Duterte lawyers ask court to hold off on possible arrest warrant in motion to quash
MANILA, Philippines — Lawyers for Vice President Sara Duterte have asked a Quezon City court to defer the issuance of any possible arrest warrant against her while it decides whether it has the authority to hear the grave threats charges filed against her.
The request forms part of the motion to quash the charges that Duterte's camp confirmed filing on Thursday, her counsel Paul Lawrence Lim shared at an online press conference on Friday, August 14.
"The deferment of the arrest warrant is one of the things we asked the court for," Lim said in mixed English and Filipino, adding that the court had been asked to hold off "while this question of jurisdiction is still being heard."
He argued that issuing a warrant would itself be an assertion of the authority that the Duterte camp is disputing. "For the court to issue a warrant of arrest, it needs to have jurisdiction," he said.
There has been some speculation on whether a warrant might be issued against Duterte in connection with the three counts of grave threats filed against her earlier this week by the Department of Justice.
Duterte is simultaneously on trial before the Senate impeachment court, where grave threats form part of the articles of impeachment.
Asked what the defense would do if the motion were denied and a warrant issued, Lim said: "All of the options are being considered."
The charges stem from a November 2024 online conference in which Duterte said she had arranged for someone to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed.
She made the remarks during a late-night outburst over the detention of her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, by a House panel investigating her office's use of confidential funds.
Duterte has said the remark was never a genuine threat and had been taken out of context.
A related complaint of inciting to sedition, brought alongside the grave threats complaint by the National Bureau of Investigation in February 2025, was dismissed by prosecutors, who said they found no prima facie evidence with a reasonable certainty of conviction.
A motion to quash is a standard defense remedy filed before an accused enters a plea at arraignment.
The ground invoked by the Duterte camp in this case is lack of jurisdiction. Their position is that officials who can only be removed through impeachment under the 1987 Constitution cannot be prosecuted in the regular courts while they hold office.
Lim was careful to say that they are not exactly arguing "an impeachable officer can never be charged."
"In our view you can charge them, but not while they are sitting," he said.
He described the issue as one of "limited procedural immunity."
Allowing prosecution and possible arrest of a sitting impeachable officer, he said, could "open the flood gates" to the filing of cases against the others.
Earlier on Friday, Duterte's camp filed a manifestation asking the court to hold oral arguments on the motion due to what they say is its "far-reaching consequences," according to a statement.
Lim, who handles only Duterte's NBI-related criminal cases, said he was not part of the impeachment defense team and would not comment on how the two proceedings might affect each other.
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