Philippine vice president expects to be ‘bloodied but unbowed’ by impeachment trial

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, who is being tried by an impeachment court on charges that include threatening the president, said Tuesday that she expected to be “bloodied but unbowed” by the public trial.

Duterte, who has declared her aim to succeed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in mid-2028, was impeached by the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Marcos’ allies, in May. The 48-year-old lawyer and politician has dismissed the charges against her as political persecution.

Her televised trial by the 24-member Senate, which acts as an impeachment court, started Monday.

On Tuesday it took up the first of four main charges, which accused Duterte of threatening in an online news conference in November 2024 to have Marcos, his wife and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez killed by an unidentified person if she herself were killed as their disputes escalated.

A video presented as evidence showed the vice president uttering the threat and stressing that she was not making a joke and that the person she asked to undertake the killings agreed to her plan.

In another video shown during the trial, the vice president said she wanted to cut off the president’s head.

“In this bloodbath and bludgeoning, I will be bloodied but unbowed,” Duterte said in a news conference Tuesday at the Senate, where she briefly showed up in casual clothes and rubber shoes to meet her lawyers. She left before the trial resumed.

She refused to take any questions from the media, but in the past, she has denied all the allegations, which include amassing unexplained wealth, misusing confidential funds, corruption, committing bribery and inciting to sedition without providing specific details.

Duterte and Marcos were running mates in the 2022 elections in a whirlwind alliance that combined the vote-getting power of two of the country’s most formidable political dynasties, but the union rapidly fell apart.

Duterte’s supporters have accused Marcos and his key aides of politically persecuting her and her senatorial allies to ensure her impeachment and block her planned presidential run.

Meanwhile three senators who support Duterte have been sidelined by other developments.

Two senators have been arrested and detained recently for alleged large-scale corruption and a third went into hiding after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest as a co-conspirator of former President Rodrigo Duterte, the vice president’s father, for alleged crimes against humanity.

The charges stem from the killings of thousands of mostly poor suspects in anti-drugs crackdowns ordered by the former president between 2011 and 2019. Rodrigo Duterte, who is detained by the ICC in The Hague, will face trial on Nov. 30.

Justice officials and state prosecutors said the legal troubles of the three senators were based on strong evidence, unrelated to the vice president’s impeachment trial.

Sara Duterte blames Marcos, her father’s successor as president, for his arrest last year and his handover to the ICC.

Two-thirds of the 24-member Senate, or 16 votes, are needed to convict the vice president.

A conviction would be a lethal blow to her declared plan to seek the presidency.

Even if she’s acquitted, Duterte could still face criminal charges similar to the impeachment charges, including large-scale corruption, which were being investigated by anti-graft prosecutors.