Philippine investigators on Tuesday called on Vice President Sara Duterte to answer questions about her public threat to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr killed if he is killed.
The National Bureau of Investigation served a subpoena on Duterte’s office, and asked him to appear before the office chief on Friday.
The chairman said Duterte was called “to clarify the investigation of the worst threat on earth.” [the Cybercrime Prevent Act] and it can be wrong [the Anti-Terorrism Act].”
Duterte on Saturday said that he had already spoken to someone who agreed to kill Marcos, the wife of the president, and the speaker of the House of Representatives, who is a relative of the president, if he were to be killed.
In a statement before the subpoena was issued against him, the vice president said his statement was “stripped of its logical form.”
“The insistence of the Marcos administration that the life of the president is in grave danger,” he said. “There is no meat on the bone, and even though there was no credible investigation, the authorities quickly considered this a national concern.”
“Using common sense should be enough to understand and accept that the intended act of retaliation does not pose … a threat,” he added. “This is [a] planning without … meat. I am confident that a thorough investigation would easily reveal that this report is false, speculative, or nonexistent.”
Marcos on Monday expressed shock over Duterte’s threats and said he must be held accountable.
“If it’s easy to plan the assassination of the president, why not ordinary citizens?” he said in a video speech. “Such criminal attempts should not be ignored. I don’t make excuses. As a democratic country, we must uphold the rule of law.