Feud with Marcos beyond ‘point of no return,’ Philippine VP Sara Duterte says

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte said her feud with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had reached a “point of no return” after police filed an assault complaint against her and some of her staff.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) lodged the complaint on Wednesday amid an uproar over remarks where Duterte publicly threatened Marcos by saying he would be assassinated should she be targeted and killed in a plot. Her comments prompted the president to say that he would “fight back.”

The police accused Duterte and her staff of alleged “direct assault, disobedience and grave coercion” during the transfer of the vice-president’s chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, to a government-run hospital from the House of Representatives detention center last weekend. 

The PNP said it had filed a case against Duterte, her chief security aide Col. Raymond Dante Lachica, and two others before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office in Metro Manila.

In response, the vice-president said that the allegations levelled against her “don’t hold any water.”

“I believe we reached the point of no return and it is clear [that] they are really going after me,” Duterte said Wednesday at a press conference in southern Zamboanga City, where she holds a satellite office, when asked about the possibility of her and Marcos patching things up. 

“They really want to remove me from my post.”

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Lt. Col. Van Jason Villamor, chief of the Quezon City police district’s medical and dental unit, and four other police officers filed the complaint. Villamor was directed to accompany Lopez during the transfer.

Lopez was ordered detained at the House last week for contempt after a congressional committee accused her of trying to hamper an inquiry into the alleged budget misuse of 125 million pesos (U.S. $2.13 million) of Duterte’s office in Duterte’s role as vice president and the former education secretary.

Lopez was later ordered transferred to a hospital after an unspecified health concern. She was supposed to be moved to jail, but Duterte initially prevented it. 

In a press conference held earlier on Wednesday, police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo showed a video supposedly showing Duterte and Lachica pushing Villamor, preventing him from fulfilling the order to accompany Lopez during her transfer to the hospital.

“We cannot let this pass,” Fajardo said during the briefing.

National police chief Gen. Rommel Marbil said the national force trusted that the courts would conduct “a fair and impartial investigation into these serious allegations.”

“The Philippine National Police remains steadfast in its commitment to uphold justice and ensure that all individuals are held accountable under the law, regardless of their position,” Marbil said in a statement Wednesday.

“We respect the legal process and trust that the courts will conduct a fair and impartial investigation into these serious allegations.”

Also on Wednesday, Marcos adviser and ally Larry Gadon filed a disbarment complaint against Duterte before the Supreme Court over her statement last weekend that she had arranged the assassination of the president, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez in case she herself were killed. 

The National Bureau of Investigation has subpoenaed the vice president over the verbal threat. But Duterte denied making it and said her statement was maliciously taken out of context.

Marcos and Duterte – both children of former presidents and scions of influential political Philippine families – had formed a political alliance to win the general election two years ago, but the partnership ended acrimoniously amid pressure on the government to allow an international investigation into the controversial drug war waged by Marcos’ predecessor and Sara’s father, Rodrigo Duterte. 

The ongoing political feud between Marcos and Duterte could impact foreign policy and the midterm elections in May 2025, observers say.

But one political analyst said she would not be surprised if an impeachment complaint were filed against Sara Duterte. 

“If [an impeachment complaint against Duterte] happens, it’s something that’s par for the course because of what had transpired,” said Jean Encinas-Franco of the University of the Philippines on Wednesday.

“Her statements actually earned the Marcos administration the legitimacy to go after her,” Encinas-Franco told ABS-CBN’s news program “Top Story.” “The threat to kill is very different and something probably unthinkable for most people.”