VICE President Sara Duterte on Tuesday challenged lawmakers who are running in the 2025 elections to subject themselves to neuropsychiatric and drug tests after she was accused of having an unstable mind during her press conference on Friday.
At the same time, she said Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla was ignorant of the law, after he said the Justice Department would look into possible charges to be filed against her for threatening to exhume the remains of former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
During a lengthy interview with reporters on the sidelines of the 50th Philippine Business Conference and Expo on Tuesday, Duterte did not mince words after several lawmakers described her as “unhinged and mentally unstable.”
She said that she is ready to undergo two tests: a neuropsychiatric examination and a drug test, while also challenging all reelectionist congressmen, including members of the so-called Young Guns, to undergo a hair follicle drug test.
“As a voter, I demand that they take a drug test, and my fellow countrymen, as voters, you should demand a drug test for all congressional candidates because if they think I am unstable, then I think they are unstable too. Why do they have to get angry if I am answering their attacks?” Duterte said in Filipino.
She specifically also requested Pwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Rep. Margarita Ignacia Nograles, who will be running against Duterte’s brother, incumbent Rep. Paolo Duterte, to also take the drug test.
Nograles and La Union Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega said they were open to Duterte’s challenge.
“Sure, no problem with me. I will schedule tests within the next few days,” Nograles said.
“She should testify first under oath, then we follow up with other challenges. There are no problems if we are going to do a drug test or a neuropsychiatric test, but the challenge is she should testify under oath to questions specifically on the Committee on Good Government,” Ortega said.
Duterte lashed out at Remulla, who said there “were many moral principles that were violated,” in her threat to exhume the remains of Marcos Sr. from the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
“Let us pray for the Philippines now that we have a secretary of justice who does not know the law. There is a big difference between talking about desecration of a body and actually desecrating a body. Talking about the desecration of a body is not desecration of the dead. As a lawyer, he should have understood it immediately, but apparently, he is slow to understand it,” Duterte said.
She added that talking about the dead is not illegal in the Philippines, but it is taboo to some.
Crossing the line
The President’s son and Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander Marcos, meanwhile, said that he cannot stay silent when she threatened to exhume his grandfather and behead his father, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“Forget that the objects of her derision are dear to me, but I would also be remiss in my responsibility as an Ilocano representative if I didn’t voice out my disdain at the abhorrent comments she so carelessly uttered. I can ascertain that my emotions are shared not only by my kakailian in the north but across the country,” Marcos said.
He said that Duterte “crossed the line, leaving the civic and civil space in which disagreements can be rationally argued.”
Marcos said that this would be an “opportune time to remind ourselves that we mustn’t take our mental health for granted and that above all else, I sincerely hope she is okay.”
Duterte said she wouldn’t comment further as children have a “natural affinity” to defend their parents.
Duterte also said that her relations with Sen. Imee Marcos became “cold” after that press conference on Friday, saying that Marcos did not reply to her when she texted her after the press conference on Friday.
“She told a common friend that she is annoyed at me and BBM (the President), but I told that common friend that she… should get annoyed at Liza Marcos and Martin Romualdez,” Duterte said, referring to the first lady and the Speaker of the House, and the President’s cousin.
President Marcos just smiled and walked away when asked about Duterte’s criticism that he does not know how to be president.
During a chance interview at the celebration of the Philippine Coast Guard’s 123rd anniversary in Port Area, Manila, on Tuesday, reporters tried to get a statement from Marcos on Duterte’s remarks.
The President stopped to listen to the questions but simply smiled and walked away upon hearing that it was about Duterte’s recent tirades against him and his family.
Last week, Duterte said that the Philippines was “on the road to hell” because Marcos “does not know how to be president.”
She also said she was blamed several times for the country’s current situation because she chose not to run for president in the 2022 elections.
Duterte also claimed she had a list of impeachable offenses that could remove Marcos from office, but she did not disclose what these offenses were.
Marcos and Sara Duterte ran as a tandem in 2022, and their alliance catapulted them to the country’s two highest posts in a landslide victory.
Their relationship has soured in the past two years, with infighting between Duterte and Marcos’ allies spilling into public view, until Duterte finally resigned from the Cabinet in June.
Duterte has since accused Marcos’ allies in the House of Representatives, which has been investigating her alleged misuse of public funds, of plotting her removal from office.
