THE Palace said Monday it was taking the destabilization threats against the President seriously a day after it downplayed the ouster plots and called them “mere speculation.”
“If there really is [a destabilization threat], it is the concern for the government, it should be a concern for the nation because it’s destabilization talk,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told dzRH radio.
“It’s not right, because we are in a democracy and we placed a President in power through an election,”
Andanar, citing reports from a Cabinet Official in New York, said there were Filipino-Americans who were planning to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.
“There are Filipino-Americans in New York who plan to oust the President by January 2017,” Andanar said.
“That’s why we are asking if there are direct evidence heard from these people. There are many stories, many speculations. But at the same time, the surveys will show otherwise because many people here in the Philippines support the President.”
On Thursday last week, a group opposed to Duterte called on the people to converge at the Edsa People Power Monument on Friday to press for Duterte’s resignation, but no one came.
In a text message through cellphone number 09994551233, the group asked the public to attend a rally on Edsa at 3 p.m. on Friday to call for Duterte’s resignation.
Andanar tagged the ouster plots as mere speculation, even as Duterte himself believed that the “yellows,” led by former President Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party, were behind a plot to kick him out of office.
But in the same interview, Andanar feared that the “continuing attacks” by the international media against the President was not helping the President.
“If you have all of this news going around internationally, it not help. We are at the losing end in terms of media exposure,” Andanar said.
