Philippines vice president claims her security ‘undermined’

ANKARA

Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday claimed that her security was "undermined" amid a deepening political rift in the ruling coalition.

Duterte said that after she resigned from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s Cabinet in June, her security unit was unceremoniously assigned as a unit under the Presidential Security Command (PSC).

"Therefore, the security of the Vice President is now under the control of the PSC and as a consequence influenced by the decisions of the Office of the President," she said in a statement.

"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 (Office of Vice President) personnel? The silence is then proof that the inclusion of VPSPG (Vice President Security and Protection Group) in the PSC is clearly to undermine my security and nothing else," Duterte added.

Her statement came a day after Marcos said that he would not let “dirty politicking” drag Southeast Asia down, in his first reaction to a statement by Duterte, who claimed to have arranged for an assassin to kill the president, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if anything happened to her.

Duterte accused Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos, of wanting her dead, alleging he sees her as the "biggest threat" to his aspirations for the 2028 presidential election.

Marcos and Duterte ran as allies before the 2022 presidential elections, giving the duo a six-year term. However, the alliance has been upended in recent months, leading Duterte to resign from Marcos' Cabinet, where she held the education portfolio.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid