NATIONAL Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon shrugged off reports of a plot to destabilize the Duterte administration.
“If ever there are [such attempts], leave it to us. We’ll monitor it. We will be on top of the situation,” said Esperon in a chance interview Tuesday during the 50th anniversary of the Asian Development Bank in Mandaluyong.
He added that the government is ready to quell any plot if necessary.
“The government has to protect the interest of the Filipino and it has an interest in protecting itself,” Esperon said.
Esperon also dismissed the likelihood that Senator Leila de Lima—who is on the verge of arrest on drug charges—could be a rallying point against the President.
“Why should a case of an individual be the convergence point? It should be nation-building,” he said. “What will they do? Stage People Power to defend one case? I don’t think Filipinos are that gullible.”
The military, meanwhile, said it has not monitored any plot to overthrow the Duterte administration.
“Based on our monitoring, negative,” AFP spokesperson Edgard Arevalo said. “We have not monitored any destabilization attempt that will be done on this government of President Duterte.”
Earlier, Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Año made the same point.
“The AFP is solid and shall continue to do its mandate of protecting the people and the state. We can feel the support of the national leadership as we perform our tasks,” Año said.
He added that the AFP wold stay out of politics.
The views of the top security officers contradicted pronouncements by Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, who said there is “a protracted political drama aimed [at destroying] the President” and toppling his administration.
In a radio interview Wednesday, Andanar said that he doesn’t care if the press does not like him, but insisted there are plots to oust the President.
“The media doesn’t [sic] need to like me … I was hired to run the office of the Presidential Communications Operations Office and to satisfy the Filipino people,” the former news reader said, following a heated confrontation with a newspaper reporter whose fairness he questioned.
Pressed again on the call of Senate reporters for him to substantiate his claims that they were offered $1,000 to attend a press conference or apologize, Andanar again refused to do either.
“You can see and read that I never alluded to a reporter [who] received this kind of money. I was just saying that there was this amount that circulated,” he added.
On Friday, supporters of Duterte from all over the country will converge at Rizal Park for a vigil and rock concert purportedly to support the President’s campaign against illegal drugs.