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Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Military told: Be loyal to the flag

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President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday said the military and police should not nurture loyalties to him or any of his Cabinet members but to remain loyal to the flag, saying he is willing to discuss with them (military and police) if they wanted him out as President of the Republic.

Duterte made the pronouncement after Senator Antonio Trillanes IV claimed some members of the military were “extremely bothered” with the presidential proclamation that voided his 2011 amnesty. 

“I said, ‘You should focus your loyalty to the flag of the Philippines and the Constitution.' I told them, frankly, I said ‘I do not need loyalties,’” Duterte said in a speech on his arrival in Davao City from a six-day state visit to Israel and Jordan.

He said he was elected as President and  intended to serve the people, adding “But if somehow…there is anything that is really demanded of the moment, then there is no problem.”

 “Do not bring me the armor or anything. Just tell me. We can have coffee, I’ll invite you and I will—well, anybody who is interested, I will administer the oath. Now, what followed or what will follow, rather, that’s not my problem,” he said.

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Duterte said there were many ways to oust a president which included impeachment, mutiny, and coup d’état.

“Well, I just want to work. If the Filipinos do not like me, then I will step down. No problem,” he said.

Trillanes, the most vocal critic of the Duterte administration, said he received messages from some military personnel he did not identify who conveyed their “conflicted” thoughts on the issue of voiding his amnesty.

“They are bothered. They are extremely bothered by this political move of their commander-in-chief that they are being subjected to this uncertainty,” the senator said. 

The President said he was not afraid of any coup to oust him, but will step down if the people wanted him out.

He said: “I don’t want them to shoot each other. The military shooting police.  So why would I sacrifice the lives of people, my own countrymen to do the…? We can go somewhere else?

“But for me to order to shoot at each other, I will not do it.”

Duterte said this was not the first time he called on the military to be loyal to the flag.

“And I do not, I said time and again, this is about perhaps the nth time and all commanders are… You can ask them…Don’t thank you owe me a debt of gratitude, you deserve to be where you are now and what you got, you have no problem with me,” Duterte said.

 “But the intrigues about coups, look, I am here to enforce the law. In the case of Trillanes, the truth is the one who did the research was Calida, just like the research on Sereno. Calida was the one,” Duterte said.

He was referring to Solicitor General Jose Calida and ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

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