Sara Duterte says ‘active threat’ to Marcos' life is ‘farce, imagined'
Vice President Sara Duterte stressed the “insistence” of the current administration that the life of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is "under active threat" is "ominous," calling the narrative "farce" and "imagined."
In a statement released on Tuesday, Nov. 26, she said that her previous statement was “taken out of its logical context."
"I raise this caution as the President and his sycophants aggressively sell a narrative based entirely on my statement," she continued.
“There is absolutely no flesh on the bone, and despite the absence of a reliable investigation, authorities were quick to consider this a national security concern,” she noted.
Duterte pointed out that the "diametric contrast and inaction" are seen "when I have expressed in previous months threats to my person and continuing threats to the life of OVP personnel.”
“Tossing the word ‘assassin’ into this issue makes things even more terrifying—and especially because I never used that term during my recent consternation against the Marcos administration’s failure to serve the Filipinos while it masterfully persecutes political enemies,” the VP said.
According to Duterte, 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.”
“This is a plan without a flesh,” she emphasized.
“I am confident that an honest scrutiny would easily expose this narrative to be farce, imagined, or nothing at all,” she concluded.
Duterte made the remarks against her former 2022 election running mate as well as his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez during a midnight Zoom press conference on Nov. 23.
This is after a months-long probe into the actions of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) that eventually reached a boiling point when her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, got detained due to being cited in contempt by the House of Representatives.
"'Wag kang mag-alala sa security ko kasi may kinausap na ako na tao. Sinabi ko sa kanya, 'Pag pinatay ako, patayin mo si BBM, si Liza Araneta, at si Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke,'" Duterte revealed.
"Nagbilin na ako, Ma’am. 'Pag namatay ako, 'wag ka tumigil hanggang hindi mo mapapatay sila.' And then he said yes," she added.
The following day, the Presidential Communications Office said in a statement published on its website that they are "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."
"The Executive Secretary [Cesar Chavez] has referred this active threat to the Presidential Security Command for immediate proper action," they stated.
They stressed that "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."
Investigation on her office's funds
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte has been in hot water since August following the alleged misuse of funds for her office's socioeconomic programs and her refusal to answer questions regarding her office's expenses, particularly the confidential funds worth P775 million for the OVP and DepEd during her budget proposal's first hearing.
She was seeking a P2.037-billion budget for 2025, which was cut to P733 million. Her office has a P1.885-billion budget for 2024.
On the night of Nov. 22, Zuleika was ordered to be detained and then transferred from the chamber’s detention facility to the Women’s Correctional Facility in Mandaluyong City by Joel Chua, who is the chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.
Zuleika's contempt citation came after lawmakers found her committing undue interference in the panel’s hearings about the OVP's alleged misuse of funds. Her boss, however, was having none of it.
"Walang contemptuous doon sa ginawa ni Usec Lopez," she maintained, referring to the the OVP official’s letter to the Commission on Audit asking that the agency refrain from giving the House the audit observations on OVP’s confidential funds expenses.
"Lahat ng tanong sinagot niya, pumunta siya, maayos siya kumausap, and then sasabihin niyo sa amin bakit kami susulat sa COA? Bakit hindi kami susulat sa COA eh hindi pa tapos ang appeal namin? Hindi tapos ang audit namin?" she questioned.
Meanwhile, an emotional Zuleika detailed in the same Zoom press conference that she was brought to the women's prison in the middle of the night after policemen showed up in her room to serve the transfer order.
''I said, 'I'm not going anywhere. I need my lawyers now.' And then they said, 'There is no need for a lawyer because we are just doing our job to serve it,''' she said.
"This is a threat to my life. It's not harassment," she stressed.
Duterte is currently staying in the House premises to stand in solidarity with her chief of staff. Her brother, Davao City 1st District Representative Paolo Duterte, gave her "unconditional permission to stay indefinitely" in his office to "discharge her day-to-day duties."
