In a video message during which he did not name Vice President Sara Duterte, his former running mate, Marcos said 'such criminal plans should not be overlooked'
Photo: Reuters File
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday he will not take lightly "troubling" threats against him, just days after his estranged vice president said she had asked someone to assassinate the president if she herself was killed.
In a video message during which he did not name Vice President Sara Duterte, his former running mate, Marcos said "such criminal plans should not be overlooked."
Security agencies at the weekend said they would step up their protocols and investigate the statement, which Duterte made. The vice president's office has acknowledged a Reuters request for comment.
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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 on Saturday 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.
"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."
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