Filipino clergy join new drive for Sara Duterte impeachment

Fr Joselito Sarabia said that filing the impeachment complaint ‘is a moral duty of us, as priests and Religious’ because Duterte’s actions involve a ‘moral concern’. 

Catholic priests and religious filed the third impeachment complaint of the year against Vice President Sara Duterte.

In the filing on Monday, 13 complainants – led by four Catholic priests, three Religious sisters and one Christian pastor – accused Duterte of misusing public funds and plotting to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 

Opponents of Duterte, the 47-year-old daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, have renewed efforts against her amid fears that she might be elected president in 2028. 

The third impeachment complaint said Duterte plundered at least £7.6 million in confidential funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, which she headed.

She was also accused of planning to kill President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and the president’s cousin, former House speaker Martin Romualdez. She “betrayed the public trust by committing acts of political destabilisation and the high crimes of sedition and insurrection”, said the 98-page complaint. 

Fr Joselito Sarabia, a Vincentian priest who was among the complainants, said that filing the impeachment complaint “is a moral duty of us, as priests and Religious”. He said that issue goes beyond politics because Duterte’s actions involve a “moral concern”. 

“We believe, for the cause of justice and accountability, she has to answer and be rightly judged by our representatives and senators,” said Sarabia. “We are saying to our children: it’s not right to steal, it’s not right to lie.” 

Last week a group of activists and citizens filed the first impeachment complaint of the year, and the same day two priests and one Religious sister joined the filing of the second. That complaint, filed on 2 February, also accused Duterte of misuse of public funds.

The 18 complainants included the activist priests Fr Flavie Villanueva SVD and Fr Robert Reyes, and Sr Susan Santos Esmile SFIC.

“The question now confronting our institutions is unavoidable: are they strong enough to hold accountable a powerful but abusive public official or have our mechanisms of accountability been rendered impotent in the face of entrenched power?” the complainants said. 

These complaints follow a Supreme Court ruling that stopped impeachment proceedings against the vice president on 25 July 2025. The court said the four impeachment complaints against Duterte last year violated a constitutional ban on initiating impeachment proceedings against the same official “more than once” in a year. 

The House of Representatives appealed the ruling, but on 29 January the court denied “with finality” the lawmakers’ appeal.

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