The Philippine vice president Duterte has made a public threat to have the president assassinated, raising political tensions.
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte revealed on Saturday that she had hired an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she were to be assassinated.
In her statement, she warned that her threat was “not a joke.”
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin classified the remarks as an “active threat” against the president and referred the matter to the Presidential Security Command for immediate action.
“Acting on the vice president’s clear and unequivocal statement that she had contracted an assassin to kill the president if an alleged plot against her succeeds, the Executive Secretary has referred this active threat to the Presidential Security Command for immediate proper action,” a government statement said.
“Any threat to the life of the president must always be taken seriously, more so that this threat has been publicly revealed in clear and certain terms,” the statement added.
Duterte and Marcos, who ran on a joint ticket during the May 2022 elections and won by landslide margins, have since experienced a significant falling-out. Their differences include conflicting approaches to China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea. Duterte resigned from her Cabinet posts as education secretary and head of an anti-insurgency body in June, further escalating tensions between the two leaders.
Like her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, the vice president has become a vocal critic of Marcos, his wife, and Speaker Romualdez. She has accused them of corruption, incompetence, and political persecution against her family and close allies.
