The Philippines is recovering from six destructive typhoons in the past month. But its leaders are busily fighting among themselves.

Philippine authorities handed a subpoena to Vice President Sara Duterte’s office Tuesday, inviting her to answer investigators' questions after she publicly threatened to have the president, his wife and the House of Representatives speaker assassinated if she were killed in an unspecified plot herself.

The vice-president’s backtracking of her comment about hiring an assassin to kill Marcos Jnr is linked to midterm elections, analysts say.