rather than a scene at the gate.

Lim's jurisdiction line will be the first appeal. If it fails, the trial dates will run alongside the Senate trial. That is the calendar the 2028 campaign now has to live with.