Vice President Sara Duterte and Judge Maria Angelica P. de Ramos of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 are sorority sisters in Sororitas Reginae Juris, a law school sorority at the San Beda College of Law.

De Ramos disclosed this at Tuesday’s hearing on the grave threats case filed against Duterte by the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Both the prosecution and defense lawyers acknowledged the judge’s disclosure. However, saying that they believed their case against the Vice President was strong, the prosecution moved for De Ramos to inhibit herself.

De Ramos began hearing oral arguments on Duterte’s bid to dismiss the grave threats charges filed by the DoJ on 26 August. The hearing was originally scheduled for 20 August but was postponed due to the heavy rains.

The criminal case, docketed as People of the Philippines v. Sara Duterte y Zimmerman (Case Nos. R-QZN-26-06956 to 06958-CR), involves three counts of grave threats under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, Republic Act 10175).

Duterte is alleged to have made grave threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then House Speaker Martin Romualdez in an online press briefing on 23 November 2024.

Duterte’s camp argued during yesterday’s proceedings that the grave threats case should be quashed because impeachable officers are entitled to a certain degree of immunity.

The prosecution, meanwhile, reiterated that it had found prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction against Duterte and argued that the concurrent Senate impeachment trial did not raise the issue of double jeopardy because the two proceedings were different in nature.