Philippine VP says she would have Marcos assassinated if she were killed

MANILA: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. 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”.

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.”