MANILA — Malacañang on Monday said that groups plotting to oust President Rodrigo R. Duterte through “people power” will find it difficult to succeed given the Filipinos’ “overwhelming” support for the leader they voted for in the May 2016 elections.
“We are confident that we enjoy overwhelming support from the people and therefore what these groups would want to see – the ouster of President Duterte – will not happen,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace briefing.
“People Power will work kung wala po’ng mandato yung tinatanggal (if the person being removed has no mandate), it will not work when the people elected the President to a fixed term of office,” he added.
Roque made this remark following claims made by Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff for operations Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade that opposition group Tindig Pilipinas considered joining an ouster plot against Duterte dubbed as “Red October” but backed out after learning that communists were involved.
He pointed out that the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) had been planning to overthrow the government since it was founded and that he had no doubt that “power-hungry individuals in the opposition” would also like to bring down the Duterte administration.
However, Roque said the fact that Duterte won as President via landslide victory of more than six million votes versus his fiercest rival, former Cabinet member Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, was enough proof that Filipinos supported him.
Roque also cited the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on the Duterte administration’s war on drugs as having “validated” that eight out of 10 Filipinos were satisfied with the campaign.
“This is an overwhelming support from the Filipino people. It validates the importance the President has given to the war on drugs. It validates the means by which the President has been implementing this war on drugs,” Roque said.
While he acknowledged that foreigners, particularly human rights advocates, did not agree with the drug war, he said Duterte did not care what they would think, noting that only Filipinos had the right to render their judgement.
“I can say it with confidence that the people overwhelmingly support the President’s war on drugs as evidenced by this survey,” Roque said.
“When you won by the margin that the President had in the elections and when you have this kind of support being shown in surveys, mahihirapan po silang patalsikin ang Presidente (they’ll have difficulty ousting the President),” he added.
Roque also urged both communists and opposition who want Duterte removed from office to “dream on.”
He, meanwhile, said if the opposition succeeds in ousting Duterte, the people who voted for him will not be pleased.
“Kung sila ay magiging matagumpay na patalsikin ang isang hinalal ng taongbayan, ang offended party po dito, (ay ang) sambayanang Pilipino (If they succeed in overthrowing a person elected into office, the offended party here will be the people who voted for him),” Roque said.
Earlier, Duterte bared that CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV’s Magdalo and other groups opposing his presidency, are in “loose conspiracy” to overthrow his administration.
The People Power Revolution has succeeded in removing two Philippine Presidents from office — former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and Joseph “Erap” Estrada in 1986 and 2001, respectively. (Azer Parrocha/PNA)
