VICE-president of the Philippines Sara Duterte claimed on Saturday to have contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the House of Representatives speaker if she herself is killed.

In a pre-dawn, expletive-laden online news conference, an angry Ms Duterte accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr of incompetence and lying, along with his wife and the House speaker.

When asked by reporters about concerns over her security, the vice-president suggested there was an unspecified plot to kill her. 

“Don't worry about my security because I’ve talked with somebody. I said: ‘If I’m killed, you’ll kill [the President], [his wife] Liza Araneta and [Speaker] Martin Romualdez. No joke, no joke’,” she said, without elaborating.

“I’ve given my order: ‘If I die, don’t stop until you’ve killed them.’ And he said: ‘yes’,” the vice-president said.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, head of the Office of the President, referred the “active threat” against President Marcos Jr to an elite presidential guards force “for immediate proper action.”

It was not immediately clear what actions would be taken against the vice-president.

The Presidential Security Command boosted President Marcos Jr’s security and said it considered the vice-president’s threat, which was “made so brazenly in public,” a national security issue.

Ms Duterte, a lawyer, later tried to walk back her astonishing remarks and said they were not an actual threat but only an expression of concern over an unspecified threat to her own life.

“Why would I kill him if not for revenge from the grave? There is no reason for me to kill him. What’s the benefit for me?” Ms Duterte told journalists.

Mr Marcos ran with Ms Duterte, daughter of the 16th president Rodrigo Duterte, as his vice-presidential running mate in the May 2022 elections and both won with landslide victories on a campaign calling for national unity.