What conspiracy?

It’s an interesting claim: the Magdalo group conspiring with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to oust President Duterte. Magdalo is a group composed mainly of renegade soldiers who staged a mutiny when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was president. CPP is the group waging a revolution to replace the current system with a national and democratic one on the way to socialism and communism. The first is Right. The second is Left.

That does not mean that they could not work together for a common purpose. But the phrase “working together” can also mean different things. That can mean they may have a common goal but do things separately. That’s essentially what CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison said: they also want to oust the president but is not linking up with the Magdalo group.

Besides, Magdalo is a very loose organization. I don’t even think it has a set organizational structure. Sen. Antonio Trillanes is Magdalo but I don’t think he is the group’s recognized leader. Office of the Civil Defense deputy administrator Nicolas Faeldon is supposedly with Magdalo because he participated in the mutiny against Arroyo but he is working with President Duterte against Trillanes.

Which is unlike the CPP, a very solid organization with a set organizational structure. While the identities of its current leaders are not known, we know they are being run by a central committee, a smaller politburo and a still smaller executive committee and secretariat. It is not run by only one man and, definitely, it is not run by Sison, who is out of the organizational loop.

So is Magdalo and the CPP working together to oust President Duterte? Sison admits the CPP wants to oust Duterte, but does Magdalo, as an organization, want it? And which Magdalo are we talking about, the one identified with Trillanes and Rep. Gary Alejano, both Duterte critics, or the one identified with Faeldon and the other former mutineers who are now with the Duterte administration?

Frankly, I don’t think there is any overt effort by Duterte critics to work together to oust the administration. That cannot even be seen in the response by Trillanes and his supporters to the Duterte administration’s offensive that started with the issuance of a proclamation nullifying the amnesty given to him and the attempt to arrest him.

Trillanes is talking with some supporters while being holed out in his Senate office and a smattering of protest actions including the holding of masses are held but these are obviously spontaneous and not organized undertakings. Those actions aren’t ones that would lead to a people power-like action. The truth is, Trillanes generally looks like he is waging a lonely fight out there.

Of course, the situation could deteriorate for the Duterte administration if it mishandles the Trillanes case. I am sure has Trillanes has supporters and sympathizers within the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) simply because every organization has disgruntled elements. These disgruntled elements could identify with Trillanes.

But I doubt if a movement or an alliance exists working to oust the Duterte administration using the Trillanes issue as a spark.