Vice President Sara Duterte. - Photo: Philippine Daily Inquirer file
MANILA: Malacañang on Saturday (Nov 23) said it was taking “immediate proper action” against an “active threat” to the life of President Marcos after Vice President Sara Duterte (pic) said that she had contracted a hit man to assassinate him, his wife and Speaker Martin Romualdez should an alleged plot to kill her succeed.
Duterte disclosed her plan, which she said was “no joke,” in her profanity-laden rant during an online news conference that her supporters also participated in past midnight where she called the first couple and the Speaker corrupt and liars, fully rupturing the ties between her and the President after she resigned from his Cabinet in June.
“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, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin has referred this active threat to the Presidential Security Command (PSC) for immediate proper action,” the Presidential Communications Office said in a statement.
“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.”
Adjusting protocols
PSC chief Maj. Gen. Jesus Nelson Morales told the Inquirer that they were “adjusting [their] security protocols amidst the current security threats to ensure the security and safety of the President and his family.”
It was not the first time that Duterte expressed her desire to kill the President.
During a press conference last month, she said that she was once so angered at Marcos that she imagined herself decapitating him, gesturing with her hand slicing off his head.
It was when Marcos refused to give his watch to one graduating student, who asked for it as a graduation gift at a commencement rites they both attended.
The PSC said in a statement that it had “heightened and strengthened its security protocols” on Bersamin’s orders and said it would do everything to protect Marcos.
“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.
“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.”
‘Romanov’
Duterte detailed her plan in response to a question from one of her female supporters who asked her to confirm the existence of a so-called Operation Romanov, an alleged plot to “wipe out” the Duterte family, and what remedies were available to the Vice President to thwart it.
“Don’t worry, ma’am, about my security because I have spoken to a person. I told him that if I am killed, you kill BBM, Liza Araneta and Martin Romualdez. No Joke. No joke,” she said. “I left word, ma’am, that if I am killed, don’t you stop until you kill them. And then he said, ‘yes.’”
BBM is the popular nickname for Marcos.
Duterte spoke from inside the detention cell at the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City where her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, was being held on a contempt citation by the House committee on good government and public accountability for her alleged obstruction of its inquiry into the Vice President’s confidential funds.
Duterte rushed to the room from the office of her brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, after she learned that the committee had decided to move Lopez to the Correctional Institution for Women.
Transfer questioned
Lopez tearfully related her protest against the decision and questioned the timing of her transfer “in the dead of night” by nine House security officers and police.
“All I know is that I am not accused of any crime. I am just a person detained here for five days until the [next committee] hearing on Monday. I have been trying to cooperate to the very best of my ability,” an emotional Lopez told reporters.
“Was that the right thing to do? Don’t people have rights in this country? I don’t understand, I really don’t understand,” she said. “Is this what’s happening in our country now? They can just barge in and go to your room?”
Duterte, who was called by Lopez to serve as her lawyer, was furious over the move, cursing the President, his wife, Romualdez, the good government panel and its chair, Manila Rep. Joel Chua.
“They always say that we are disrespectful while they are the ones who are disrespectful to the Office of the Vice President. Whatever they’re doing to us, we’re just returning the favor,” Duterte said.
“This country is going to hell because we are led by a person who doesn’t know how to be a president and who is a liar,” she said, pointing out that the President lied when he made a campaign promise to bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilo.
Chua, whom she recalled telling her that he did not like what he was doing, referring to the committee investigation of her alleged misuse of confidential funds, did not escape her ire.
The rift between Duterte and the Romualdez-led House broke out last year after her closest ally in the chamber, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was ousted as deputy Speaker. Romualdez is a cousin of the President.
The House also removed her confidential funds for 2024. The House panel is now looking into how she spent P612.5 million in confidential funds from 2022 to 2023.
Duterte also accused the first lady of giving her “written instructions” to give “millions a month” in “white envelopes” to the Department of Education, referring to alleged bribes to education officials that were revealed during the early days of the committee’s probe.
Cheery posts
The first lady was apparently unruffled by Duterte’s threat if her cheery posts on Instagram were any indication, while the President’s social media accounts were unusually silent on Saturday.
On Saturday afternoon, Araneta-Marcos shared snapshots of the launch of two museums in Intramuros on Friday, and a bazaar featuring the best of Ilocano dishes and crafts.
In an earlier Instagram post also on Saturday, Araneta-Marcos was delighted by Meralco’s Liwanag Park at Plaza de Roma and the official opening of the Centro Turismo de Intramuros and Museo de Intramuros.
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas as we light up the Liwanag Park and open two incredible new attractions—Centro Turismo de Intramuros and Museo de Intramuros!” she said.
There is no Philippine law criminalising threats specifically against the president and members of his family.
The threat to assassinate or murder a person is punishable by 12 years to 20 years in prison. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
[- with a report from Inquirer Research]
