Philippine VP says he hired assassin to kill president if he is killed – National
The vice president of the Philippines said he ordered an assassin to kill the president if he was killed.
In a dramatic sign of the growing rift between two powerful political families in the Southeast Asian country, Vice President Sara Duterte told a press conference that she spoke with an assassin and ordered him to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife and his entourage. The Speaker of the Philippine House if he is to be killed.
“I have spoken to someone. I said, if I am killed, go kill BBM (Marcos), (first lady) Liza Araneta, and (Speaker) Martin Romualdez. No joke. There is no joke,” Duterte said in a speech full of insults. “I said, don’t stop until you kill them, and he said yes.”
Security agencies have added security policies in response.
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.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. heard during the 19th East Asia Summit in Vientiane, Laos, on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit).
The Presidential Security Command said it has increased and strengthened security regulations. “We are also working closely with law enforcement agencies to detect, prevent, and protect against any threats against the president and the first family,” the statement said.
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Police Chief Rommel Francisco Marbil said he has ordered an immediate investigation, adding that “any direct or indirect threat to his life must be dealt with with great urgency.”
The Presidential Communications Office said any threat to the President’s life should always be taken seriously.
Duterte’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the statements.
The Vice President’s strong comments are unlikely to win him political support, said University of the Philippines political scientist Jean Encinas-Franco. “If anything, this kind of talk brings him even closer to what his father’s fans loved about him.”
The daughter of Marcos’ predecessor as president, Duterte resigned from the Marcos cabinet in June while remaining vice president, signaling the collapse of a formidable political alliance that helped her and Marcos, the late leader’s son and namesake, secure victory in the 2022 elections. by wide 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.
