MANILA (Philippines Daily Inquirer/ANN): Former senator Leila de Lima on Sunday criticised Vice President Sara Duterte for  saying that she wants a “bloodbath” in her looming impeachment trial.

De Lima was invited to be part of the panel of prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Duterte. She is also projected to have a seat in the 20th Congress as first nominee of Mamamayang Liberal (ML) party-list.

The vice president made the remark in an interview in Davao City on Saturday, adding that her legal team’s preparations were at “full throttle’ even though they did not want the trial by the Senate to proceed.

“But I told them that I truly want a trial because I want a bloodbath,” Duterte said.

In a social media post, de Lima slammed Duterte’s statement by pointing out 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. We will make sure of that,” she also said.

De Lima further said that Duterte is “always welcome to witness how her trial will be a serious affair where her rights are respected and the proceedings fair, devoid of the drama and chaos that she is asking her defense team to orchestrate.”

he former senator also stressed that an impeachment trial is not a show of brute force; rather, it is a “sacrosanct constitutional process of accountability.”

She further said that it has no room for chaos, drama, and theatrics that Duterte allegedly asked her defence team to orchestrate. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN