You’ll Also Be Killed If I am, Philippine Vice President tells her boss, wife and House Speaker

Vice President of the Philippine, Sara Duterte, said on Saturday that she has made arrangements for the killing of the President, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, his wife, Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Martin Romualdez, if she herself is killed.

Duterte made the threat while speaking in a pre-dawn online news conference during which she accused the president and his allies of corruption, incompetence and persecution of her family and friends. She warned that the threat was not a joke. 

Asked about concerns over her security after her counsel suggested that there is a possibility of an unspecified plot to kill her, Duterte, 46, thundered,

“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.”

“I’ve given my order, ‘If I die, don’t stop until you’ve killed them.’ And he said, ’yes,” she added.

Meanwhile, Duterte’s threat is not being taken lightly as the Executive Secretary, Lucas Bersamin, referred to it as an “active threat” against President Ferdinand, adding that the Presidential Guard must act on without any delay.

Bersamin’s statement is contained in a government statement which described the statement by the Vice President as “clear and unequivocal”, advising that any such threat must be taken seriously without stating how.

“Acting on the vice president’s clear and unequivocal statement that she had contracted an assassin to kill the president if an alleged plot against her succeeds, the Executive Secretary has referred this active threat to the Presidential Security Command for immediate proper action.

“Any threat to the life of the president must always be taken seriously, more so that this threat has been publicly revealed in clear and certain terms,” the statement by the government said.

Duterte won the Presidential election with Marcos in May 2022 . However, both leaders and their different camps fell out following a bitter dispute over major differences, one of which was their approaches to China’s aggressive posture against the Philippines over the disputed South Sea.

Following the disagreement, the Vice President resigned from the country’s cabinet in June where she held the office of Education and head of an anti-insurgency group.

Duterte’s outburst is said to have been triggered by the decision of House members allied with Romualdez and Marcos to detain her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, accused of hampering a congressional inquiry into the possibility that the Vice President misused her budget both as second in command and as education secretary.

Although Lopez was later transferred to a hospital after falling ill, she wept after allegedly hearing of a plan to temporarily lock her up in a women’s prison.

Under the Philippino Penal Code, a public remark of the magnitude made by Duterte constitutes is a crime that is punishable by a jail term and fine.