Her remarks about hiring someone to assassinate the First Couple and House Speaker Martin Romualdez have been “maliciously taken out of logical context,” Vice President Sara Duterte said on Monday, Nov. 25.
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte (Photos from the Presidential Communications Office)
In a statement and open letter written in response to National Security Adviser Eduardo Año’s remarks on Sunday, Nov. 24, the official questioned how a death threat against Marcos became a national security concern.
Duterte maintained that national security pertains to the protection of the Filipino people, the country’s sovereignty, and its democratic institutions.
“I would like to see a copy of the notice of meeting with proof of service, the list of attendees, photos of the meeting, and the notarized minutes of meeting where the Council, whether present or past, resolved to consider the remarks by a Vice President against a President, maliciously taken out of logical context, as a national security concern,” she said.
While Año did not mention Duterte’s name in his statement, the Vice President, during a pre-dawn Zoom press conference on Saturday, Nov. 23, claimed to hiring someone to kill President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Romualdez if she herself is killed.
In response, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin referred the "active threat" against the President to the Presidential Security Command, which, in turn, tightened the security of the President and his family.
Duterte claimed that she herself has received threats, and even hinted that the threats might be coming from the administration.
“In addition, please include in the agenda for the next meeting, my request to present to the Council the threats to the Vice President, the OVP institution and its personnel,” she said in her statement.
The official also questioned why she hasn’t been invited to any National Security Council (NSC) meeting despite being a member as the sitting vice president.
Section 4 of Executive Order No. 292 signed in July 1987 provided that the NSC should be composed of “the President as chairman, the Vice President, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Executive Secretary, the Secretary of National Defense, the Secretary of Justice, the Secretary of Labor and Employment, the Secretary of Local Governments, the National Security Director, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and such other government officials and private individuals as the President may appoint.”
But Duterte, who won with Marcos under the UniTeam banner in the 2022 polls, said she never received a single notice of meeting since taking over the vice presidency on June 30, 2022.
”I request the NSA to please send to me the notarized minutes of all meetings conducted by the Council from 30 June 2022, if any. I want to review what the council has accomplished so far, in terms of policies and recommendations for national security,” she said.
Duterte also asked the NSC to submit within 24 hours “an explanation in writing with legal basis” why she has not been considered a member of the NSC and why she has not been invited to the meetings.
“I urge all National Security Council members and the Filipino people to demand transparency and accountability from the personnel of NSC,” the Vice President added.
Duterte’s assassination threats came amid a tense-filled weekend wherein she camped at the House of Representatives after her chief-of-staff, OVP Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, was cited in contempt and held in detention for “undue interference.”
Lopez attended the Nov. 21 hearing of the House good government into the OVP’s confidential funds use. The panel is also looking at the utilization of intelligence funds by the Department of Education (DepEd) when Duterte was still its secretary.
But while in detention at the House custodial facility, the committee ordered Lopez’s transfer to the Women’s Correctional Facility. She had a panic attack and collapsed, prompting a transfer to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC), where Duterte and some of her family’s allies had been staying over the weekend.