Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday, Nov. 26, questioned the “silence” of the Presidential Security Command (PSC) on the death threats she, her family, and Office of the Vice President (OVP) personnel presumably received.
Vice President Sara Duterte attends the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability hearing on the Department of Education's (DepEd) and Office of the Vice President's (OVP) budget utilization on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (Santi San Juan/MANILA BULLETIN)
In a statement, the official recalled how the Vice President Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) was transferred under the PSC, and was thus influenced by the Office of the President (OP), when she resigned from President Marcos’ Cabinet in July.
While she did not detail the “documented threats” she allegedly received, the Vice President expressed concern that the PSC neglected her security.
“Presuming the PSC is still a non-partisan professional organization, why is the command eerily quiet on the documented threats to me, my family and OVP personnel. The silence is then proof that the inclusion of VPSPG in the PSC is clearly to undermine my security and nothing else,” she said.
Her statement came after the PSC beefed up Marcos’ security amid Duterte’s threat that she hired an assassin to kill him, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself gets killed.
The PSC also said in a statement on Saturday, Nov. 23, that “Any threat to the life of the President and the First Family, regardless of its origin—and especially one made so brazenly in public—is treated with the utmost seriousness.”
“We consider this a matter of national security and shall take all necessary measures to ensure the President’s safety,” it added.
To recall, the VPSPG was created in June 2022 for Duterte’s protection after she and Marcos won the 2022 polls.
It was created to be a separate unit from the PSC and also became an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) wide support “with a corresponding AFP table of personnel and equipment.”
“A move to distinguish the security of the Vice President and make it independent,” the official noted.
The Vice President, however, remains to be in hot water over her offices’ use of confidential funds, which is currently being scrutinized by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.
When her chief-of-staff, OVP Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, was cited in contempt and detained after the Nov. 21 hearing for “undue interference,” Duterte lashed out in a Zoom press conference.
In the same press conference, she shared having talked with a hitman to assassinate the First Couple and Romualdez if anything happens to her.
But as the PSC has heightened Marcos’ security, Duterte claimed that she herself has been receiving death threats.