Political turmoil has escalated after Vice President Sara Duterte claimed to have arranged for President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s assassination if she is slain.

Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the House of Representatives speaker if she herself is killed, in a brazen public threat that she warned was not a joke.

The vice-president of the Philippines has hired a hitman to kill the country’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, his wife and the speaker of the house, in the event she is assassinated.