Philippines' Marcos vows to fight back after estranged VP's assassination threat

By Mikhail Flores

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos vowed on Monday to fight back against what he called reckless and troubling threats against him, speaking out after his estranged vice president said he would be assassinated if she herself were killed.

In a strongly-worded video message addressing the nation, Marcos did not name Vice President Sara Duterte, his presidential running mate, but said "such criminal plans should not be overlooked".

In a dramatic twist in the fierce spat between Marcos and the powerful Duterte family, the daughter of firebrand former President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday she had instructed an assassin to kill Marcos, his wife and the lower house speaker, in the event that she were killed.

She was responding to a question during an online press conference about whether she feared for her safety. She did not cite any specific threat against her.

"The statements we heard in the previous days were troubling," Marcos said on Monday. "There is the reckless use of profanities and threats to kill some of us."

"I will fight them," he said, adding he would not allow such criminal attempts to pass.

"If planning the assassination of the president is that easy, how much more for ordinary citizens?" he said.

Sara Duterte told reporters she had yet to hear the president's statement but she recalled the 1983 assassination of former Senator Benigno Aquino, which she blamed on the Marcos family, without giving proof.

Aquino, a staunch critic of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, the current president's father, was gunned down on the Manila airport tarmac on his return from years-long exile. His killing helped propel the 1986 People Power revolution that ousted the elder Marcos.

"The whole nation fought back when their family killed Benigno Aquino Jr.," Duterte told reporters. The elder Marcos denied involvement in Aquino's killing.

DUTERTES UNDER SCRUTINY

Sara Duterte's stunning remarks were the latest salvo in an bitter row that has intensified since the collapse of a formidable alliance between their two powerful families in which the younger Marcos won the 2022 election by a huge margin.

She quit her cabinet post in June and has battled legislative scrutiny of her spending while in office, at times responding with open hostility to lawmakers and failing to show up for some proceedings.

Her threat to have Marcos killed stemmed from an order by lawmakers to transfer her chief-of-staff to a jail for allegedly impeding its inquiry into the vice president's alleged misuse of public funds, accusations she denies.

According to a senior justice department official, the vice president does not have immunity from prosecution and she would be summoned to appear at National Bureau of Investigation over the threats she made. Duterte said she would comply.

"This is a serious threat, a very, very bad precedent for our country if we will not take legal action on these kinds of threat coming from a very high ranking official," Justice Undersecretary Jesse Hermogenes Andres told a press conference.

"The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind will now face legal consequences," Andres said, adding Duterte would obviously benefit if Marcos is harmed because she is next in line to take over the presidency.

Echoing the president's concerns, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said Duterte's statement was "reckless" and "dangerous."

"It sends a chilling message to our people, a message that violence can be contemplated by those in positions of power," Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos, said in a speech at a plenary session.

In a statement on Monday, the National Security Council reiterated that the safety of the president is a "non-partisan or non-political concern."

Marcos said it was vital for the interests of good governance that elected officials not impede the work of legislators, adding: "We will not have reached this drama if legitimate questions by Congress were answered."

Sara Duterte's attack on Marcos came just weeks after the mercurial Rodrigo Duterte was the subject of marathon enquiries in the house and Senate into thousands of killings during the notorious "war on drugs" that defined his 2016-2022 presidency.

During those hearings, the Marcos administration for the first time signalled it would cooperate with any international effort to arrest the ex-president, who is under International Criminal Court investigation for possible crimes against humanity.

Rodrigo Duterte told the hearings he was solely responsible for the bloody crackdown and has urged the ICC to "hurry up" with its investigation.