Move likely to deepen political rift between Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr

Summary

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte has been impeached by the House of Representatives over allegations including plotting to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., corruption, and failure to confront China’s aggression in the South China Sea.

The move deepens political tensions between Duterte and Marcos, whose alliance collapsed after their 2022 election victory.

Duterte denies wrongdoing, calling the charges political persecution.

The Senate will now decide her fate.

  • apt@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    44·
    10 hours ago

    Here is some context for those not familiar with Philippine politics (speaking as a Filipino):

    • There was a bit of tension between the Marcos family and the Duterte family back then (I don’t remember exactly what sparked this, but Philippine politics is a complete fiesta).
    • Current PH president, Bongbong Marcos, is the son of former president Ferdinand Marcos who, in 1972, declared Martial Law on the basis of a “communist threat” looming over the country. During this period Ferdinand Marcos committed a lot of human rights abuses, killing anyone who spoke against the government. He also stole a shit ton of money.
    • Current PH vice president, Sara Duterte, is the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte who also committed a lot of human rights abuses through his Drug War campaign.
    • Despite tensions between these two families, Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte teamed up during the previous presidential elections and were running mates using the image of “unity” (they were called UniTeam) to unite Filipinos.
    • Because the majority of the Philippine population is poor and uneducated, the two of them won the elections despite both familiy names being closely associated with authoritarian rule and human rights abuses.

    Now some important details that have led up to this point:

    • Sara Duterte had this whole “confidential funds” thing wherein taxpayer’s money was being spent on… confidential reasons. (-_-) and if it’s not clear to you yet, the Philippines has had a long problem of corruption. So she was brought to court several times for this reason (these were the impeachment cases).
    • Sara Duterte pulled off several political stunts such as threatening to kill the president and whatnot which distracts from her confidential funds issue.
    • Some political analysts say that this tension also has to do with the geopolitical differences of the two as the Marcos family were known to have support from the USA while the Duterte family was China’s dog (and before Lemmy starts siding with the Duterte because of their closeness with China, no - Duterte killed a lot of Filipino communists and vowed to kill any communist in sight).

    Anyway, neither of these two people can be trusted. They both come from families who have had a long history of human rights abuses and corruption. The whole “plot to kill president” is just a tiny part of the larger issue and why she needs to be impeached (again, it really stems from the corruption allegations and she made things worse for her because Philippine politics is a fiesta). But let’s see how things play out from here.

    TL;DR Philippine politics is a circus. The entire country is run by clowns.