De Lima fires back at Duterte over ‘bloodbath’ impeachment remark

National

REPRESENTATIVE-elect and former Senator Leila de Lima on Sunday criticized Vice President Sara Duterte’s call for a “bloodbath” in her upcoming impeachment trial.

“Dyan naman sila magaling eh: braggadocio, mindless arrogance, toxic rhetoric, violence,” De Lima said in a Facebook post on Monday, May 18.

De Lima’s remark came a day after the Vice President expressed her desire for the impeachment trial to push through despite her legal team’s efforts to block the proceedings.

“I truly want a trial because I want a bloodbath,” Duterte said.

She added that her lawyers were preparing for the trial “in full throttle.”

De Lima rebuked Duterte’s remarks, asserting that the Vice President misunderstands the nature of an impeachment trial.

“In an impeachment trial, the only one who is on trial is the person impeached. So there can be no bloodbath,” De Lima said in an Inquirer.net report.

“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. We will make sure of that.”

She added that the proceedings would go forward without the “drama and chaos” Duterte appears to expect from her defense team.

“VP Sara is always welcome to witness how her trial will be a serious affair where her rights are respected and the proceedings fair,” De Lima said.

“An impeachment trial is not a show of brute force but a sacrosanct constitutional process of accountability,” she further stressed.

De Lima, the first nominee of the Mamamayan Liberal (ML) Partylist and a projected member of the 20th Congress, will be part of the panel of prosecutors in Duterte’s trial.

Duterte said that it was unsurprising that De Lima would accept the prosecution role, being “very vocal anti-Duterte since birth.”

The impeachment trial is set to begin in July.

Duterte said that whether acquitted or convicted, she is “at peace” about its outcome.

A conviction would require a two-thirds vote — at least 16 out of 24 senators — and would result in Duterte being permanently disqualified from holding public office.(John Ryan Ledesma, CTU-TC Intern)