Marcos downplays assassination plot: ‘There’s always some kind of threat’

BENGALURU, India – The political fallout of the Marcos-Duterte relationship has drawn international attention, and when asked about a potential assassination plot against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., he responded cautiously.

“Uh, I don’t know. you know but I am not really in a position to say about what that’s about,” he said in an interview with Indian media outlet Firstpost.

Marcos said there are always threats against people in high-ranking and recognizable positions like his.

“You have to be careful, but then in my position there’s always some kind of threat and we take them all very seriously,” he noted.

To recall, Vice President Sara Duterte, in November, “threatened” to assassinate the President, the First Lady, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez should plots against her life succeed.

This in turn became one of the complaints leading to the impeachment of Duterte in the lower house.

‘Observers for impeachment’

Marcos was also asked about his position on the impeachment trial of the Vice President.

He reiterated that he is not in any way influential in the events of impeachment.

“Well, I think that the political heat and all the noise has toned down and that was on the buildup to the last election in May,” he said.

Marcos insisted that that he and the Office of the President is only an interested party.

The President and the Vice President were running mates in the 2022 presidential election which they won in a landslide garnering more than 30 million votes.

“I made it very clear that the executive and the president have very little role to play in that process so we don’t… we’re of course an interested party, very interested observers. It doesn’t go beyond that,” he said.