Vice President Sara Duterte clarified that her recent remark about the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez was not a threat but simply a hypothetical statement motivated by fears over her personal security.
“I don’t think the volume was low during the Zoom press conference. I said, ‘if I die.’ This means, in the first place, there is a threat against me. But they simply do not care that I am also concerned about my security because I hear things,” Duterte explained in a mix of English and Tagalog on Sunday.
Duterte referenced a previous press conference, where she mentioned exhuming the body of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and throwing it into the West Philippine Sea. She argued that simply discussing an idea in public does not equate to acting on it.
The Vice President delivered her latest verbal attacks against the President, his wife and cousin in a hastily called virtual press con at 1:00 a.m. on November 23, as she tried to defy the House of Representatives’ order to transfer her detained chief of staff Zuleika Lopez to a correctional facility.
“It’s as if they are guarding a criminal. Look… they were wasting 300 personnel to search for an individual. They’re wasting so much manpower here just to watch over a person, who was only cited for contempt,” Duterte said.
Lopez was held under House custody after lawmakers at the recent House Blue Ribbon committee hearing called her out for asking the Commission on Audit (COA) to deny copies of its initial audit findings of fund utilization by the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
Enraged by the turn of events, Duterte camped out at the office of her brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, to support Lopez. The Vice President was later filmed comforting Lopez when she exhibited signs of panic attack that sent her to the hospital.
“I was trying to contain myself because I just wanted to work. All I want was for you to end your [expletive] show in the House of Representatives, so we can go back to our jobs,” Duterte said, addressing lawmakers involved in the ongoing probe.
The Vice President later expressed her thoughts about assassinating her former allies turned political opponents. “I already talked to someone. I told this person, when I get killed, kill BBM, Liza Araneta, and Martin Romualdez. No joke,” she said.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) labeled Duterte’s statements as an “active threat” and referred the matter to the Presidential Security Command (PSC) for action.
“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. We consider this a matter of national security and shall take all necessary measures to ensure the President’s safety,” the PSC stated.
National Security Adviser Eduardo Año echoed the PSC’s stance, pledging to investigate the threat’s nature, potential perpetrators, and underlying motives.
“We underscore that the safety of the President is a non-partisan issue, and we stand united in our commitment to upholding the integrity of the office and the democratic institutions that govern our great nation,” Año said.
