Liza Marcos comments ‘may bring row to head’

First lady ‘felt hurt’ by vice-president’s reaction to husband being mocked at rally

A video of Philippine first lady Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta Marcos saying her relationship with Vice-President Sara Duterte had soured has gone viral and, analysts say, is likely to push tensions between the president and his vice-president to a head.

The comments are the latest escalation in the war of words between the Marcos and Duterte clans following numerous insults traded between the vice-president’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.

In a video of an interview with local broadcast journalist Anthony Taberna, the first lady said she was “always kind to [the vice-president]” but the vice-president was “now a bad shot with me”.

The first lady said the vice-president had hurt her emotionally, saying: “I felt hurt”.

“[The vice-president] went to a rally where [Marcos Jnr] was mocked as bangag [drug-addled],” she said, referring to the March rally organised by supporters of the former president, where the vice-president “laughed”.

The clip posted by Taberna is part of an extended interview in which the first lady broke two years of silence on her relationship with the vice-president.

The first lady’s comments might have brought tensions between the families, and between the president and the vice-president, to a head, former congressman Barry Gutierrez said. Because of the “tone” of the first lady’s remarks, the removal of the vice-president from the cabinet “may not be far off”, he said.

The vice-president and Marcos Jnr have yet to respond to the first lady’s comments.

Manolo Quezon, a historian and grandson of former president Manuel Quezon, told the Post that the Marcoses worked in tandem.

“She is the bad cop, he is the good cop. He has to stay true to his campaign public persona as unifier. If accounts are to be believed, she is the one running the back end of things,” Quezon said, highlighting the first lady was in charge of the president’s 2022 campaign that she ran “aggressively”.

With Marcos Jnr being “conflict averse and passive-aggressive”, “others have to do the fighting for him”, said Rolando Llamas, a political analyst.

“Without a real ruling party or coalition, without clear political strategists and advisers, and with his cabinet very silent and not defending him, [the first lady] may be the one filling that vacuum in more ways than one,” he said.

The president might be holding back because the Dutertes had approval ratings that were “almost as high as his”, Llamas said. “[The president] knows that foreign policy is his biggest strength and the Filipino people overwhelmingly support him in that.”