No coup plot against Digong

IF there are calls for

President

Rodrigo

“Digong”

Duterte to resign, they must be coming from disgruntled civilians and not from the military.

The reports that there are some factions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that reportedly want Digong to step down are “fake news,” AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana has claimed.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has also squelched the rumors.

Although the complaints against the Duterte administration’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the issue of the West Philippine Sea are valid, there is no reason for the military to stage a mutiny.

It was different during the time of President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, when the military withdrew its support for their then Commander in Chief after a huge crowd of civilians gathered at EDSA calling for his resignation.

Erap had a very popular and competent vice president in the person of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Digong’s vice president, Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, does not have Gloria’s masa appeal, much less competence.

Leni is content with overtly criticizing Digong and getting noticed and drawing flak from his supporters.

My sources in the AFP say there have been no clandestine meetings between military top brass and Leni.

High-ranking military officers also know that if they staged a coup against Digong, the AFP rank-and-file — from the privates to master sergeants — would not follow them.

Digong is much too popular among the privates, corporals and sergeants to rebel against him because they belong to the 90 percent of the population that supports him. Remember the results of the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys showing that 9 out of 10 Filipinos trust Duterte?

Military enlisted personnel have become too wary of their bitter experiences to join a coup at this time.

In the past, enlisted men who joined rebel groups were punished after unsuccessful mutinies, but their officers were not.

If there would be a coup, chances are the foot soldiers would even turn against their officers.

Retired military officers who are reported to be discontented with Mr. Duterte’s rule can only do so much — express their disappointment like a barking dog with no fangs.

When a military officer retires from the service, he loses his power over his former subordinates, no matter how loyal they were to him when he was still on active duty.

Even if the call by civilians for Digong to resign snowballs, how would they oust him without the military’s support?

Anyway, disgruntled people can wait since, in a few months, Mr. Duterte will have become a lame-duck president because of next year’s elections.

***

Gone are the days of my father (Col. Ramon S. Tulfo), when soldiers respected their commanders-in-chief.

Back in those halcyon days, the military respected the sitting president and dared not even think of staging a mutiny against the country’s leader.

The military has become spoiled after EDSA I that ousted President Ferdinand Marcos.

Euphoric over the success of the EDSA 1 mutiny, soldiers who were discontented with President Corazon Aquino’s way of running things staged several mutinies that failed one after the other.

The coups failed only because their leader, Fidel V. Ramos, one of the pillars of the EDSA revolt, supported Cory.

Ramos was a respected leader and although he had retired from the military service, he was appointed defense secretary.

Erap was a victim of the spoiled military; and so was Arroyo, who was nearly ousted but for some generals who didn’t keep their word.

Military and police generals all agreed to depose President Gloria, but some of them changed their minds or got cold feet at the last minute, the reason the mutiny against her failed.

Soldiers and policemen have become even more spoiled under President Digong.

Mr. Duterte has buttered them up, appointing some of the military leaders to key positions in the civil government after their retirement from the military.

Many Cabinet positions in the Duterte administration are held by retired generals.

Digong has time and again shown obeisance to the military by saying in public that he would step down if the AFP and the Philippine National Police no longer wanted him.

It’s just like a father telling his sons that he would leave home if his offspring no longer respected or obeyed him.

Subordinates should kowtow to their leader, not the other way around.