Philippine VP Duterte denies assassination plot against President Marcos Jr

Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte has insisted that she has not schemed to kill the president, as investigators summoned her to testify.

Duterte told reporters on Tuesday that her instruction to have her estranged ally President Ferdinand Marcos Jr killed was a “plan without flesh”. The statement came shortly after investigators said they had summoned the official to appear before them.

Duterte told a briefing at the weekend that she had ordered someone to kill Marcos, along with his wife and cousin – the parliament speaker – if any potential plot to assassinate her should be successful.

Duterte sought to emphasise to reporters that the main condition of her plan was that she be killed first.

“My question now to the administration: Is revenge from the grave a crime?” she asked, saying that she only made the comments out of “consternation” with the president.

The daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte criticised the Marcos administration’s “failure to serve the Filipinos while it masterfully persecutes political enemies”.

“Common sense should be enough for us to understand and accept that a supposed conditional act of revenge does not constitute an active threat. This is a plan without flesh,” Duterte said.

The country’s justice department on Monday called the vice president the “self-confessed mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the president and issued a subpoena demanding her appearance at a formal inquiry.

The president also promised to act against what he described as a “troubling” public threat against him.