De Lima: No ‘bloodbath’ except Sara’s

Congresswoman-elect Leila de Lima, expected to join the prosecution team in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, denounced Duterte’s insinuation that the proceedings would turn into a “bloodbath.”

“In an impeachment trial, the only one on trial is the person impeached. So there can be no bloodbath,” De Lima said in a Facebook post. “If any blood is spilled, it can only be that of the person impeached — not the prosecutors’, not the senator-judges’, not the administration’s, not the people’s. We will make sure of that.”

Her remarks were in response to Duterte’s weekend statement that, despite her lawyers’ objections, she wanted the trial to proceed because she “really want[ed] a bloodbath.”

Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives on 5 February, and is expected to face trial in the Senate impeachment court in July, when the 20th Congress convenes.

De Lima, a longtime critic of Duterte’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, called the vice president’s rhetoric “mindless arrogance” and “toxic,” saying it was consistent with the family’s combative stance against critics.

She emphasized that the trial is not “a show of brute force but a sacrosanct constitutional process of accountability,” and warned there is “no room for chaos, drama and theatrics.”

De Lima, the first nominee of the Mamayang Liberal (ML) Partylist, will join the 11-member prosecution panel alongside Chel Diokno of Akbayan. Both will replace prosecutors who lost their reelection bids. ML and Akbayan are expected to be proclaimed today by the Commission on Elections.

Duterte faces charges including graft, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and high crimes. The complaint alleges she plotted to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez, and misused P612.5 million in confidential funds. She has denied all allegations.

Conviction requires at least 16 Senate votes.

De Lima maintained that she has no axe to grind against the Dutertes despite being in jail over drug charges filed against her during the Rodrigo Duterte presidency.

One of her three drug charges was remanded by the Court of Appeals to the Munlupa court which acquitted her. The appellate court voided the acquittal, saying the trial court erred and displayed grave abuse of discretion.