Philippine VP publicly threatens to have president assassinated

Philippine security agencies stepped up safety protocols on Saturday after Vice President Sara Duterte said she would have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assassinated if she herself were killed.

In a dramatic sign of a widening rift between the two most powerful political families in the Southeast Asian nation, Duterte told an early morning press conference that she had spoken to an assassin and instructed him to kill Marcos, his wife, and the speaker of the Philippine House if she were to be killed.

"I have talked to a person. I said, if I get killed, go kill BBM (Marcos), (first lady) Liza Araneta, and (Speaker) Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke," Duterte said in the profanity-laden briefing. "I said, do not stop until you kill them, and then he said yes."

She was responding to an online commenter urging her to stay safe, saying she was in enemy territory as she was at the lower chamber of Congress overnight with her chief of staff. Duterte did not cite any alleged threat against herself.

The Presidential Security Command said it had heightened and strengthened security protocols. "We are also closely coordinating with law enforcement agencies to detect, deter, and defend against any and all threats to the president and the first family," it said in a statement.

Police Chief Rommel Francisco Marbil said he had ordered an immediate investigation, adding that "any direct or indirect threat to his life must be addressed with the highest level of urgency".

The Presidential Communications Office said any threat to the life of the President must always be taken seriously.

Duterte's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the statements.

Her strong comments probably will not dent her political support, said Jean Encinas-Franco, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines. "If anything, this type of rhetoric brings her even closer to what her father's supporters liked about him."

The daughter of Marcos' predecessor as president, Duterte resigned from the Marcos cabinet in June while remaining vice president, signalling the collapse of a formidable political alliance that helped her and Marcos, son and namesake of the late authoritarian leader, secure their 2022 electoral victories by wide margins.

Speaker Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos, has slashed the vice presidential office's budget by nearly two-thirds.

Duterte's outburst is the latest in a series of startling signs of the feud at the top of Philippine politics. In October, she accused Marcos of incompetence and said she had imagined cutting the president's head off.

The two families are at odds over foreign policy and former President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs, among others.

In the Philippines, the vice president is elected separately from the president and has no official duties. Many vice presidents have pursued social development activities, while some have been appointed to cabinet posts.

The nation is gearing up for mid-term elections in May, seen as a litmus test of Marcos' popularity and a chance for him to consolidate power and groom a successor before his single six-year term ends in 2028.

Past political violence in the Philippines has included the assassination of Benigno Aquino, a senator who staunchly opposed the rule of the elder Marcos, as he exited his plane upon arrival home from political exile in 1983.