People Power won’t work this time. At least according to Harry Roque.
The presidential spokesperson confirmed today earlier news that there is an existing plan to oust President Rodrigo Duterte from Malacañang Palace, but he said a People Power-like revolution against the president will fail.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Assistant Deputy Chief for Operations Brigadier General Antonio Parlade said in an interview with ANC over the weekend that the plan is allegedly being led by a coalition composed of communist leaders like Rey Casambre, Satur Ocampo, and supporters of former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
Parlade claimed that a group called Tindig Pilipinas, whose members include those from the opposition Liberal Party, was also supposed to join, but allegedly withdrew from the plot when they realized that they’ll be working with communist leaders.
He said that the plot was named “Red October” and will happen next month because that is when many international celebrations tied with communism and indigenous peoples occur.
The original plan was to oust Duterte on Sept. 21, the 46th anniversary of the proclamation of martial law, but it fizzled out. However, it will allegedly push through in October.
The Red October was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolsheviks and Vladimir Lenin. It actually took place in November 7, 1917, but because Russia used a different calendar at that time, the uprising occurred in October.
Two Filipino presidents were removed via bloodless coups called People Power: first was Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, and second was Joseph Estrada in 2001.
In a briefing in Malacañang, Roque told reporters in a mix of Filipino and English: “People Power we supported that, but we supported it in 1986 because the person who was removed from office did not have a mandate. You cannot remove someone (Duterte) through People Power someone who has a mandate.”
He also said that the administration has the support of Filipinos. “We are confident that we enjoy overwhelming support from the people. Therefore what these groups want to see — the ouster of President Duterte — will not happen. A lot of people are greedy. Our answer: Dream on,” he said.
Roque’s proof of support? The recently released Social Weather Stations survey which shows most Filipinos still support Duterte’s controversial drug war.
The survey showed that 78 percent of the respondents still supported the government’s campaign against drugs.
“They (ousted presidents) did not have the support of the public as evidenced by the fact that the most controversial program of the president, [the drug war] 8 out of 10 [Filipinos] support it. When you won by the margin the president had in the elections, when you have this kind of support shown in the surveys, it would be hard to remove the president,” Roque added.
