House Deputy Majority Leader Iloilo 3rd district Rep. Lorenz Defensor would rather have a "winner-take-all" mindset on Vice President Sara Duterte's Senate impeachment trial, rather than a "bloodbath".
Defensor is one the 11 solon-prosecutors in the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of the controversial lady official.
“Maganda sigurong sabihin natin na ‘winner takes it all’ ang impeachment trial na ito. Hindi kailangan maging bloodbath. Gusto natin malinaw lang ang pagkakalatag ng ebidensya ng prosecution at ng defense teams,” Defensor said.
(It might be good to say that this impeachment trial is a 'winner takes it all' scenario. There's no need for a bloodbath. We just want the evidence presented by the prosecution and defense teams to be clear.)
Earlier, Vice President Duterte said she told her legal team to prepare already. She told them she wanted a "bloodbath".
Asked about Duterte’s assertion that the House prosecution team has no solid evidence against her, Defensor said they were confident in the strength of its case.
“Confident kami, kaya sinasabi ko na instead of a bloodbath, gusto namin winner takes all (that's why I'm saying instead of a bloodbath, let's make it winner takes all),” Defensor reiterated.
The Iloilo solon explained that impeachment trials do not follow the strict evidentiary standards of criminal or civil cases. Instead, senator-judges must rely on their conscience and judgment in weighing the evidence presented.
As for the pending petition filed by Duterte’s camp before the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the trial, Defensor maintained that the high tribunal should steer clear of the impeachment process unless there is a clear abuse of discretion by Congress.
“Abangan natin kung sa palagay ng [SC] ay may grave abuse of discretion… pero I am confident na ang ating Korte Suprema will respect the separation of powers (Let's wait and see if the SC believes there has been grave abuse of discretion... but I am confident that our SC will respect the separation of powers),” he reiterated.
“Winner takes all tayo sa impeachment trial na ito para mas madaling tanggapin ang magiging resulta (Let’s make the impeachment a winner-take-all affair so that the result can be easier to accept),” he stressed.