Marcos Vows to fight Duterte assassination plot as he describes it as a criminal plot
Following the public threat issued by Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte, the President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has vowed to fight−the public threat which he described as a “Criminal Plot.”
In a statement issued on Monday, the president was heard accusing the vice president of planning to kill him by an assassin.
The face-off between the president and the vice president of the Philippines is not finding any place to rest room as the raging booms on.
On Saturday, Vice President Sara Duterte stated in an online news conference that she had hired an assassin to take out the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives is she was first killed, a threat which she eventually addressed it was a joke.
Following the vice president’s threat, the national police and Armed Forces of the country immediately spurred into action by tightening the security around the president, with the country’s Department of Justice said the vice president would be invited for questioning and investigation.
The country’s National Security Council it had considered the threat issued by the vice president as a security concern to the nation.
Duterte, who happens to be a lawyer, later wound back on her “threat” statement by saying her remark was not really a threat but a fear and an expression of concern about her own safety.
“Why would I kill him if not for revenge from the grave? There is no reason for me to kill him. What’s the benefit for me?” Duterte told journalists.
Reacting to the threat made by Duterte, Marcos said in a broadcast statement without referencing Duterte: “That criminal plot should not be allowed to pass. I’ll fight it!
“As a democratic country, we need to uphold the rule of law,” Marcos said.
The pair contested presidential election in May 2022 general elections, and recorded landslide victories on a campaign based on national unity. In the Philippine democratic process, the two position are separately contested for.
The two leaders, including their entourages, howbeit, immediately experience face-off over major differences; one of which was China’s forceful territorial claims around the refuted South China Sea.
Duterte stepped down as Education Secretary and Head of an Anti-Insurgency Body from Marcos Cabinet in June.
Yesterday, Monday, 25th November, 2024, Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres said while speaking during a news conference that Duterte would be summoned for investigation and questioning.
Andres went on to describe the vice president as the “self-confessed mastermind” of a “premeditated plot to assassinate the president.”
He noted that all government resources and law enforcement agencies would be deployed to name the alleged assassin and determine criminal accountability.
According to Andres. “We have to maintain order in a civilized society by adherence to the rule of law and we will apply the full strength and force of the law on this.”
Such public threat, under the Philippines Laws, may bring about a crime of threatening to inflict pains or wrong on someone or their family attracts a jail term and fine.
It is enshrined in the Philippines constitution that if a sitting president dies, incurs a life threatening disability, resigns or is impeached, constitutionally, the vice president will be sworn-in to serve in place of the president for the rest of his term.
Duterte indicated that she was prepared to face any investigators or an impeachment proposal in the congress, but also insisted that she would demand clarification on her allegations against the President and his cohorts.
“I will also not allow what they did to me to pass,” she told reporters.
Sara Duterte, the vice president, is the daughter of Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, whose police-induced anti-drug manhunt during his time as a city mayor, and eventually became the president, led to the deaths of thousands of petty drug suspects which has aroused the curiosity of the International Criminal Court, labelling the act as a possible crime against humanity.
Sara Duterte, likened to her vocal father, she had become an active critic of President Marcos, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos and the Speaker of the House of the Representatives Martin Romualdez−who is also a cousin to the president−alleging corruption, ineptitude in their administration, and politically trying Duterte family and its supporters.
In October, the vice president revealed to reporters that her relationship with the president had “become so toxic,” that she had one “imagined cutting his head.”
Reacting to the Duterte’s claim, Romualdez told the House of Representatives that Sara Duterte’s remarks are only a ploy to distract the general public from her alleged mismanagement of public funds which is under the investigation of the Congress.
Numerous lawmakers reiterated their confidence in the House Speaker and nailed Duterte’s remarks.
Her latest outburst was fuelled by the decision of the Congress members, faithful to Romualdez and Marcos, to arrest and remand Zuleika Lopez, Duterte’s chief of staff, who was accused of frustrating a parliamentary inquiry into the alleged arbitrary use of Duterte’s budget as vice president and education secretary.
Lopez now in hospital after feeling dejected and traumatised by the move by the Congress members to temporarily detain her in prison.
In her dusk’s online news conference on Saturday, infuriated Duterte alleged that president Marcos is incompetent as president and a liar with his wife and the speaker of the House, in an explosive remark.
As fears and concerns over her safety were brought fore, the forty-six-year-old Duterte proposed that there was a hidden ploy to assassinate her.
She said without referencing the president: “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,’” the vice president added.
Marcos Vows To Fight Duterte Assassination Plot
