(Bloomberg) — Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday said the nation’s leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “doesn’t know how to be a president,” unleashing her strongest criticism yet against him since their political alliance collapsed.
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Speaking at a news conference that was livestreamed on her Facebook page, Duterte said she has a list of impeachable offenses that Marcos has committed, but declined to elaborate.
“The incumbent doesn’t know how to be a president,” Duterte said, describing him as someone who doesn’t appear to have a clear platform for governance. Marcos’ office said it will not issue a statement in response to the vice president.
The animosity between the country’s two highest officials has intensified since Duterte resigned from Marcos’ cabinet in June. Marcos’ allies in Congress had also scrutinized the vice president over her office’s use of confidential funds and proposed budget for next year which the House of Representatives cut by more than 60%.
The daughter of former firebrand leader Rodrigo Duterte said lawmakers were trying to build a case to impeach her. She challenged critics to “drag me to hell.”
Analysts earlier warned that the increasingly fractious disagreements between Marcos and his predecessor’s family could raise the risk of political instability and may undermine one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
Duterte also said she once told the president’s sister, Senator Imee Marcos, that she would “dig up” the body of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and “dump it on the West Philippine Sea” — using Manila’s term for the area of the South China Sea that’s part of its territory — if attacks against her would continue. She said the senator didn’t respond.
The vice president held the briefing about a week after Marcos said he felt “deceived” when Duterte said she and Marcos were not friends despite teaming up and securing a landslide win in the 2022 elections.
–With assistance from Cecilia Yap.
(Corrects name of former president in seventh paragraph in story first published on Oct. 18)
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