Sara Duterte maintains kill plot vs Marcos not supported by evidence

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday maintained that the impeachment complaint involving her alleged assassination plot against President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and former Speaker Martin Romualdez is not supported by evidence.

Duterte made the statement shortly before the commencement of Tuesday’s proceedings, where her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, is expected to be called as the House prosecution panel’s third witness.

READ: LIVE UPDATES: Impeachment trial of VP Sara Duterte | July 14, 2026

“On Day 4 of the impeachment trial, the country witnessed what I have been saying all along: the complaint is not supported by evidence,” said Duterte in a statement.

Duterte specified the fourth day of the trial as her defense team pointed out inconsistencies in the dates of the affidavit and docket numbers in the files of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) during one of her lawyers Mark Vinluan’s cross-examination of the prosecution’s second witness, NBI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc.

“Repeatedly claiming that there were threats when none existed, inventing an assassin where there was none, and fabricating evidence to support those claims does not transform fiction into fact. Instead, such actions undermine the integrity of public institutions, erode public trust, waste public resources, and corrupt the search for truth,” she added.

Duterte stressed that impeachment proceedings should be grounded only on credible evidence, not speculation, manufactured narratives or unsupported allegations.

“The rule of law depends on facts, not fiction,” said Duterte.

The Senate impeachment court is currently tackling Article IV of the impeachment complaints against Duterte, which involve the kill plot the vice president herself revealed against Marcos, his wife and cousin.

The House prosecution panel has so far only presented two witnesses and has barely reached half of the 11 days provided to them to tackle Article IV.

Furthermore, the entire trial is expected to run for 92 days, which means it may still extend until early 2027.

To date, Duterte has yet to personally attend the trial. /gsg