Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte seeks dismissal of impeachment case

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte gives a statement on impeachment complaints filed against her at her office in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila on February 7, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 23 June 2025
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Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte seeks dismissal of impeachment case

  • The House of Representatives impeached Duterte in early February on charges of graft, corruption and an alleged assassination plot against one-time ally and former running mate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr

MANILA: Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte responded Monday to her Senate impeachment trial summons, demanding the case against her be dropped.

The House of Representatives impeached Duterte in early February on charges of graft, corruption and an alleged assassination plot against one-time ally and former running mate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

A guilty verdict in the Senate would result in her removal from office and permanent disqualification from politics.

A copy of Duterte’s reply to the summons delivered by messenger to House prosecutors on Monday afternoon called the complaint against her an abuse of the impeachment process.

“There are no statements of ultimate facts in the (impeachment complaint). Stripped of its ‘factual’ and legal conclusions, it is nothing more than a scrap of paper,” the response read.

It goes on to deny the allegations made against her as “false” and state that the Senate’s decision to remand the case to the House earlier this month removed her responsibility to answer them.

Duterte is currently on a trip to Australia where she is meeting with Filipino supporters.

Her summons was issued on June 10 after an hours-long Senate session that saw lawmakers convene as an impeachment court only to send the case back to the House, a decision one lawmaker called a “functional dismissal.”


Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy after border clashes

Updated 13 January 2026
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Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy after border clashes

  • A dozen villages in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district have been affected by the violence

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Tuesday summoned the ambassador of Myanmar after civil war gun battles in the neighboring country spilled over the border, wounding a Bangladeshi girl.

Heavy fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine state this month has involved junta soldiers, Arakan Army fighters and Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militia guerrillas.

Authorities said around a dozen villages in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district have been affected by the violence.

Twelve-year-old Huzaifa Afnan was struck by a bullet, while a Bangladeshi fisherman had his leg ripped off after stepping on a landmine near the frontier.

“Bangladesh reminded that the unprovoked firing towards Bangladesh is a blatant violation of international law and a hindrance to good neighborly relations,” a Foreign Ministry press statement said.

Myanmar’s ambassador to Bangladesh, U Kyaw Soe Moe, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, where he expressed sincere sympathy to the injured victims and their families.

“My daughter was supposed to go to school, but she is on a ventilator,” Afnan’s father Jasim Uddin said. “My heart is bleeding for my baby girl.”

More than a million Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar, many after a 2017 military crackdown, and now eke out a living in sprawling refugee camps just across the border in Bangladesh.

ARSA, a Rohingya armed group formed to defend the persecuted Muslim minority, has been fighting the Myanmar military, as well as rival Arakan Army guerrillas.

On Monday, Bangladeshi border forces detained 53 ARSA fighters who had crossed the frontier.

Bangladeshi police officer Saiful Islam, commander of the local Teknaf station, said all detainees were being held in jail, except one fighter who was receiving hospital treatment for bullet wounds.

“These individuals have a history of living in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and crossing into Myanmar,” Islam told AFP.