PNP, AFP vow to thwart destab plot

No mutiny would happen against the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, who claimed a pro-military partylist group and communist rebels are conspiring to oust him.

The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO7) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command (AFP-CentCom) made the assurance following alleged reports that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the Liberal Party (LP) and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV's Magdalo party-list are conniving to overthrow Duterte by October.

Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas, PRO-7 director, and Colonel Medel Aguilar, AFP-CentCom spokesman, both said police and military will not join any move to destabilize the government.

Although a number of police are “disgruntled” over some of Duterte’s ways of doing things, Sinas said the police force will continue supporting the president.

“Ako for the PNP, I can assure that we will not hold mutiny, the PNP sa PRO-7 majority sa pulis. I can’t say 100 percent kay impossible man gyud 100 percent ang satisfied sa leadership ni president, kay naa man disgruntled, kani ra siguro uban… But overall we are satisfied. The PNP in PRO-7 is behind the president,” he said.

Aguilar said the military will reject calls for any plan to topple the Duterte government.

“We as the frontliners in maintaining peace and order would like to emphasize that we will not take part in any form of mutiny against the president, and commit to continue to work to prevent terror attacks and help the administration,” he said.

On Saturday, Duterte claimed that the three groups are plotting to oust him.

In a Philippine STAR report, Duterte said the prevailing issues that have been hurled against his administration, including the reported rice shortage, the increase in inflation rate as well as other matters, were all part of the grand effort to remove him from office.

The rumor on a destabilization plot was revived by Duterte days after he signed the proclamation declaring Trillanes’ amnesty, granted by the previous administration, void.

Trillanes was previously involved in coup attempts against former president and now Speaker Gloria MacapagalArroyo.

But CCP Chairman Jose Maria Sison, LP President and Senator Francis Pangilinan, and Magdalo party-list, represented by Gary Alejano, belied the allegation, saying there is no destabilization plot against the president. —

Avila/KBQ

Mae Clydyl L.