Palace hits Rody's 'selfish' call for AFP action

Malacañang yesterday assailed former president Rodrigo Duterte over what it branded as a "selfish" and "brazen" call to oust President Marcos, as it vowed to counter unlawful challenges and to continue performing its mandate according to the rule of law.

- ALEXIS ROMERO

The word war raging between the Marcos administration and the Dutertes reached a new peak last Saturday when Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president, told a late-night press briefing that she had asked someone to kill Marcos, First Lady Liza Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez if an alleged assassination plot against her succeeds.

Law enforcement agencies have vowed to dig deeper into the kill plot and to study what cases may be filed against the Vice President, who used to be a close ally of Marcos but has since severed ties with his administration over policy and personal differences.

The elder Duterte responded by hurling a myriad of tirades at the Marcos administration, including his claim that the President is a drug addict, and urging the military to "correct" what he described as a "fractured government." In a statement, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said that any effort to seize power through forceful means like assassination and revolt is unacceptable.

He accused Duterte of going to "great and evil lengths" to unseat the President and to install Sara to power.

"No motive is more selfish than calling for a sitting president to be overthrown so that your daughter can take over," Bersamin said.

"And he will go to great and evil lengths, such as insulting our professional armed forces by asking them to betray their oath, for his plan to succeed," he added.

Bersamin said Duterte should respect, not disobey, the Constitution and should "desist from being as irresponsible as he has become." "The call of former president Duterte for the armed forces to launch a coup against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was shocking and brazen," the executive secretary said.