Written by Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said on Saturday she would kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr if he was killed, prompting Marcos' office to vow “immediate appropriate action”.
In a dramatic sign of the growing rift between two powerful political families in the Southeast Asian country, Duterte told a news conference this morning that he had spoken to a killer and ordered him to kill Marcos, his wife and the Philippine speaker. The house if he is going to be killed.
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“I talked to someone. I said, if I am killed, go kill BBM (Marcos), (first lady) Liza Araneta, and (Speaker) Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke,” Duterte said with an insult- full information. “I said don't kill them anymore and he said yes.”
He was responding to an online commenter urging him to stay safe, saying he was in enemy territory as he was in the lower chamber of Congress all night with his boss. Duterte did not reveal any of the alleged threats against him.
The Presidential Communications Office responded with a statement saying: “Following the Vice President's clear and unequivocal statement that he received an agreement to kill the President if the plot he is accused of succeeds, the Chief Secretary has conveyed this major threat to the President's security. Command for immediate appropriate action.
“Any threat to the President's life should always be taken seriously, more so that this threat is publicly revealed in clear words and in a certain way,” it said.
Duterte's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the presidential office's statement.
“This country will go to hell because we are led by a person who does not know how to be president and who is a liar,” he said at the forum.
Duterte, the daughter of Marcos' predecessor, resigned from the cabinet in June while serving as vice president, signaling the collapse of the political alliance that helped her and Marcos, the late leader's son and namesake, secure victory in the 2022 general election. margins.
Speaker Romualdez, who is a cousin of Marcos, cut the budget of the office of the vice president by almost two-thirds.
Duterte's outburst is the latest in a series of alarming signs of disunity at the top of Philippine politics. In October, he accused Marcos of not being able to do his job and said he thought he had cut off the president's head.
The two families are at odds over foreign policy and President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs, among other things.
In the Philippines, the vice president is elected separately from the president and has no official duties. Many vice presidents have gone on to develop community programs, while others have been appointed to Cabinet positions.
The nation is gearing up for mid-term elections in May, seen as a test of Marcos' popularity and an opportunity for him to consolidate power and groom a successor before his six-year term ends in 2028.
Past political violence in the Philippines has included the assassination of Benigno Aquino, a senator who staunchly opposed the old Marcos regime, as he exited his plane on his way home from political exile in 1983.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by William Mallard)
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