Philippine investigators summon VP over public threats against president

Philippine authorities handed a subpoena to Vice President Sara Duterte's office Tuesday, inviting her to answer investigators' questions after she publicly threatened to have the president, his wife and the House of Representatives speaker assassinated if she were killed in an unspecified plot herself.

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 showdown between the country's two top leaders.

The national police and the military expressed alarm and immediately boosted Marcos's security. National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said the threats were a national security concern.

Duterte, a 46-year-old lawyer, said her remarks were not an actual threat but an expression of concern over 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 persecute 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 for alleged grave threats."

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

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 prison term and fine.

Relatedly, Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres said in a statement late Tuesday that investigators were also looking into a potentially seditious remarks by former President Rodrigo Duterte, the father of the vice president.

The former president expressed support to the vice president in a news briefing Monday night but said civilians like them would not be taken seriously by the government when they raise issues about corruption and irregularities in government.

"There is a fractured governance," the former president said. "It is only the military who can correct it."

Duterte clarified that he was not calling on the military to stage an uprising but stating that the civilian