By JEN BAYLON
Local government officials in Negros Occidental have to focus on their respective works rather than taking sides amid the rift between President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said yesterday.
“Let’s just continue to work for the good of our respective communities,” Lacson said.
“We will just continue to work and do our role as local officials in our respective community and focus on our economic condition year by year,” he added.
Lacson said if they focus on the rift between the country’s high officials, the situation may create “political and economic instability in the country.”
He acknowledged Duterte’s emotional rhetoric but emphasized that her assassination statement was “serious and directed at specific individuals.”
“In the manner of speaking, in the way that VP Sara spoke, a very typical Duterte, you know, the word is very common. So I think that’s how they are when they get emotional,” Lacson said.
The governor assured that the government would conduct a thorough investigation and allow the Department of Justice (DOJ) to handle the case appropriately, taking the threat seriously.
“The threat is different,” Lacson stated, “The government will not just sit down. They will investigate. They will find out who is that individual given the instructions by VP Sara,” Lacson said.
“Let’s not take the law into our own hands. Let the law proceed, and we’ll just have to wait for what the DOJ will find out,” he pointed out.
Earlier, Duterte made an assassination statement against Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, as she slammed the House of Representatives’ order to transfer Office of the Vice President chief of staff Zuleika Lopez from the House detention facility to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Duterte said she called an assassin and instructed him to assassinate the First Couple and Romualdez after she revealed she had death threats.
She later clarified that her statement was “not a threat,” adding that she only wanted to highlight the alleged threat to her security.
In response, Marcos Jr. condemned Duterte’s threats as alarming and vowed to take them seriously, asserting that such criminal intentions would not be overlooked.
The Presidential Security Command has increased security measures for Marcos and is coordinating with law enforcement agencies./JB, WDJ