Vice President Sara Duterte has petitioned the Supreme Court for an immediate temporary restraining order to suspend her ongoing prosecution for grave threats before a Quezon City court, asserting her immunity from suit as an incumbent impeachable official.
In an urgent motion filed on September 7 and disclosed by the High Tribunal on Thursday, Duterte urged the court to rule swiftly on her application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) or writ of preliminary injunction to halt the lower court proceedings.
“With the evident haste by which (Duterte’s) criminal prosecution continues to move, there is a real and present danger that the reliefs sought… the restraint of criminal prosecution of an incumbent impeachable officer–under the constitutional rule of limited procedural immunity, will be rendered moot and academic, if immediate injunctive relief is not now obtained,” the motion stated.
The motion stems from a petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by Duterte last month targeting Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 Judge Maria Angelica de Ramos, Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida, Prosecutor General Richard Fadullon, and the cybercrime division of the National Bureau of Investigation.
Duterte emphasized that the Quezon City court issued an arrest warrant on September 4 and set her arraignment for September 11, moving the criminal case forward shortly after she posted bail for provisional liberty.
“The imminent arraignment and pre-trial demonstrate that the criminal proceedings are not merely threatened but are actively and rapidly progressing, notwithstanding the serious and far-reaching jurisdictional and constitutional issues to be resolved,” Duterte added.
The Office of the Vice President confirmed the filings on Thursday. Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Vida defended the Department of Justice’s August 11 filing, maintaining that presidential immunity from suit does not extend to the Vice President.
The three counts of grave threats filed against Duterte stem from a November 2024 online press conference during which she publicly stated she had retained an assassin to target President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Leyte 1st District Representative Martin Romualdez if she were killed.