AFP taking ouster plots seriously

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 24): AFP taking ouster plots seriously

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) seriously takes all ouster threats against President Rodrigo Duterte and the government.

This is the reason why the military is making public such plots, AFP spokesperson Col. Edgard Arevalo said in press briefing Monday.

"Why are we doing this, by doing this we are not protecting President (Rodrigo) Duterte per se, what we are protecting is our government, what we are protecting are the duly constituted authorities and our democratic way of life, let us not be mistaken or let us not be misled, or let us not be misconstrued, we are not against any legitimate exercise of the people's freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly only that in so doing, that must be within the bounds of law," he added.

Earlier, AFP assistant deputy chief-of-staff for operations Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade revealed that there are plans to oust Duterte and the government, one of which is dubbed as "Red October" purportedly set for next month.

The ouster plan coincides with the international celebration for Marxism and the Indigenous Peoples Month.

Allegedly, participants would be coming from a grand coalition and a broad united front.

"Now, what are the actions taken by the AFP (to forestall this plot), first what we did and we are still doing now is exposing these plans of this broad coalition led by the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army) informing the would-be participants in the coalition as to what is the grand plan that they are going to be invlved in," Arevalo stressed.

"Second by this information that we are making public, we are hopeful that the public will be made aware of this plans and afford them this information that they will be needing for an informed decision," he added.

Lastly, the AFP official said they are looking at possible legal actions against these groups.

"We are looking at possible legal action that we can take against, of course in relation with other agencies of government, when evidence and information are sufficient to warrant filing of cases and finally to name a few is for the presentation of the draft of the executive order that will put to forth the National Task Force for Ending Insurgency," the AFP spokesperson concluded.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1048959