Priam Nepomuceno/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Claims that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will turn against President Rodrigo R. Duterte is just “wishful thinking” on the part of some critics of the administration, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Monday.
Lorenzana made this comment in response to Communist Party of the Philippine (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria “Joma” Sison’s claims that the US, without firing a shot, can easily instruct its following within the military and police forces under Duterte to take him into custody as a traitor and to install Vice President Leni Robredo as the constitutional successor.
“As Spox (Presidential Spokesperson Salvador) Panelo said, it’s ‘wishful thinking’ by Mr. Sison. It won’t happen,” Lorenzana said in a message to the Philippine News Agency.
“It is pitiful that this man has to rely on a foreign country to effect a change of leadership in this country. It is an admission, in fact, that their revolution has failed,” Panelo said.
The CPP, along with its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA), is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
Panelo also stressed that the US will not listen to Sison, because the communist leader himself detests the US.
Earlier, the AFP dismissed and called Sison a “coward” and “insane” for making the above-mentioned allegations.
“This coward has gone insane. He is already muttering words of an old man whose memory has abandoned him. Come back to the Philippines and face reality,” AFP public affairs office chief Col. Noel Detoyato said.
Also, the military official stressed that the Philippines has its own democratic institutions and is a sovereign nation.
“We’re a sovereign country. We have our own democratic institutions. ‘Yung sinasabi ni Joma (What Joma is saying) is an indication of his state of mind,” he added.
And definitely, the AFP official said they are not arresting the Chief Executive as Duterte is the duly-elected President and the Commander-in-Chief.
