Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte skipped the second day of her impeachment trial this Tuesday, choosing instead to meet with her legal team at the Senate. Addressing the situation briefly before declining further press questions, she characterized the ongoing proceedings as a "bloodbath." Referencing the classic William Ernest Henley poem Invictus, Duterte declared herself "bloodied but unbowed," mirroring the defiant rhetoric her family has frequently employed during recent legal challenges, including those involving her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The primary focus of the prosecution’s case centers on a series of aggressive statements Duterte made regarding President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. Prosecutors highlighted a November 2024 outburst in which the Vice President claimed she had instructed an assassin to target the trio should any harm come to her. These comments, coupled with previous graphic remarks about beheading the President and desecrating the remains of the Marcos patriarch, have been categorized by the government as an "active threat." While Duterte later dismissed her words as a conditional strategy for revenge rather than a genuine plan, prosecutors maintain that her behavior constitutes a betrayal of public trust and an incitement to sedition, pressing for a guilty verdict based on her own recorded admissions.