Philippine VP Duterte fails to show for hearing over 'threat' to kill President Marcos

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday failed to show up for a meeting with government investigators after being labelled the "self-confessed mastermind" of a plot to kill President Ferdinand Marcos.

Duterte was subpoenaed on Monday following a weekend press conference where she claimed to have told someone to kill the president should an alleged threat against her own life be carried out — comments she later said were misinterpreted.

But the deadline to appear came and went Friday, with her lawyers saying she was busy attending "office matters requiring her urgent attention", a reference to a House of Representatives hearing that had already been cancelled.

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National Bureau of Investigation director Jaime Santiago told reporters that Duterte's meeting with investigators had been pushed to December 11, adding the vice president was "not immune from prosecution".

Formal criminal charges against the vice president could mean potential jail time.

The alliance between Duterte and Marcos — her partner in a landslide 2022 presidential election victory — has collapsed spectacularly in the lead-up to next year's mid-term polls, with both sides trading allegations of drug addiction.

On Wednesday, the vice president said the probe into her alleged threat and an ongoing House of Representatives investigation into her finances were aimed at removing her from office.

House officials have denied they are planning to impeach her, and Marcos on Friday said he considered such an attempt pointless.

"This is not important. This does not make any difference to even one single Filipino life. So why waste time on it?" Marcos told reporters.

Duterte, daughter of previous president Rodrigo Duterte, on Saturday delivered an expletive-laden online news conference in which she claimed to have told someone to kill Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez — a Marcos cousin — if she were assassinated.

"If I die, don't stop until you have killed them," she said, adding that she was "not joking".