Vice President Sara Duterte is leaving for a “personal trip” with her family to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia a day before the scheduled start of her impeachment trial in the Senate.

Vice President Sara Duterte (MB File Photo)
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) confirmed Duterte’s travel.
“Vice President Sara Duterte is travelling to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on a personal trip with her family,” the statement read, adding that she is scheduled to attend the Independence Day celebration on June 12.
She will also attend an OVP program consultation with overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on the same day.
The OVP did not confirm if Duterte left the country on Tuesday, June 10, ahead of the June 11 start of impeachment proceedings in the Senate.
The senator-judges are scheduled to convene as an impeachment court on Wednesday after Senate President Francis Escudero took his oath as presiding officer of the Senate impeachment court after a tense exchange among pro-Duterte and pro-impeachment allies last June 9.
The rest of the senator-judges are expected to take their oath on Tuesday during the afternoon plenary session.
Duterte is facing seven Articles of Impeachment, which included threats to the life of the First Couple and Speaker Martin Romualdez, citing to sedition, loss of public trust, and misuse of public funds.
She was impeached on Feb. 5 by the House of Representatives, with the Articles of Impeachment transmitted to the Senate on the same day.
Escudero, however, did not call for a special session to convene as an impeachment court over the break, but was forced by the Senate minority bloc on Monday to take his oath and trigger the start of the impeachment proceedings on June 11.