A Vice President, a President & talk of murder

Politics can sometimes lead to deep worries in societies. It throws up the unexpected, the unforeseen and leaves common people wondering about what is happening or why it is happening. Politics is certainly aimed at promoting public welfare through its practitioners rising to power through popular sanction. But when it is politicians who engage in incendiary acts, there is grave cause for concern.
Observe that Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte has threatened President Ferdinand Marcos Jr with assassination. She has made it known that were she to be assassinated, there would be assailants ready to gun down the President on the ground that he would be behind her murder. It is a bizarre situation. And it is so because Duterte, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, was elected to the vice presidency on a ticket she shared with President Marcos, who happens to be the son of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
Sara Duterte has threatened to have not only the President killed but also his wife and the Speaker of the lower house of parliament. Predictably, her statement has left Filipinos shocked. Indeed, it is the rest of the world which is shocked as well, for it is rare in history for a Vice President elected to office with a President to publicly hurl a threat of murder at her boss. The Manila authorities have of course begun to investigate Sara Duterte's threat and she has promised to cooperate with the investigation. But that does not quite explain her animus against the President, unless it is the investigations into her father's presidency which has her riled.
Rodrigo Duterte, who served as President from 2016 to 2022, remains notorious for his unbridled human rights violations. Alleged drug dealers were killed with impunity on his orders. He is currently the subject of investigations by the International Criminal Court and could well be slapped with a warrant of arrest by the ICC. The Marcos administration has made it known that it will hand over Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC should a warrant for his detention be issued.
It appears, therefore, that Sara Duterte has been guided in her behaviour by the need to demonstrate filial piety. Additionally, there have been inquiries into her misuse of public funds by parliament which she and officials on her staff have attempted to fend off. Conditions have now reached a pass where she has quite forgotten the sacrosanct nature of the office she holds and has openly announced her intention to have President Marcos murdered.
She thus upholds the terrible legacy of her father. For both father and daughter, murder or threats of murder appear to be routine affairs. Neither of them has considered the implications of their behaviour, indeed the possibility of criminals on the loose taking a cue from them to commit murder across the country.
The Vice President has also raked up the past through reminding people that Benigno Aquino was assassinated at Manila airport on his return from exile in 1983 when Ferdinand Marcos, the current President's father, held presidential office in authoritarian fashion. Sara Duterte's hint was clear: if the father could have a rival murdered, the son could also have those opposed to him killed. The argument, if it is any argument at all, is crude.
The Vice President's threat to have the President assassinated clearly is a threat to Philippine democracy itself. In these nearly four decades since the ouster of the senior Marcos from office through People Power in 1986, political pluralism has flourished in the Philippines. With the exception of the uncouth Rodrigo Duterte, there have been Presidents who have given the country a refreshing new sense of direction in democracy.
The widow of the murdered Aquino, Corazon Aquino, has served as President and so has her son Benigno Aquino Jr. At this point of time, President Marcos Jr has done or indicated nothing which points to any intention on his part to follow in the footsteps of his father. He has acquitted himself well. The Philippines is a healthy functioning democracy today; and on the global scale it has demonstrated a vibrant foreign policy in its approach to contemporary diplomatic issues.
The problem with Vice President Duterte's public articulation of a murder threat against President Marcos is that she has indulged in the act in violation of all constitutional norms and moral standards. Any citizen who openly threatens to kill another will face the law. And any elected politician who brandishes a threat of assassination against a citizen or against another politician must be subjected to a full scale investigation.
For Sara Duterte, the moral act ought to have been to resign from the office of Vice President and then come forth with her suspicions that there are plans afoot to have her killed. Without any substance to her claims against the President to inform people that she will have Marcos Jr murdered throws up the image of the daughter of Rodrigo Duterte as a present and clear danger to Philippine society.
Obviously, the Vice President cannot be sacked by the President, for in a system resembling that of the United States, the two are both elected officials and therefore one elected official cannot dismiss another. But the Vice President's image has been tarnished by her outrageous behaviour. She will be unable henceforth to face her colleagues in the government and surely cannot be present with the President in any meetings of the cabinet.
In other words, she has rendered herself a non-entity in political terms. Her path to rehabilitation does not exist. Her future in politics is as good as boarded up. She ought now to exercise the moral courage of submitting her resignation from office. If she resists resignation, it should be for the Speaker of parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against her.
Joseph Stalin had his rivals liquidated after show trials. He had Leon Trotsky murdered in distant Mexico. Moise Tshombe had Patrice Lumumba killed in Congo. The Moroccan authorities had a hand in the disappearance of the opposition politician Mehdi Ben Barka in Paris in 1965.
Coup leaders in Liberia have had ministers of the government they overthrew shot on the beaches. General Ziaul Haq threatened an incarcerated Zulfikar Ali Bhutto thus, 'I will hang the bastard'. He fulfilled his diabolical pledge.
The Philippines is a different proposition. Having travelled a long road to democracy after the martial law dictatorship of the current President's father, it offers hope to countries struggling for democracy to make inroads into their citizens' lives. The likes of Sara Duterte and Rodrigo Duterte must not be permitted to have this image of the country smeared with and scarred by infamy.

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