DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 23 November) – Vice President Sara Duterte said that she has contracted someone to assassinate President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she gets killed.
Duterte said this after the House of Representatives ordered the transfer of her chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, from its detention facility to the Correctional Institution for Women, when the vice president insisted on staying within the premises of the Batasang Pambansa Complex despite being asked to leave.
Lopez, who was cited in contempt and ordered detained last Wednesday, is a key resource person in the ongoing investigation, in aid of legislation, of the Committee on Good Governance and Accountability into the alleged misuse of public funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), where Duterte served as secretary until her resignation on June 19, 2024.
Duterte had not been attending House committee hearings on alleged misuse of OVP and DepEd funds, claiming they were “unnecessary and a waste of time.”
In a press conference in the early hours of Saturday, Duterte revealed that she “hired an an assassin to kill the Marcos couple and Romualdez” if she gets killed.
“Don’t worry about my security because I already talked to someone. I told him if they kill me, kill BBM, Liza Araneta, and Martin Romualdez. No joke. I already gave my order. When I die, I said don’t stop until you kill them. And then he said, yes,” she said in mixed English and Filipino.
In a statement issued by Malacañan Palace hours later, Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin referred the “active threat” to the Presidential Security Command for immediate proper action in response to 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.”
“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,” it said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
