Philippines’ Marcos should give ‘two-punch blow’ to VP Sara to defuse tensions: analysts

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr needs to deliver a “two-punch blow” against his deputy Sara Duterte-Carpio to defuse a rapidly unfolding political crisis, according to observers.

The comments came as tensions between the Marcos and Duterte camps hit new heights over the past week, after Duterte-Carpio shocked online users with a threat to have the president assassinated, and her father Rodrigo later suggesting the military could remove the government.

Although the vice-president later walked back on her comments, observers say the latest salvoes have ignited talks of her impeachment.

Arresting and detaining her – using the anti-terror law her own father had signed as president – would not be enough to curb her ability to strike back and wrest control of the government, according to Barry Gutierrez, a criminal law professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law.

It needed to be “a two-punch blow”, he said, adding that Duterte-Carpio could only be removed from office through the political process of impeachment.

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‘No joke’: Philippine vice-president says she hired an assassin in case she was killed

Antonio Carpio, a retired senior associate justice of the Supreme Court, told This Week in Asia that unlike the president, whose office constitutionally provided him with immunity from suit, arrest and detention, the 1987 Philippine Constitution did not extend the same privileges to the sitting vice-president.