The camp of Vice President Sara Duterte clarified Monday that her recent use of the word “bloodbath” referred to her own suffering during the impeachment proceedings and not to anyone else.
Defense spokesperson Michael Poa said Duterte was referring to the personal toll the impeachment trial would have on her.
“What she meant was her own blood. She is the subject of these impeachment proceedings,” Poa said during a press briefing.
He added that Duterte had already clarified the statement when she briefly appeared at the Senate before the second day of her impeachment trial to meet with her defense team.
During that appearance, Duterte told reporters, “In this bloodbath and bludgeoning, I will be bloodied but unbowed,” a line adapted from the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley.
Poa said the vice president’s remarks referred to the hardship she expects to endure during the impeachment proceedings rather than to violence against others.
