By Sonya Delgado
Vice President Sara Duterte lambasted the National Security Council for “maliciously” taking her statements out of “logical context” and making it out as a national security concern.
“I would like to see a copy of the notice of meeting with proof of service, the list of attendees, photos of the meeting, and the notarized minutes of meeting where the Council, whether present of past, resolved to consider the remarks by a Vice President, maliciously taken out of logical context, as a national security concern,” Duterte said in a statement.
Duterte also asked that the threat to the Vice President, the OVP institution, and its personnel be included in the agenda for the next meeting.
The vice president lamented that as a member of the NSC she has not received any notice of meeting since June 20, 2022, prompting her to request the council to provide her with the “notarized minutes of all meeting conducted by the council from June 30, 2022, if any.”
Duterte said she wants to review what the council has accomplished so far, in terms of policies and recommendations for national security.
She also asked the council to submit within 24 hours “an explanation in writing with the legal basis why the VP is not a member of the NSC or why as a member she has not been invited to the meetings.”
On the dawn of November 23 a visibly frustrated Duterte made a declaration that she has already contracted somebody to have the president, first lady, and house speaker assassinated if she gets killed.
“Wag kang mag-alala sa security ko kasi may kinausap a ako na tao. Sabi ko sa kanya, ‘Pag pinatay ako, patayin mo si BBM, si Liza Araneta, at si Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke,” she said.
“Nagbilin na ako, Ma’am. ‘Pag namatay ako, ‘wag ka tumigil hanggang hindi mo mapapatay sila.’ And then he said yes,” she added.
This statement came after one of the reporters asked her about her security in a Zoom press conference.
Duterte’s statement prompted National Security Adviser Eduardo Año to issue a statement that “All threats against the life of the President shall be validated and considered a matter of national security.”
Duterte, who was accompanying Undersecretary Atty. Zuleika Lopez at her detention room in Congress, was incensed because the police tried to transfer the inconsolable Lopez to the Women’s Correctional in Mandaluyong and then refused to let the doctors and ambulance in even after she collapsed.