A video on YouTube and Facebook (FB) claims that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte after she threatened to kill him, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. This is false.
No such pronouncement has come from the president. Law enforcement authorities just summoned Duterte as they began their investigation into the legal implications of her assassination threat.
Uploaded on Nov. 25, the same day that Marcos released a video statement in response to Duterte’s threat, the video’s headline read:
“JUNIOR PINAPA-ARESTO si VP SARA/MARCOLETA NILAMPASO ang mga KA-BARO/PADUANO TIKLOP/CASTRO POWER TRIP
(Junior ordered the arrest of VP Sara/Marcoleta floored his colleagues/Paduano folded/Castro power trip).”
While Marcos said he is alarmed by the vice president’s assassination remark against him and his family, he did not order her arrest. He said:
“Kung ganun na lang kadali ang pagplano sa pagpatay ng isang Presidente, papaano pa kaya ang mga pangkaraniwan na mamamayan? ‘Yang ganyang krimimal na pagtatangka ay hindi dapat pinapalampas. Yan ay aking papalagan.
(If it’s that easy to plan the assassination of a president, how much more for ordinary citizens? These criminal attempts should not be ignored. I will fight back).”
Source: Radio Television Malacañang, “PBBM Message on Death Threats.” Nov. 25, 2024 (0:14 to 0:30)
After that, a Department of Justice official who called Duterte a “mastermind” behind a “premeditated assassination plot” against the president, said the agency has tapped law enforcers to find out the identity of the assassin contracted by the vice president.
The National Bureau of Investigation has issued a subpoena against Duterte while the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police is also probing the assassination threat.
The video is merely clickbait and only showed clips from a Nov. 25 House probe where SAGIP Party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, who is an ally of Duterte, has criticized lawmakers for detaining her chief of staff Zuleika Lopez.
Uploaded by verified YouTube channel SHOWBIZ CHIKA-DORO, the video has received 40,435 interactions. FB page PH Celebrity News (created Feb. 4, 2018 as Korean Celebrity News) also reposted the clip.
