Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday if she is killed, she has contracted an assassin to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos and House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Under the Philippine penal code, such public remarks may constitute a crime and can be punishable by a jail term and fine.

The president’s security has been boosted after his deputy’s ‘active threat’ that were ‘made so brazenly in public’.

The ‘active threat’ has been referred to the Presidential Security Command for ‘immediate proper action’ following her warning.

In a dramatic sign of a widening rift between the two most powerful political families in the Southeast Asian nation, Duterte told an early morning press conference that she had spoken to an assassin and instructed him to kill Marcos, his wife and the speaker of the Philippine House if she were to be killed.

MANILA (Reuters) -Philippine security agencies stepped up safety protocols on Saturday after Vice President Sara Duterte said she would have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr assassinated if she herself were killed.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte warned that if she were killed, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. would be assassinated in retaliation. Her controversial statement has sparked widespread debate an

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos' security detail has been put on alert over what his office is calling an "active threat" against his life by Vice President Sara Duterte, the palace

The presidential security agency said the vice president's threat on President Marcos was "a matter of national security." Duterte said she would have the president killed if she herself were to be killed.