Speaking to reporters in New Delhi during the 18th BRICS Summit, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was pressed on the string of accusations leveled at him by Vice President Sara Duterte — among them her demand that he step down from office.
Rather than address each charge, the President waved the matter off. “You know, I hear about them, but I don’t really even have a response,” Marcos said on September 13, 2026. He went on: “If she feels very angry, I suppose, with what’s happening to her. And I am the target of that anger, or the main target of that anger. What can I do? You cannot force anyone to love you.”
Marcos suggested the Vice President’s hostility may be rooted in the weight of the legal battles now bearing down on her. He declined to respond directly to her earlier criticisms.
Those attacks have grown sharper in recent weeks. Following the postponement of her arraignment, Duterte used a rally at Quezon City Hall to renew her call for the President’s resignation, according to Rappler and the Inquirer, branding him a liar and accusing him of corruption and abuse of power.
The Quezon City court proceeding stems from three counts of grave threats tied to an online press conference in November 2024, in which Duterte said she had arranged for someone to kill Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Leyte Rep. and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez. A warrant for her arrest was issued on September 5, 2026, and she posted bail the same day.
The exchange marks a full collapse of an alliance that once carried both to the country’s two highest offices. Running as the UniTeam ticket, Marcos and Duterte swept the 2022 national elections as president and vice president before their partnership unraveled.
Separate from the grave threats case, Duterte remains the subject of a Senate impeachment trial that could strip her of her post and permanently bar her from holding public office if she is convicted.
