Philippines president slams vice president’s assassination plot

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Monday that he was taking seriously “deeply concerning” threats that had been made against him, days after his vice president said she had arranged for an assassin to kill Marcos if she were murdered.

In a video address, Marcos said that “there have been a slew of reckless profanities and threats, including plans to kill some of us.” He did not directly mention Vice President Sara Duterte.

“If it is so easy to threaten the life of a president, how much more for ordinary citizens?” he said. “Such criminal intent should never be tolerated. I will not take this sitting down.”

The president’s security was tightened Monday, two days after Duterte said in a virtual briefing that she had made arrangements for Marcos, his wife, Liza, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, who is the president’s cousin, to be murdered if she were killed. Duterte said Monday that her remarks had been “maliciously taken out of logical context.”

The Department of Justice said it would issue a subpoena against Duterte, saying Monday it would give her five days to explain herself before investigators.

“The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind will now face legal consequences,” Jesse Andres, undersecretary for the Justice Department, told reporters.

The Philippines is now bracing for a showdown between the Marcoses and the Dutertes. Duterte’s father, Rodrigo Duterte, was Marcos’ predecessor as president, and the Dutertes have been complaining publicly about the Marcoses for more than a year.

For a long time, Marcos remained largely silent about their remarks, including Sara Duterte’s threat last month to behead him. Analysts say the president’s address Monday was the clearest sign yet that he intends to confront the threats from the Dutertes directly.

Duterte made her latest remarks after her chief of staff was detained for contempt of the House of Representatives. The aide, Zuleika Lopez, said she had signed a letter asking state auditors not to comply with a subpoena from the House appropriations panel concerning the alleged misuse of funds by Duterte. The vice president was particularly incensed that Lopez was sent to prison.

“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,” Duterte said. Then, using a Filipino vulgarity, she mentioned “Martin Romualdez, Liza Marcos, Bongbong Marcos.”

“I’ve already spoken to someone, so don’t worry about my security,” she said. “I told that person to kill BBM, Liza Araneta and Martin Romualdez if I were to be slain,” she added, referring to Marcos by the initials of his nickname. She said she had told a hit man: “After I die, don’t stop until you’ve killed them all.”

When Marcos and Duterte were elected in 2022, the two promised national unity. The alliance of their powerful political dynasties was supposed to be formidable: The Dutertes’ stronghold is in the south of the Philippines, and the Marcoses hold sway in the north.

The marriage of convenience did not last long.

After Duterte’s speech, the National Security Council said it considered all threats to Marcos a matter of national security. And the presidential security group said “any threat to the life of the president and the first family, regardless of its origin — and especially one made so brazenly in public — is treated with the utmost seriousness.”

The chief of staff of the Philippine military, Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., said the military would remain neutral, but he reminded soldiers that they should not be shaken by recent political events and should remain loyal to the constitution.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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