Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte pushed back on July 25 against the way a recorded statement of his has been used in the ongoing Senate impeachment trial of his sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, arguing that those replaying the clip have distorted what he meant.
“They always take it out of context. They’re the corniest people,” the mayor said.
At issue is a line he delivered earlier at a rally: “Isang ulo lang ang kailangan namin: Ang ulo ni Bongbong Marcos.” The footage surfaced again on July 21, when House prosecutors played it before the impeachment court to bolster their claim that a pattern of hostility toward President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. runs through the Duterte camp.
National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag told the court that day that agency analysts had set the mayor’s words alongside statements previously made by the vice president and concluded the two echoed each other. He described what the bureau saw as an ongoing danger to the President’s safety, and said the rally broadcast factored into the creation of a special NBI task force established under Administrative Order No. 11 to look into threats against the chief executive.
The comparison Matibag drew reached back to an October 18, 2024 press conference, during which the vice president spoke of removing Marcos’s head and described picturing herself carrying out the act. Prosecutors have leaned on that footage as they build Article IV of the impeachment articles.
The mayor’s rally line and his sister’s earlier remarks have circulated widely as standalone clips, detached from the settings in which they were spoken — a framing the mayor now rejects as deliberately misleading.
Sara Duterte’s defense is being handled by a team drawn from the Fortun Narvasa & Salazar firm, with senior partners Philip Sigfrid Fortun and Gregorio Narvasa II leading and Atty. Michael Poa acting as spokesperson for the panel.
