On Tuesday, Philippine law officials summoned vice president Sara Duterte for questioning over her statements thus past weekend that she had contracted someone to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. if she were to be killed.
Duterte had accused the government of twisting her words to create a false narrative that Marcos’ life was under active threat, saying in a statement on Tuesday that her remarks were a “conditional act of revenge.”
The summons from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) demands that Duterte appear at its offices on November 29.
According to the summons, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Duterte will be queried over the purported offence of making a grave threat and likely violations of the anti-terrorism law.
In an online press conference on Saturday, Duterte said she had talked with an assassin and instructed him to kill Marcos, his wife and his cousin, the speaker of the Philippine House, if she were to be killed off.
Duterte’s office however, said she was not in when the summons was served and had not read the order. On Monday,
Note that Duterte had on Monday, said she would comply if summoned by investigators.
The estranged vice president’s astonishing remarks are the latest in an embittered row that has intensified since the collapse of a formidable alliance between their powerful families in which Marcos won the 2022 election by a huge margin, with Duterte running by his side.
Both Marcos and Duterte are children of former presidents.
Marcos said in a national address on Monday that he would clamp down on “reckless and troubling threats” against him and would not allow such criminal attempts to pass, without naming, Duterte.
Unlike the president, however, the vice president does not have immunity from prosecution, according to the justice ministry.
In her statement, Duterte said her remarks was not a threat on Marcos’ life.
“I raise this caution as the President and his sycophants aggressively sell a narrative based entirely on my statement, which is taken out of its logical context.”
“Common sense should be enough for us to understand and accept that a supposed conditional act of revenge does not constitute to an active threat,” the vice president concluded.
