Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday described a public threat by the vice president to have him killed by an assassin as a criminal plot and vowed to fight it, in a looming showdown between the country’s two top leaders.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte says she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the House of Representatives speaker if she herself is killed.

Vice President Sara Duterte said she had talked to a hitman to kill her boss if she herself were to be killed, saying she was making "no joke."