Prosecutors in Philippine VP's impeachment say trial must proceed
By Karen Lema and Mikhail Flores
MANILA (Reuters) -Philippine prosecutors said on Wednesday there was no stopping the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, expressing bemusement at why the Senate convened a court before swiftly returning the case to the lower house.
The impeachment of Duterte, a likely contender for the 2028 presidency, has dominated headlines in the Philippines this year after a high-profile grudge match between her and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr that spiralled into a bitter battle for power and influence.
The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in February to impeach Duterte for betrayal of public trust and high crimes, referring the case to the Senate to convene a trial. Duterte insists the impeachment is politically motivated and denies wrongdoing.
But the Senate on Tuesday sent the case back to the lower house, requiring it to certify that it was lawful, a move some critics said was a tactic to try to thwart the impeachment.
The decision prompted wider outrage, including from legal and church groups, who said it was a betrayal of the constitution and a shirking of the Senate's responsibility to hold public officials accountable.
Congresswoman Gerville Luistro, a member of the impeachment prosecution panel, said the lower house had fulfilled its duty and the Senate's issuance of a summons to Duterte to answer charges meant it already had jurisdiction over the case.
"No one can stop this anymore," Luistro told a press conference, adding the prosecution's case was strong and backed by ample evidence. "We are certain that the complaint is strictly and fully compliant with the requirements of the constitution."
POLITICAL MANOEUVRE
The popular daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte has been accused of budget irregularities, amassing unexplained wealth, and threatening the lives of Marcos, the first lady and and the house speaker. She faces a lifetime political ban if convicted.
Senator Imee Marcos, the president's sister and now an ally of the Duterte, said there was justification in the Senate's decision and called the impeachment bid a political manoeuvre to keep Duterte out of the 2028 presidential race.
Marcos has distanced himself from the impeachment and his office on Wednesday said the president was busy and not following the trial. Duterte's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Marcos, who is limited to a single term, is expected to groom a successor who can preserve his influence and legacy and defeat Duterte if she is acquitted and runs for the presidency.
Outside the upper house on Wednesday, hundreds of protesters braved the rain, carrying banners demanding accountability from Duterte and calling the senators "cowards" and "traitors".
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, a prominent church group, said the decision was a betrayal of the public trust.
"Allow the constitutional process to proceed without obstruction. If there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear," its president said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Playbook PM: Reconciliation, rescissions roil Republicans
Presented by THE CATCH-UP BIG IMMIGRATION NEWS: The Trump administration today will tell hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who immigrated here legally under humanitarian parole that their legal status is being terminated, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez scooped. That will leave them vulnerable to deportation, after the Supreme Court green-lit the policy for now. … But the administration seems to have paused its plans to begin mass transfers of detained immigrants to Guantanamo Bay, POLITICO's Myah Ward and Nahal Toosi report. RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: Republicans have averted one small blow-up on the Hill — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is invited to today's White House congressional picnic after all. President Donald Trump announced it, and Paul posted a photo of his grandson in a MAGA hat (though Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said he too had his tickets withheld). But much more challenging clashes still loom for both the reconciliation megabill and today's House vote on rescissions. Miller time: White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller met with Senate Republicans today to advocate for border/immigration enforcement funding in the reconciliation bill, per ABC's Allison Pecorin. But things got tense between Miller and deficit hawks who want to pare back spending, including what sources tell Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio was a 'shouting match' with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on the budget math. Axios' Stef Kight reports that Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) was peeved at Miller, while an absent Paul loomed large. Kicking the can down the road: A decision on the state and local tax deduction number won't be included in the Senate Finance bill text yet, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told Semafor's Burgess Everett. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told reporters he's working with House members to try to land a SALT deal. 'I hope they modify it in a very small way,' Speaker Mike Johnson said, holding up prayer hands. By the numbers: The latest CBO report offers a neat encapsulation of the messaging wars likely to come between Democrats and Republicans on the bill. The analysis finds that the reconciliation package — including tax cuts, Medicaid cuts and SNAP cuts — would bolster the average American household's resources from 2026 to 2034. But it would increase inequality, hurting low-income families' resources while benefiting the middle class and wealthy. Specifically, the nonpartisan scorekeeper says low-income households would suffer a $1,600 annual hit on average, middle-income households would gain $500 to $1,000, and high-income households would romp with a whopping $12,000 boost, per POLITICO's Jennifer Scholtes. WHAT TO WATCH TODAY: The House is barreling toward a 3 p.m. vote on enshrining Department of Government Efficiency cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting, with the outcome potentially still up in the air. Johnson said he feels confident Republicans have the votes to claw back $9 billion in funding. But POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill reports that it's not a done deal yet: Leadership hasn't been able to flip seven GOP holdouts, and they 'may have to rely on Dem absences.' At stake: The consequences of this vote are enormous. Republicans see it as a way to start institutionalizing DOGE cuts and ax spending for organizations they dislike. But decimating funding for PEPFAR could threaten HIV treatment and prevention programs that have saved 25 million lives in 22 years, even as the White House claims it'll keep lifesaving work going. Humanitarian groups say the future of foreign aid looks very bleak, though the Senate may try to scale back some of the cuts, NOTUS' Helen Huiskes reports. Meanwhile, cuts to PBS and NPR have public media stations, especially in rural areas, fearing they may not survive, POLITICO's Aaron Pellish reports. Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@ 8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS WATCH: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today refused to confirm that the administration would comply with a potential court ruling barring the deployment of Marines to support ICE operations in Los Angeles, POLITICO's Joe Gould reports. He deflected lawmakers' questions and said only that 'we should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy.' The California clash: Ahead of this afternoon's court hearing, California Gov. Gavin Newsom continued to go after Trump for deploying troops to anti-ICE protests. On NYT's 'The Daily,' Newsom outright questioned the president's mental acuity after Trump claimed he talked to the governor Monday: 'Maybe he actually believed he said those things, and he's not all there. I mean that.' But he also distanced himself from sanctuary policies and said he'd work with ICE. Indeed, many Democrats are hoping to refocus the political conversation here away from immigration policy and onto Trump pushing the legal limits of his power, POLITICO's Dustin Gardiner and Natalie Fertig report from San Francisco. Behind the escalation: Before the LA situation, there was a monthslong history of planning within the administration to use the military more to support domestic immigration enforcement, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez and Natasha Bertrand report. And on the flip side, far-left groups that advocate for violence have encouraged agitators to escalate beyond peaceful protests, especially at night — part of a pattern from other cities in recent years, NBC's Rich Schapiro and Andrew Blankstein report. Wait, what? Apparently having heard from farming and hospitality advocates, Trump posted on Truth Social today to indicate that he doesn't want aggressive deportations to target their workforce. That message may not have gotten through to his vast immigration enforcement apparatus: Border czar Tom Homan told Semafor's Ben Smith that coming soon, 'worksite enforcement operations are going to massively expand.' The other military hubbub: The latest AP/NORC poll shows Americans have mixed feelings about Trump's military parade on his birthday this Saturday. The median opinion seems to be something like: Seems fine, but wish we weren't spending money on it. U.S. adults overall say they approve of the parade, 40 percent to 31 percent, but don't think it's a good use of government funds, 60 percent to 38 percent. 2. PAGING NUUK: 'I just want to help you out, because people try to twist your words,' Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said to Hegseth on the Hill today. 'You are not confirming in your testimony today that at the Pentagon, there are plans for invading or taking by force Greenland, correct?' But Hegseth wouldn't go there: 'The Pentagon has plans for any number of contingencies,' he said. 'We look forward to working with Greenland to ensure that it is secured from any potential threats.' 3. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Top Israeli officials are expected to travel tomorrow to meet with special envoy Steve Witkoff, POLITICO's Nahal Toosi reports. That will be an opportunity for Jerusalem to clarify what its plans are toward Iran, amid a flurry of reports that U.S. officials expect an Israeli attack on Iran could be imminent. 'I don't want to say imminent, but it is something that could very well happen,' Trump said of a potential Israeli strike. But Witkoff has warned senators that Iran's response might be a mass casualty event in Israel, Axios' Barak Ravid scooped. 4. MAN OF STEEL: 'Trump Says US Government Will Get 'Golden Share' in US Steel,' by Bloomberg's Josh Wingrove and Mario Parker: 'Trump's comment was the first public confirmation by the administration that it was seeking a golden share. The White House has not yet spelled out what that would mean, including — as is typically the case — whether that would include an equity stake.' 5. TRADING PLACES: Trade talks between the U.S. and India have hit some speed bumps as both sides dig in on crucial demands, including whether New Delhi will allow genetically modified crops in, Bloomberg's Shruti Srivastava reports. Meanwhile, despite Trump touting the latest framework agreement with China this week, Beijing is very much playing the long game and learning how to stall the U.S. repeatedly, NYT's David Pierson and Berry Wang report. 'While Trump seeks quick deals done directly with top leaders, [Chinese President Xi Jinping] favors a framework led by his lieutenants that wards against being blindsided,' Bloomberg writes. 'Such haggling could drag on for years.' 6. WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: Despite Trump's alliance with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, ProPublica's T. Christian Miller and Sebastian Rotella reveal that San Salvador impeded a yearslong U.S. investigation into whether its government had quietly struck a deal with MS-13. Bukele allies have also refused to extradite gang members to the U.S. who could have been witnesses. At the same time, Bukele's growing relationship with Trump has emboldened what experts say is a growing authoritarian crackdown on dissent at home, AP's Megan Janetsky and Marcos Alemán report. Longtime Bukele opponents say there's been 'an inflection point' in recent weeks, as the U.S. Embassy hasn't said anything. 7. LOOK WHO'S BACK: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is hitting the road again with his record-breaking 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour, which has rejuvenated progressives deep into red territory. His stops next weekend will take a similar approach, from the Rio Grande Valley to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Johnson's hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. 8. BUYER'S REMORSE: 'Trump's travel ban fuels despair and disgust with politics among Arab Americans in Michigan,' by AP's Isabella Volmert in Dearborn: 'It came as a particular shock to many Yemeni Americans … While it may not elicit the same protests as 2017, many Yemeni and Arab Americans in the all important battleground state see it as yet another offense contributing to enormous dissatisfaction with both major political parties.' TALK OF THE TOWN Winsome Earle-Sears' old Google/Yelp reviews for her business show that she often got into it with displeased customers. Abraham Lincoln-signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment are going up for auction, potentially fetching several million dollars. Noah Wyle was on the Hill today to advocate for mental health care for health care workers. PLAYBOOK REAL ESTATE SECTION — 'This D.C. real estate agent is closing huge deals with Trump-world elite,' by Axios' Mimi Montgomery: 'Over the years, [Daniel] Heider, 38, has become known in Washington for selling ginormous, ultra-lux estates — positioning him perfectly for catering to the enormously wealthy cast of players moving into President Trump's Gilded Age D.C. … He doesn't see himself as simply a real estate agent. He's more of a white-glove concierge meets sociologist meets therapist, he tells Axios.' OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at Walmart's U.S. manufacturing reception yesterday at its Navy Yard office, capping the company's two-day Hill fly-in: Reps. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), Bill Foster (D-Ill.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Brad Knott (R-N.C.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) and Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) and Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández (D-P.R.). — SPOTTED at the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society/Wisdom of Crowds salon with Francis Fukuyama at Damir Marusic's residence last night: Shadi Hamid, Samuel Kimbriel, Christine Emba, Jason Willick, Freddy Gray, Freddie Hayward, Jordan Castro, Rachel Rizzo, Kelly Chapman, Harry Stein, Jamie Kirchick, Diana Brown, Mana Afsari, Santiago Ramos, Kristina Tabor, Samuel Goldman, Jon Purves, Chris Griswold, Peter Catapano, Chris McCaffery, Sadev Parikh and John Hudson. TRANSITIONS — Ronald Rowe Jr. is joining the Chertoff Group as a senior adviser. He previously was acting director of the Secret Service. … Reservoir Communications Group is adding Patrick 'Pat' Kannan as CFO and Ashley Flint as an SVP. Kannan previously was CFO at OPEXUS. Flint previously was a principal at Avalere Health. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Conservative Josh Hawley introduces bill to raise federal minimum wage to $15 an hour
Conservative Josh Hawley introduces bill to raise federal minimum wage to $15 an hour Show Caption Hide Caption Lawmakers advance bill to lower pay for trainees Florida lawmakers are advancing bills that would allow employers to pay certain workers in training below the minimum wage for up to 12 months. Fox - 35 Orlando WASHINGTON - Ultraconservative Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill on June 10 with Democratic Vermont Sen. Peter Welch to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, making him one of the few Republicans to support the cause. The bill, dubbed the 'Higher Wages for American Workers Act,' would raise the minimum wage starting in January 2026 and allow it to increase on the basis of inflation in subsequent years. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour and it's been unchanged since 2009. It is unclear whether the legislation will be taken up for a vote. Members of Congress have previously tried to raise the minimum wage, but to no avail. In 2021, Democratic lawmakers tried to tack a $15 per hour minimum wage provision in former President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus package, but a Senate official ruled that the measure couldn't be included in the bill. President Donald Trump said in December 2024 that he would 'consider' raising the minimum wage. However, he revoked a 2024 executive order that set the minimum wage for federal contractors at $17.75. 'For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline," Hawley said in a statement. One major culprit of this is the failure of the federal minimum wage to keep up with the economic reality facing hardworking Americans every day." Welch, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, echoed a similar sentiment. 'Every hardworking American deserves a living wage that helps put a roof over their head and food on the table–$7.25 an hour doesn't even come close,' he said. The Employment Policies Institute, a think tank dedicated to researching employment growth, opposed Hawley and Welch's push, arguing that it would result in a loss of jobs. 'Sen. Hawley should know better,' Rebekah Paxton, research director of the institute, said in a news release. 'This proposal would more than double the minimum wage and slash over 800,000 jobs. An overwhelming majority of economists agree that drastic minimum wage hikes cut employment, limit opportunities for workers, and shutter businesses.' The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found in an analysis that raising the minimum wage would 'raise the earnings and family income of most low-wage workers' but would cause other low-income workers to lose their jobs and their family income to fall. Hawley in February teamed up with progressive firebrand Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to introduce a bill capping credit card interest rates at 10%, saying it would "provide meaningful relief to working people." He's also been a vocal critic of Medicaid cuts.
Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
The History of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit—And How it Could Improve Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill'
This April, over 150 Republicans and Democrats in Congress came together to introduce the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act. The bill aims to address a crisis plaguing nearly every U.S. city: the shortage of low-income and moderate-income housing. Nearly half of American renters spend over 50% of their income on housing, a level that experts consider 'cost burdened," according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. The bill works by expanding a tool—the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) —which has a long and bipartisan history. Everyone from businesspeople to housing advocates have enthusiastically supported it. The credit helps underwrite nearly all construction of affordable housing in the U.S. Whether Congress can pass the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) may come down to whether its Republican boosters can get it into President Donald Trump's ' Big, Beautiful Bill," which the Senate is now working on. It would add cost to the legislation, which could cause rifts between GOP legislators. Yet, history indicates that including it could improve a key source of housing for America's 'working poor.' At the heart of the LIHTC is the idea of giving investors subsidies for building housing. This concept dates back to the era after World War II. Americans may be familiar with the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, the ' GI Bill,' which set up low-interest mortgages for veterans and other home buyers. It produced broad rings of single-family suburban homes around every city. Much less well-known, however, are a series of incentive programs the government enacted to spur the building of rental housing. Read More: A Look at Community Land Trusts and How They Combat the Affordable Housing Crisis During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the administration of Democrat Harry Truman used a tool called FHA 608 to quickly house veterans returning from World War II and the Korean War. It offered long-term loans and free project-planning assistance to apartment developers and guaranteed them a profit. In many cities, that produced more low-rent units than did the nascent U.S. Public Housing program. In the 1960s, another Democratic President, Lyndon B. Johnson, pushed a new set of subsidies. Housing was a top concern for Johnson as part of his War on Poverty —leading to his creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1965. His administration used two programs, FHA 221(d)3 and HUD 236, to provide depreciation tax breaks and ultra-low interest loans to private developers of low- and moderate-income apartments. As nationally syndicated financial columnist Sylvia Porter reported excitedly, 'There are unparalleled opportunities for profit awaiting you, the investor, in low-cost housing … as a result of the meshing of giant new housing and tax laws.' A savvy investor could use the 'big deductions … to offset your other highly taxed income'—a technique called a "tax shelter." As with the earlier Truman program, these subsidies to private developers 'far outdistanced the traditional public housing program' in producing new units, according to the United States Comptroller General Elmer Staats. During the 1980s, federal housing efforts ran headlong into a rising conservative movement, led by President Ronald Reagan. The right was determined to pare back government spending and slash programs. Congress moved to wipe out most aid to help build affordable housing and replace it with Section 8 vouchers. Instead of subsidizing construction, the government would pay landlords the difference between what a renter could afford and the market rate for rent. But business leaders and housing activists revolted. They insisted that Congress should create a strategy to stimulate construction of new units. In 1986, their efforts paid off as part of the sweeping, seminal bipartisan Tax Reform Act. Among its many provisions was the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. LIHTC gave investors a tax credit—an update of the tax shelter idea—if they developed affordable housing or provided dollars to a non-profit doing that work. From 1986 through to today, the majority of affordable housing in the U.S. has been constructed with this credit. Local or state dollars often supplement it, but without LIHTC, many projects simply would not get built. The credit has worked pretty well for nearly 40 years, an impressive longevity. But two shortcomings have become apparent. The first is that when the Reagan Administration launched the program, the idea of mixed-income housing was not yet a goal. So LIHTC regulations favor projects that serve households that make 60% of an area's median income (AMI). That's an important demographic, including teachers, nurse assistants, food service managers, and other similarly situated individuals. But this target is too narrow on both ends. It often prices out the poorest Americans, who make 30% AMI or less, and it also offers nothing to people making 80% AMI, who increasingly need help with today's skyrocketing rents. A second shortcoming of LIHTC is that funding has not expanded since 1986, when both the population and its needs were dramatically smaller. The result is that, now, meaningful projects are excluded simply because of lack of available money. As Scott Farmer, the head of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency told me in an interview, 'The worst part of our job is that we get 120 applications a year and can only fund 30 to 35. Those other deals are great deals, we just don't have enough resources to go around.' The new AHCIA bill recently introduced in Congress aims to address both of those problems. It would encourage landlords to mingle tenants at all incomes. Mixed-income projects have been considered best-practice for some 30 years now; the AHCIA will help regulations catch up with that reality. The AHCIA would also dramatically expand the available credits. It would re-institute a temporary increase of 12.5% that Congress approved in 2018 but later allowed to lapse. And it would boost the total by an another 50%, allowing hundreds of additional projects to become reality. The AHCIA has serious support on both side of the aisle in Washington. Its Senate co-sponsors include conservative Republicans Todd Young of Indiana and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, along with liberal Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Maria Cantwell of Washington. The House version of the bill already has 130 cosponsors. The difficulty in passing the bill may not be opposition. Rather, it's that relatively small tax-related proposals like AHCIA rarely get enacted as stand-alone legislation. Instead, they often get swept up into fierce and partisan debates over taxes and spending. That's precisely what's happening right now in the Capitol—President Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' includes massive tax cuts along with reductions in social service programs such as Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps), increased funding for deportations and border security, and much more. Despite its broad support, the AHCIA could be overlooked amid the bigger battles. The question will be whether advocates of AHCIA can push some pieces of their legislation into this larger bill. The history provides at least some modest hope. The use of tax credits has deep roots, both among Republicans and Democrats, and a long track-record of success. When Congress adopted LIHTC back in 1986, it came as part of much bigger legislation—so that path is a genuine possibility. Will leaders in Congress take action in 2025? If they do, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act has the potential to do a lot of good, to expand the housing supply, spur the economy, and help address the affordability crisis plaguing America. Tom Hanchett is a North Carolina-based historian. His new book Affordable Housing in Charlotte: What One City's History Tells Us About America's Pressing Problem is published by UNC Press.
