Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has 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 top two leaders. Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday in an online news conference that she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives if she herself is killed, in a threat she warned was not a joke. Marcos said Monday “that criminal plot should not be allowed to pass" and added, “I’ll fight it.”