Some military officers have expressed concern over President Rodrigo Duterte’s threats to cut ties with the United States but it was “nowhere near enough to launch a coup,” Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said on Wednesday.
While no one has approached him “physically,” Trillanes said he has been getting word about the “sentiments” of some military officers and men.
“But let just say that by and large, the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is very supportive of the President and they are loyal to the chain of command so there are no factions within the armed forces,” he said in an interview over ABS CBN News Channel.
Asked what those sentiments were, the senator said: “It can’t be generalized. I believe some are concerned about the direction the President is going particularly ending ties with the US armed forces because these ties go way back and it’s not easy to do that.”
Asked again if the sentiments were coming from the soldiers, Trillanes said: “No. Some officers randomly expressing concerns, but it’s nowhere near enough to launch a coup.
“From what I’m getting is nowhere near that but again by and large, soldiers, the rank and file, enlisted personnel, junior officers are happy with the apparent concern of the President when he visited their camps and he promised them to double their salaries so who would not agree with that? So by and large the morale is very high,” said the senator, who led a failed mutiny against then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Trillanes said he saw nothing wrong with the President visiting the soldiers and promising them higher pay if he said the concern was genuine and the intention was to uplift their morale.
Looking at the profile and history, however, the senator said there could also be risks once the President gets the loyalty of the armed forces.
“Because once he would be able to harness the loyalty and support of the soldiers to a point that it’s a blind following or cult following, then he can easily shift or redirect their fire from supposed fight against criminality and illegal drugs and terrorism. He can easily shift to other targets like the political opposition and the effective and totalitarian control of society,” Trillanes pointed out.
“That’s a risk and it’s so easy to do that once you’re there,” he said.
Trillanes also denied Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco’s reported claim that unidentified businessmen linked with the Liberal Party have allegedly approached him to plot Duterte’s ouster.
“No. No one (has approached me) so I believe that is a misdirection probably to justify some draconian measures that they put in place in the future in the guise of serving democracy or probably to deflect from the issues, the criticisms they’ve been facing right now as a result of the different or numerous diplomatic blunders of President Duterte,” he said.
READ: Evasco: Groups displaced by Duterte may plan coup
The senator earlier said that there was no need to launch a coup against the Duterte administration as it has been “self-destructing” anyway. CDG
READ: Duterte admin ‘self-destructing,’ no need for coup–Trillanes