Philippine president says impeaching the vice president, his rival, would be a waste of time

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Friday that filing impeachment complaints against the vice president, who is facing a legal storm after publicly threatening to have him killed, would be a waste of time for Congress.

It was unclear whether Marcos’ remark would stop plans by several groups to file impeachment complaints against Duterte over a number of criminal allegations, including her alleged misuse of confidential government funds and her recent public threat to have the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives killed if she herself were killed in a plot she has not detailed.

The legal troubles facing the vice president and her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, are unfolding in the backdrop of their worsening feud with Marcos. It's the latest battle between the country's most powerful families in a long-unwieldy democracy that has been dominated for decades by political dynasties.

But Marcos played down the political showdown.

"It’s a storm in a teacup,” he told reporters.

"This is not important. This will not make any difference to even one single Filipino life, so, why waste time on it?” he said of an impeachment. Impeachment complaints are being prepared for filing before the House, which is led by Marcos’ cousin and political ally, Martin Romualdez.

Duterte regards Romualdez as a bitter opponent. Both are seen as potential presidential candidates in 2028.

Duterte has ruled out a political reconciliation with Marcos. They were running mates in 2022 and won by landslides in a campaign of national unity but later had a falling out on several issues, including over their support for China or the Unites States.

Marcos has strengthened a defense alliance with the U.S. as the Philippines faces an increasingly aggressive China in the disputed South China Sea.

The vice president has refused to condemn China’s assertive actions and her father nurtured close ties as president with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin while criticizing U.S. and Western security policies.

Marcos has also opposed the former president’s anti-drug crackdown that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead and sparked an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court as a possible crime against humanity.

When asked about the vice president’s remark that their estranged political alliance “has reached a point of return,” the president said, “Never say never."

Duterte, a 46-year-old lawyer, failed to appear on Friday before investigators at the National Bureau of Investigation, which issued a subpoena for her to explain her threats against the president, his wife and Romualdez, which were made in an online news conference over the weekend.

She said she needed to see the questions she would face, and her appearance before the investigators was reset to Dec. 11. The vice president has said her remarks were not actual threats and were made to highlight an unspecified danger she was facing.

Marcos has said her remarks were a criminal plot and added he would fight back.

Under Philippine law, such public remarks may constitute a crime of threatening to inflict a wrong on a person or their family and are punishable by a prison term and fine.

Separately, the Department of Justice has said investigators are looking into potentially seditious remarks by the vice president’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who said in a news conference on Monday that the government would only seriously listen to allegations of government corruption if the military speaks up.

“There is a fractured governance,” the former president said. “It is only the military who can correct it.”

He clarified that he was not calling on the military to stage an uprising. He also asked how long the military could still serve under a commander in chief “who is a drug addict” — an accusation he has made often and Marcos has repeatedly denied.