VICE President Sara Duterte’s “active threat” on the life of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos are ‘taken seriously,” Malacañang said on Saturday.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin has referred Duterte’s alleged “kill order” against the First Couple to the Presidential Security Command to take the appropriate action, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said in a statement.
“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,” the PCO said.
“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.”
In an online press briefing early Saturday, Duterte said she had already tapped an assassin to kill Marcos and the First Lady if she is assassinated.
Duterte said her directive to the alleged hitman she had contracted to kill the First Couple and House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez is “no joke.”
Duterte, who is currently staying at the office of her brother Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte at the House, claimed in another virtual press conference on Thursday that Romualdez is “the only person who wants me dead.”
The press briefing was held, after the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability ordered the transfer of her chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, from the House detention facility to the Women’s Correctional Facility in Mandaluyong City.
Lopez was cited for contempt on Wednesday over “undue interference” in the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s proceedings investigating the Office of the Vice President’s use of confidential funds. (PNA)
