In a dramatic sign of a widening rift between the two most powerful political families in the Southeast Asian nation, Duterte told an early morning press conference that she had spoken to an assassin and instructed him to kill Marcos, his wife and the speaker of the Philippine House if she were to be killed, Reuters reported.
"I have talked to a person. I said, if I get killed, go kill BBM (Marcos), (first lady) Liza Araneta, and (Speaker) Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke," Duterte said in the profanity-laden briefing. "I said, do not stop until you kill them and then he said yes."
She was responding to an online commenter urging her to stay safe, saying she was in enemy territory as she was at the lower chamber of Congress overnight with her chief of staff. Duterte did not cite any alleged threat against herself.
The Presidential Communications Office responded with a statement saying: "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 has referred this active threat to the Presidential Security Command for immediate proper action.
"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.
Duterte's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the presidential office's statement.
"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 in the briefing.
Duterte, the daughter of Marcos' predecessor, resigned from the cabinet in June while remaining vice president, signalling the collapse of a formidable political alliance that helped her and Marcos, son and namesake of the late authoritarian leader, secure their 2022 electoral victories by wide margins.
MNA/