Why did the Philippine vice president threaten to assassinate her boss?
| Manila, Philippines
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said Nov. 23 she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife, and the House of Representatives speaker if she herself is killed, in a brazen public threat that she warned was not a joke.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin referred the 鈥渁ctive threat鈥� against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to an elite presidential guards force 鈥渇or immediate proper action.鈥� It was not immediately clear what actions would be taken against the vice president.
The Presidential Security Command boosted Mr. Marcos鈥� security and said it considered the vice president鈥檚 threat, which was 鈥渕ade so brazenly in public,鈥� a national security issue.
The presidential security force said it was 鈥渃oordinating with law enforcement agencies to detect, deter, and defend against any and all threats to the president and the first family.鈥�
Ms. Duterte, a lawyer, later tried to walk back her remarks and said they were not an actual threat but only an expression of concern over an unspecified threat to her own life.
鈥淚f I expressed the concern, they will say that鈥檚 a threat to the life of the president?鈥� she said.
鈥淲hy would I kill him if not for revenge from the grave? There is no reason for me to kill him. What鈥檚 the benefit for me?鈥� Ms. Duterte told journalists.
Under the Philippine penal code, such public remarks may constitute a crime of threatening to inflict a wrong on a person or his family and is punishable by a jail term and fine.
The Philippine Constitution says that if a president dies, sustains a permanent disability, is removed from office or resigns, the vice president takes over and serves the rest of the term.
Mr. Marcos ran with Ms. Duterte as his vice-presidential running mate in the May 2022 elections and both won with landslide victories on a campaign call of national unity.
The two leaders and their camps, however, rapidly had a bitter falling-out over key differences, including in their approaches to China鈥檚 aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea. Ms. Duterte resigned from the Marcos Cabinet in June as education secretary and head of an anti-insurgency body.
Like her equally outspoken father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, the vice president became a vocal critic of Mr. Marcos, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president鈥檚 ally and cousin, accusing them of corruption, incompetence, and politically persecuting the Duterte family and its close supporters.
Her latest tirade was set off by the decision by House members allied with Mr. Romualdez and Mr. Marcos to detain her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, who was accused of hampering a congressional inquiry into the possible misuse of her budget as vice president and education secretary. Ms. Lopez was later transferred to a hospital after falling ill and wept when she heard of a plan to temporarily lock her up in a women鈥檚 prison.
In a pre-dawn online news conference, an angry Sara Duterte accused Mr. Marcos of incompetence as a president and of being a liar, along with his wife and the House speaker in expletives-laden remarks.
When asked about concerns over her security, Ms. Duterte suggested there was an unspecified plot to kill her. 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry about my security because I鈥檝e talked with somebody. I said 鈥榠f I鈥檓 killed, you鈥檒l kill BBM, Liza Araneta, and Martin Romualdez. No joke, no joke,鈥欌�� the vice president said without elaborating and using the initials that many use to call the president.
鈥淚鈥檝e given my order, 鈥業f I die, don鈥檛 stop until you鈥檝e killed them.鈥� And he said, 鈥榶es,鈥欌�� the vice president said.
Amid the political divisions, military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner issued a statement with an assurance that the 160,000-member Armed Forces of the Philippines would remain nonpartisan 鈥渨ith utmost respect for our democratic institutions and civilian authority.鈥�
鈥淲e call for calm and resolve,鈥� Mr. Brawner said. 鈥淲e reiterate our need to stand together against those who will try to break our bonds as Filipinos.鈥�
The vice president is the daughter of Mr. Marcos鈥� predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, whose police-enforced anti-drugs crackdown when he was a city mayor and later as president left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead in killings that the International Criminal Court has been investigating as a possible crime against humanity.
The former president denied authorizing extrajudicial killings under his crackdown but has given conflicting statements. He told a public Philippine Senate inquiry last month that he had maintained a 鈥渄eath squad鈥� of gangsters to kill other criminals when he was mayor of southern Davao city.
The story was reported by The Associated Press.
