Philippine investigators are calling out Vice President Duterte for her public threats against President Marcos

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine authorities have filed a summons Vice President Sara Duterte into the office on Tuesday and invited her to answer questions from investigators after she publicly threatened to have the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives killed if she herself were killed in an unspecified plot.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday described her threat as a criminal plot and vowed to fight it and uphold the rule of law in the country in a looming confrontation between the country’s two top leaders.

The national police and military expressed alarm and immediately increased Marcos’ security. National security adviser Eduardo Ano said the threats were a national security problem.

Duterte, a 46-year-old lawyer, said her comments were not an actual threat but an expression of concern for her own safety due to unspecified danger to her life. The Marcos administration’s statements against her were “a farce” and part of efforts to prosecute critics like her, Duterte said.

The subpoena ordered Duterte to appear before the National Bureau of Investigation on Friday to “shed light on the investigation into alleged serious threats.”

Duterte said on Monday she was willing to face an investigation but demanded that the Marcos administration also respond to her questions, including alleged irregularities in the government.

Under Philippine law, such public comments may constitute a crime of threatening to harm an individual or his family, punishable by imprisonment and a fine.

Marcos served as his vice presidential running mate with Duterte in the 2022 elections both achieved landslide victories on a campaign call for national unity. In the Philippines, the two positions are chosen separately.

However, the two leaders and their camps soon engaged in a bitter feud over key differences, including over their approach to China’s aggressive territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.

Duterte resigned left the Marcos cabinet in June as education minister and head of a counter-insurgency body and became one of the most outspoken critics of the president, his wife and his cousin Martin Romualdez, who heads the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives has been investigating alleged misuse of confidential government funds by Duterte as vice president and when she headed the Department of Education.