Sara Duterte: Kill Statement Taken Out Of ‘Logical’ Context

Facing an investigation for her “kill” President Marcos pronouncement, Vice President sara Duterte said on Monday, Nov. 25, she was “maliciously taken out of logical context” by the National Security Council (NSC).

Suggesting that her incendiary remarks over the weekend were hardly a concern for national security, Duterte challenged the NSC to provide a copy of the documents relevant to the meeting where the body resolved to take her remarks as a national security concern.

“National security pertains to the protection of our sovereignty, the safety of the Filipino population and the preservation of our democratic institutions. The function of the National Security Council is confined to the formulation of policies in furtherance of such pursuits,” Duterte said.

“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 pre-sent 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 added.

The Vice President also questioned why the council had never invited her to their meetings since she assumed office in 2022 despite being a member of the NSC as stated under Executive Order 115 of 1986.

She said she wants the council to allow her to present the threats made against her, her office and her officials and employees.

“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.

“Moreover, please submit within 24 hours, an explanation in writing with legal basis why the VP is not a member of the NSC or why as member I have not been invited to the meetings, whichever is applicable,” she added.

Duterte also urged the public to demand transparency and accountability from the NSC.

As law enforcement agencies, lawmakers, legal experts and pundits started pushing to hold her criminally accountable for the threats, Duterte insisted that her remarks were “not actionable.”

Stressing that the country has bigger problems than the OVP, Duterte said her political opponents were using her to mask their “corruption and anomalies in the government.”

“You have nothing left to scrutinize about me. You’re just covering up the government’s shortcomings. You’re making me your punching bag so that people do not notice, see, hear the nonsense, the corruption and the anomalies that are being done in the government,” she said.

President Marcos on Monday described Duterte’s public threat to have him killed by an assassin as a criminal plot and vowed to fight it, in a looming showdown between the country’s two top leaders.

Duterte said in an online news conference on Saturday, Nov. 23, that she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives if she herself is killed, in a threat she warned was not a joke.

The national police and military immediately boosted the security of the president, and the justice department said it would summon the vice president for an investigation. The NSC said it considered the threat a national security concern.

The vice president, a lawyer, later tried to walk back her remarks by saying it was not an actual threat but an expression of concern about her own safety over an unspecified threat.

“Why would I kill him if not for revenge from the grave? There is no reason for me to kill him. What’s the benefit for me?” Duterte told journalists.

“That criminal plot should not be allowed to pass,” Marcos said in a televised statement, without mentioning Duterte by name. “I’ll fight it.”

“As a democratic country, we need to uphold the rule of law,” Marcos said.

Marcos ran with Duterte as his vice-presidential running mate in May 2022 elections and both won landslide victories on a campaign call of national unity. In the Philippines, the two positions are elected separately.

The two leaders and their camps, however, soon had a bitter falling out over key differences, including in their approaches to China’s aggressive territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea. Duterte resigned from the Marcos Cabinet in June as education secretary and head of an anti-insurgency body.

On Monday, Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres said in a news conference that Duterte would be subpoenaed to face an investigation.

Andres called the vice president the “self-confessed mastermind” of a “premeditated plot to assassinate the president.” All government resources and law enforcement agencies would be mobilized to identify the alleged assassin and determine criminal accountability, he said.

“We have to maintain order in a civilized society by adherence to the rule of law and we will apply the full strength and force of the law on this,” Andres said.

Under Philippine law, such public remarks may constitute a crime of threatening to inflict a wrong on a person or their family and are punishable by a jail term and fine.

The Philippine Constitution says that if a president dies, sustains a permanent disability, is removed from office or resigns, the vice president takes over and serves the rest of the term.

Duterte said she was ready to face investigators or an impeachment complaint in Congress, but added she would also demand answers to her allegations against Marcos and his allies.

“I will also not allow what they did to me to pass,” she told reporters.

Duterte also renewed her challenge to top government officials, including President Marcos and members of Congress, to undergo drug tests.

The Vice President said she is aware that she is being labeled as crazy and unhinged, hence she is willing to take psychological, neuropsychiatric and drug tests if the President also agrees to undergo the same.

“Let’s all take a drug test in front of the people. My fellow citizens, we will give you the promises we made to you when we were campaigning, and we will show you that we are sober. We will all be drug tested. Let’s start with the Office of the Vice President,” she added. – With AP