Philippine vice president says she would have Marcos assassinated if she is killed

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said on Saturday she would have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assassinated if she herself were killed, prompting Marcos’ office to vow “immediate proper action.”

In a dramatic sign of a widening rift between the two most powerful political families in the Southeast Asian nation, Duterte told an early morning press conference that she had spoken to an assassin and instructed him to kill Marcos, his wife and the speaker of the Philippine House if she were to be killed.

“I have talked to a person. I said, if I get killed, go kill BBM (Marcos), (first lady) Liza Araneta, and (Speaker) Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke,” Duterte said in the profanity-laden briefing. “I said, do not stop until you kill them and then he said yes.”

She was responding to an online commenter urging her to stay safe, saying she was in enemy territory as she was at the lower chamber of Congress overnight with her chief of staff. Duterte did not cite any alleged threat against herself.

“This country is going to hell because we are led by a person who doesn’t know how to be a president and who is a liar,” she said in the briefing.

On Sunday, a top official said the Philippines’ security council will verify the alleged assassination threat by Duterte, describing it as a “matter of national security.”

National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said the government considers all threats to the president as “serious,” vowing to closely work with law enforcement and intelligence communities to investigate the threat and possible perpetrators.

“Any and all threats against the life of the president shall be validated and considered a matter of national security,” Ano said in a statement.

In response to Duterte’s threat, Marcos’ presidential security command said it had tightened its protocols in guarding the Philippine leader and the national police chief had ordered an investigation.

Duterte and Marcos were once political partners who won an overwhelming mandate to lead the nation’s top two offices in 2022. The alliance crumbled this year over policy differences, including foreign policy and former President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

Duterte, the daughter of Marcos’ predecessor, resigned from the cabinet in June while remaining vice president, signaling the collapse of a formidable political alliance that helped her and Marcos, son and namesake of the late authoritarian leader, secure their 2022 electoral victories by wide margins.

Speaker Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos, has slashed the vice presidential office’s budget by nearly two-thirds.

Duterte’s outburst is the latest in a series of startling signs of the feud at the top of Philippine politics. In October, she accused Marcos of incompetence and said she had imagined cutting the president’s head off.

Marcos’ congressional allies are separately investigating the elder Duterte’s war against drugs that led to more than 6,000 killed in anti-drug operations and alleged corruption over the younger Duterte’s use of public funds during her tenure as education secretary. Both have denied wrongdoing.

In the Philippines, the vice president is elected separately from the president and has no official duties. Many vice presidents have pursued social development activities, while some have been appointed to cabinet posts.

The nation is gearing up for mid-term elections in May, seen as a litmus test of Marcos’ popularity and a chance for him to consolidate power and groom a successor before his single 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 rule the elder Marcos, as he exited his plane upon arrival home from political exile in 1983.

This story has been updated with additional information.