Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte holds a press conference in October at her office in Mandaluyong City in Manila during which she accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of being unfit for the job of president. Photo: File/Rolex Dela Pena/EPA-EFE

Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, is alleged to have misused taxpayer money and made death threats against Marcos after their so-called UniTeam alliance that brought the pair to power in a landslide in 2022 turned sour.

Wednesday's move bypasses normal committee oversight processes including the accused's right of reply, advancing it straight to the 24-seat Senate which, acting as an impeachment court, needs to find 16 votes to convict Duterte.

The complaint heard by the House alleges she violated the constitution, claiming she had plotted to have Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez killed, illegally distributed $10.5 million in "confidential funds" as head of the Office of the Vice President and Education Secretary and bribed Education Department officials.

She is accused of breaking government regulations by allowing her staff to handle the confidential funds and that receipts she submitted to state auditors were signed by people with no birth records.

The complaint also alleges she was in possession of wealth that could not be explained and of involvement in extrajudicial killings in her home city of Davao in the southern Philippines.

Duterte, 46, denies all the charges, claiming she is being targeted by rivals in a smear campaign aimed at destroying her politically.

It is widely believed she is in line to succeed Marcos when his single six-year term is up in 2028.

The lead complainant was House Senior Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, who is the president's eldest son, but Marcos has said he is opposed to the bid to prosecute Duterte.

No trial date has been set but if she is found guilty she would become the first vice-president of the Philippines to be impeached and would also be banned from holding public office for life.

The Philippine president and vice president are elected separately -- not on a single ticket -- which can deliver administrations where the vice president is effectively the leader of the opposition, as in Rodrigo Duterte's 2016-2022 government.

Duterte and Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos who was ousted in 1986 in a people-power revolution, are from powerful rival political dynasties with radically different visions of how the country should be governed.

Both ran for president, running neck-and-neck until Duterte stood aside six months before the May 2022 election, joining the Marcos ticket as his "running mate" to avoid canceling out each other's votes.