Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin referred the “active threat” against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to his elite presidential guards on Saturday “for immediate proper action.”

Summary

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte publicly threatened to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife, and the House Speaker assassinated if she were killed, escalating tensions between the two leaders.

Duterte accused Marcos and his allies of corruption, incompetence, and persecuting her staff, sparking the tirade.

The Presidential Security Command deemed the threat a national security issue and boosted Marcos’ protection.

This marks a severe fallout in their alliance after their 2022 election victory, amid broader political divisions and Duterte’s growing criticism of the administration.

  • Rottcodd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    591·
    18 days ago

    Isn’t accusing Marcos of corruption sort of like accusing the Pope of being Catholic?

    I mean - he’s a Marcos. Corruption is all he knows.

    And really, specifically what she did was threatened to have those people killed if they had her killed.

    That seems to me to be a reasonable precaution, all things considered.

  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    18 days ago

    This is a really big deal because when they were elected in 2022, the Marcos and Duterte families had combined their respective power bases into a juggernaut of Filipino politics. But each family developed their power base in a different part of the country, Marcos secured the capital and the northern islands while Duterte rules Mindinao, the largest island, and the other islands in the south.

    Then something happened and the families learned to not like each other.

    This is a big problem as each has extensive government alliances to the families and each family runs their area like strongmen dictators. It won’t be a civil war, but they are prepared to be very uncivil.

    • PorkTaco@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      15·
      18 days ago

      The Repugs are way too united at this point. MAGA cultists would string Vance up in a heartbeat if he were stupid enough to fall out of line.

        • Decoy321@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          17 days ago

          There’s an important distinction. Pence was just an old school Republican who spent most of his career when they were still sane pieces of shit. They picked him because he was an actual politician to lend credibility to the crazy.

          And ultimately, the dude chose country over party. We can give the guy shit for tons of stuff, but he still made the right call at the end of it.

          Couch fucker was specifically chosen because he’s none of those things. Which is way, way worse.