Malacañang said Thursday it expects the military to share intelligence information with the National Bureau of Investigation as the agency has started probing the alleged “Red October” plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.
READ: Palace, military clash over ‘Red October’ plot
“If the military has intel information [about the plot], we hope that they share it with the NBI for us to know who needs to be punished,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.
Ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Thursday rejected an allegation by the military that her supporters were part of a “broad” coalition eyeing Duterte’s removal from office next month through a plot dubbed “Red October.”
Military officials over the weekend claimed that communist rebels were leading a coalition that would urge workers’ unions to mount strikes and paralyze the manufacturing industry.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines will never participate in political actions aimed against duly-constituted authorities, its spokesman said Thursday.
“We will never allow ourselves in the ranks of the active service to take direct or indirect participation in any political action against the duly-constituted authorities,” Col. Edgard Arevalo said in a statement.
The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army has always been trying to topple the government since 1968, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said when asked to comment on the CPP-NPA claims that the “Red October” ouster plot was only a fiction invented by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“Their plot to oust the President is true. They are now denying it because it has been revealed,” Lorenzana said on Wednesday.
“Our troops captured documents in November 2016 after their plenum in Northern Mindanao. The peace talks with them was ongoing during this period but the CPP-NPA were not confident it would last.
They started to fully implement the plan called OUST DUTERTE in February 2017 after the President canceled the peace talks.”
President Duterte on Wednesday said he was unsure if the peace talks with the CPP-NPA would resume any time soon, admitting that he was “not ready” to talk to them yet.
“I don’t know if it could be revived. But I am not ready at this time to talk about talking to the communists,” Duterte said in his speech during a Bureau of Jail Management and Penology event in Calamba, Laguna.
Roque said he would not be surprised if the NBI, investigated the alleged ouster plot against Duterte.
He said it was the duty of the NBI and the country’s law enforcement agencies to investigate possible crimes.
He said the work of the President as Chief Executive was focused on the full implementation of the laws.
“So if anyone violates our laws on rebellion, coup d’état and sedition, we get the process started against them,” Roque said.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the NBI started working on the claimed ouster plot the moment Duterte revealed the matter to the public. With PNA
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