Marcos-Duterte feud spirals with Philippine heirs in fiery row

MANILA (Bloomberg): Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s eldest son came to his father’s defence on Oct 22, saying Vice-President Sara Duterte “crossed the line” with her attacks as the feud between the nation’s biggest political clans escalates.

Congressman Ferdinand Alexander Marcos said he can’t stay silent despite his father’s advice to refrain from making a statement while Duterte “threatens to exhume a former president and behead an incumbent one.”

“Besides, her bizarre temper tantrum has been condemned by a nation horrified from such displays of insensitivity towards the dead and cruelty to the living,” the lawmaker said in a statement. He also said his father has never said anything to rebuke Vice President Duterte and warrant her “going ballistic.”

The Marcos scion’s statement shows that the public spat between the two powerful families is not letting up, risking political instability in the South-East Asian nation ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

He was reacting to the vice president’s remarks last week about how Marcos “doesn’t know how to be a president” – her sharpest criticism yet against her 2022 election campaign partner.

The vice president also said in last week’s briefing that she would “dig up” the body of the Marcos patriarch and late dictator then “dump it” into the sea if attacks against her would continue. Duterte said she had been a subject of attacks and lawmakers were trying to build a case to impeach her.

Marcos’ office had said it would not respond to the vice president’s remarks. But his son on Tuesday said: “One must draw the line at some point and it’s frankly long overdue.”