Sara Duterte’s arraignment deferred anew
Vice President Sara Duterte attended her scheduled arraignment Friday before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court over three counts of grave threats filed against her by the Department of Justice.
Her arraignment was originally scheduled for Sept. 11, but the court deferred it again, this time after her camp asked Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 Judge Maria Angelica P. De Ramos to rule on its motion for partial reconsideration.
Atty. Paul Lawrence Lim, Duterte's counsel, said De Ramos deferred the arraignment and decided to "reschedule it to some other date" to study their motion.
Lim said that while their motion for De Ramos to inhibit herself from the case was already denied during the last hearing on September 11, the judge still has to rule on their motion. They are also awaiting the Supreme Court's ruling on their petition for certiorari, in which they argued that the alleged threats also form part of the allegations against Duterte in her ongoing impeachment trial before the Senate.
"During the last hearing we filed a Motion for Inhibition for the presiding judge at ito ay kanyang dinenied, although pinagbiyan niya and deferment ng arraignment. So finile namin yung Motion for Partial Reconsideration para consider niya yun di niya pinagbiyan Yun aming (motion) Inhibition," Lim explained in an ambush interview after the hearing.
The DOJ filed the three grave threats charges in August over Duterte’s statements during an online press conference in November 2024, when she said she had hired a hitman to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and detained former House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed.
Duterte has denied the allegations.
On September 4, the Quezon City RTC issued an arrest warrant against Duterte over the charges filed against her. The vice president then posted the required bail of P120,000 for each count the following day.
Daily Tribune reported earlier that Judge De Ramos disclosed that she and Vice President Sara Duterte are sorority sisters, being members of the same law school sorority. De Ramos made the disclosure as she began hearing arguments on Duterte’s bid to dismiss the three counts of grave threats.
De Ramos disclosed during the proceedings that she and Duterte are sorority sisters in Sororitas Reginae Juris at the San Beda College of Law.