Marcos says he ordered impeachment against VP Duterte to stop

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Friday that he has told Congress not to file an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte.

Marcos made the statement after he was asked to confirm a text message he allegedly sent to leaders of the House of Representatives that surfaced on Thursday.

“Well, it was actually a private communication, but it got leaked. yes Because that’s really my opinion, Marcos said in a mixture of English and Filipino.

“It’s not important. It does not affect even one Filipino life. So why waste time on it?” he asked.

In addition, Marcos noted that the impeachment complaint would only “bind” both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

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“It’s just going to take up all of our time, and for what? Not for nothing. Not for nothing. None of this will improve the lives of any Filipino,” Marcos said.

Marcos even described the ongoing political battle between his administration and Duterte: “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a storm in a teacup.”

Marcos and Duterte, who were running mates in the 2022 election under the brand name “UniTeam”, have been at the center of escalating political clashes in recent months.

It first came to a head after the vice president vacated her post as minister of education in the Marcos cabinet.

The feud intensified when Duterte recently revealed that she had instructed someone to kill Marcos, his wife, First Lady Lisa Araneta-Marcos, and a cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, if she were killed.

READ: Sara Duterte’s killer line against Marcos is an ‘active threat’ – Palas

Marcos, for his part, clapped back, saying he would fight back against the apparent threat, calling her statements “disturbing.”

The plot to kill Duterte also prompted some agencies and officials to take action, and the Department of Justice, through the National Bureau of Investigation, opened an investigation into her alleged serious threats and possible violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

She also faced disbarment complaints in the Supreme Court.

The vice president, for her part, has repeatedly dismissed the complaints, saying her comments about the assassination were “taken out of context” and that she had only become a target for critics.