Malacañang Palace denied today the existence of a plot to kill Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
This was in reaction to Duterte’s claim a few days ago that the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is out to take him down. ABS-CBN reported that the president also thinks that the CIA is listening to his phone conversations. There are also other countries which he thought were possibly tapping into his phone lines such as “Russia, China, Israel, and maybe Indonesia.”
In a report by GMA News, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said today that the president is a fatalist. “The president is not worried about any threats to his life. He said if it’s his time [to die], it’s his time. But there are no threats,” said Roque.
The chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde said that the PNP is currently verifying the existence of a CIA-led assassination plot against Duterte.
In an interview with CNN Philippines on Wednesday, he said: “We always consider them (threats) as real. There are raw informations (sic). These are all intelligence information that needs validation.”
Duterte vociferously criticized the United States in the past, specifically former president Barack Obama, whom he called “black” and “arrogant” after the latter said that the US would not hesitate to raise issues over the way the government is managing its war on drugs.
But yesterday, it seems Duterte was flattered when he announced that the United States is showing its support for the country’s military modernization program.
ABS-CBN reported that Duterte received a letter from US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in which the US offered military weapons to the country.
Duterte reacted to the letter and said: “Now they want to make it up to me. Three cabinet members in one letter. I don’t know, but maybe it’s because I distanced myself from them.”
