The feud between two of the Philippines’ most powerful political clans escalated dramatically on Friday when Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio declared at a press conference aimed at the country’s leader Ferdinand Marcos Jnr that she would “dig up your father’s remains and throw [them] into the West Philippine Sea”.
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Nursing a heavy cold, former president Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter held a meandering, two-hour media briefing in which she set the record straight on why she became the running mate of Marcos Jnr, how she felt about becoming the education secretary instead of defence chief, and why she had decided to speak up.
When a reporter asked Duterte-Carpio whether Marcos Jnr had forgotten what her father had done for the Marcos family by burying their patriarch, dictator Ferdinand Marcos Snr, in the Heroes’ Cemetery, she replied she did not know.
Duterte-Carpio said she had once messaged the president’s sister, Senator Imee Marcos, that “if you don’t stop, I will dig up your father’s remains and throw [them] in the West Philippine Sea … she did not respond”.
She also recounted an incident in which she imagined beheading Marcos Jnr, which made her realise their relations had really turned toxic.
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