DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/May 19) — Responding to Vice President Sara Duterte’s statement that she wanted her impeachment trial to proceed “because I really want a bloodbath,” former senator Leila de Lima cautioned that the process is not a “show of brute force.”
De Lima, who has been added to the House prosecution team after her election as representative of Mamamayang Liberal party-list, posted her response on Facebook on Sunday night.
“To stress, an impeachment trial is not a show of brute force but a sacrosanct constitutional process of accountability. No room for chaos, drama, and theatrics that Sara asked her defense team to orchestrate,” she said.
Duterte declared in an interview with reporters Saturday morning that while her lawyers would try to avoid a trial by using legal options, she personally told them she wants it to happen.
De Lima said that in an impeachment trial, “the only one who is on trial is the person impeached. So there can be no bloodbath.”
“If any blood is spilled, it can only be that of the person impeached, not the prosecutors’, not the senators-judges’, not the administration’s, not the people’s,” she added.
Asked about de Lima’s and Akbayan party-list representative-elect Chel Diokno’s acceptance to be prosecutors at her impeachment trial, Duterte said it was “understandable” as they have been anti-Duterte “since birth.”
In the same interview, Duterte said she was impeached due to the possibility of her running in the 2028 presidential elections.
“This is… the impeachment is a glorified disqualification case against me. Kasi hindi rin naman nila ako tinanong kung tatakbo ka ba talaga ng President o hindi (It’s because they didn’t ask me if I’m really running as President or not,” she said, adding she could answer that question by December 2026.
Duterte’s first impeachment complaint, filed by Akbayan Rep. Perci Cendaña, accuses Duterte of betrayal of public trust for allegedly failing to properly account for ₱125 million in confidential funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President in 2022, and not liquidating cash advances amounting to ₱7 billion during her tenure as Education secretary.
A second complaint, submitted by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, also charges her with betrayal of public trust, focusing on the alleged misuse of confidential funds.
The third complaint, filed by a group of Catholic priests, civil society leaders, and lawyers, alleges plunder, malversation, bribery, and graft and corruption in relation to the ₱125 million in confidential funds for the OVP in 2022 and ₱112.5 million in 2023 for the Department of Education.
The fourth complaint, signed by 215 members of the House of Representatives, alleges misuse of confidential funds, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Duterte is the first vice president and the fourth impeachable official to be impeached since former President Joseph Estrada in 2000. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)
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