Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has vowed to fight back against what he called reckless and troubling threats against him, speaking out after his estranged vice-president said he would be assassinated if she herself were killed.
In a strongly-worded video message addressing the nation on Monday, Mr Marcos did not name Vice-President Sara Duterte, his presidential running mate, but said, "such criminal plans should not be overlooked".
Ms Duterte, the daughter of firebrand former president Rodrigo Duterte, told an online press conference on Saturday she had instructed an assassin to kill Mr Marcos, his wife, and the speaker of the Philippine lower house.
She made the remarks while responding to a question about whether she feared for her safety, without citing any specific threat against herself.
President Marcos said he would not allow such criminal attempts to pass.
"The statements we heard in the previous days were troubling," he said on Monday.
"There is the reckless use of profanities and threats to kill some of us.
"I will fight them … if planning the assassination of the president is that easy, how much more for ordinary citizens?"
Ms Duterte told reporters she had yet to hear the president's statement but recalled the 1983 assassination of former Senator Benigno Aquino, which she blamed on the Marcos family, without giving proof.
Aquino, a staunch critic of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, the current president's father, was gunned down on the Manila airport tarmac on his return from years-long exile.
His killing helped propel the 1986 People Power revolution that ousted the elder Marcos.
"The whole nation fought back when their family killed Benigno Aquino Jr.," Ms Duterte told reporters. The elder Marcos denied involvement in Aquino's killing.
Dutertes under scrutiny
Ms Duterte's comments were the latest salvo in a bitter row between her and Mr Marcos's powerful families that has intensified since the collapse of a formidable alliance that saw Mr Marcos, the son and namesake of the Philippines' late authoritarian leader, win the 2022 election by a huge margin.
She quit her cabinet post in June and has battled against legislative scrutiny of her spending while in office, at times responding with open hostility to members of Congress and failing to show up for some proceedings.
Her threat to have Mr Marcos killed stemmed from an order by members of Congress to transfer her chief-of-staff to a jail for allegedly impeding its probe over the vice-president's alleged misuse of public funds.
According to a senior justice department official, the vice-president does not have immunity from prosecution and she will be summoned to appear at the National Bureau of Investigation over the threats she made.
"This is a serious threat, a very, very bad precedent for our country if we will not take legal action on these kinds of threat coming from a very high-ranking official," Justice Undersecretary Jesse Hermogenes Andres told a press conference.
"The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind will now face legal consequences."
Echoing the president's concerns, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said the vice-president's statement was "reckless" and "dangerous".
"It sends a chilling message to our people, a message that violence can be contemplated by those in positions of power," Mr Romualdez said in a speech at a plenary session.
In a statement on Monday, the National Security Council reiterated the safety of the president is a "non-partisan or non-political concern".
Mr Marcos said it was vital for the interests of good governance that elected officials do not impede the work of legislators, adding "we will not have reached this drama if legitimate questions by Congress were answered".
Ms Duterte's attack on the president also comes just weeks after her mercurial father Rodrigo Duterte was the subject of marathon enquiries in the House of Representatives and Senate into thousands of killings during the notorious "war on drugs" that defined his 2016-2022 presidency.
During those hearings, the Marcos administration for the first time signalled it would cooperate with any international effort to arrest the former president, who is being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for possible crimes against humanity.
Mr Duterte told the hearings he was solely responsible for the bloody crackdown and has urged the ICC to "hurry up" on its probe.
Reuters
