By Francis Wakefield
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana reiterated that the plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte is true despite claims from the communist side that it is just fiction or invented by the government.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (photo courtesy of the Office of the Secretary of National Defense)
In a statement, Lorenzana said the plot to oust the Chief Executive under "Red October" is with basis and is being taken seriously by the defense department and the Armed Forces of the Philippines or (AFP).
Lorenzana sad the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) is only denying the plot because the AFP has already uncovered it.
"Their (CPP-NPA) plot to oust the president is true. They only deny it because it was already uncovered," Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana explained that troops captured documents in November 2016 after their plenum in Northern Mindanao. The peace talks with them, he said, was ongoing during this period but the CPP-NPA were not confident it would last.
"They started to fully implement the plan called "Oust Duterte" in February 2017 after the president cancelled the peace talks. The ouster was supposed to culminate this October..They reckon that a new president would be more willing to resume the peace talks with them," Lorenzana said.
The defense secretary said the plan calls for mass actions all over the country which they hope will snowball like the EDSA People Power.
"It was their hope that other groups would join to create the desired snowball. There were rallies staged in the recent past. However, they woefully failed to attract people to join except their usual paid rallysts," Lorenzana said.
"But what else is new? The CPP-NPA has been trying to topple administration after another since 1968. They can deny all they want but we know otherwise by their actions," he said.