Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte has threatened to have President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the first lady, and the speaker of the House of Representatives assassinated if she herself is killed amid growing tension between them.
The southeast Asian country’s Presidential Security Command (PSC) responded by swiftly beefing up security around Marcos (often referred to by the initials BBM) due to the “active threat” on his life, the Associated Press reported.
In a statement Saturday, PSC officials said they have “heightened and strengthened its security protocols” and are “closely coordinating with law enforcement agencies to detect, deter, and defend against any and all threats to the President and the First Family.”
Duterte, the daughter of BBM’s predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, made the threats, which she claimed were “no joke,” during an online press conference around midnight local time on Saturday:
Reacting to a decision by lawmakers allied with BBM and his cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, to detain her chief of staff, Duterte implied that there was a plot on her own life.
When someone asked the vice president about her own security concerns, Duterte said, “Don’t worry about my security because I’ve talked with somebody. I said, ‘If I’m killed, you’ll kill BBM, Liza Araneta and Martin Romualdez.'”
“No joke, no joke,” Duterte continued. “I’ve given my order, ‘If I die, don’t stop until you’ve killed them.’ And he said, ‘Yes.'”
Duterte’s chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, was recently detained by law enforcement for allegedly hindering a congressional probe into allegations that Duterte misused taxpayer funds.
In their statement, PSC officials said that “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,” officials added.
Gen. Romeo Brawner, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), stated that the military will “remain nonpartisan” and “loyal to the Constitution and the Chain of Command”:
“We call for calm and resolve, and for everyone to hold onto our values of respect and nationalism that will guide us in these trying times,” Brawner said. “We reiterate our need to stand together against those who will try to break our bonds as Filipinos.”
Despite running with BBM to win in a landslide victory in 2022 and joining his cabinet as education secretary and head of an anti-insurgency body, the relationship between the president and Duterte has soured over “key differences,” according to the AP.
The outlet stated that one of their major disputes has been “their approaches to China’s aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea,” prompting Duterte to resign from her cabinet positions in June.
The vice president’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, has also been highly critical of his successor, calling him a “drug addict” and accusing him of seeking dictatorial power. The former president has expressed that he wants his home island of Mindanao to secede from the rest of the Philippines under President BBM.
Rodrigo Duterte is also currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegedly authorizing extrajudicial killings in a crackdown of thousands of “mostly petty drug suspects” during his tenure, the AP reported.