Did Senator Trillanes really try to convince the soldiers and police to pull a coup d’etat and oust President Rodrigo Duterte?
An article from a Duterte blog claimed that this news is confirmed to be true. And several Duterte fan pages on Facebook, as well as a Marcos fan page, shared the article. The pages even have similar captions, urging their followers to share the article that Trillanes is indeed trying to oust Duterte.
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We read the article and it said that Cabinet Secretary Leoncio “Jun” Evasco “confirmed” that Trillanes and other Liberal Party members are trying to remove Duterte from the presidency. The article added that Evasco even said that Trillanes talked to soldiers and cops to join the plan against the president.
The article also mentioned how Trillanes tried to convince Duterte to be his running mate during the 2016 elections and how the senator pulled off various kinds of black propaganda against the then-Davao City mayor. It also noted that Trillanes led several coups against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
We looked for other sources for Evasco’s claims and found a Rappler article, where Evasco talked about LP and other elite businessmen’s plan to topple Duterte.
Evasco made the allegations of a coup on September 30 while attending the induction ceremony of new officers in Zamboanga. He added that these people, though, will fail because they have no “armed component,” which is why Trillanes started talking to the military and the police.
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‘Duterte is self-destructing’
Trillanes denied Evasco’s allegations.
“Hindi totoo ‘yan. Alam mo, hindi mo na kailangang mag coup sa goberyno na ‘to dahil nagsasarili naman. They are self-destructing,” Trillanes said on Tuesday, October 4, as quoted by GMA News Online.
“Ang problema dito, what is unfortunate is, they’re dragging the whole country down. Sinasabi nila the hearings are the source of negativity dito sa Pilipinas. Hindi yun, Presidente nila, murahin mo lahat, paano na?” he added.
Trillanes also said that as a former military officer, the Armed Forces of the Philippines will continue to “move as one” as long as “the chain of command is true to their mandate” to the state and the Filipinos.
AFP seriously looking into reports
On their part, the AFP said on Monday, October 3, that it is seriously investigating reports of alleged coup d’etat against Duterte even as it said that the soldiers’ morale remain high and the President’s visits are well accepted.
“The news about this seeming disturbances within the military are unknown to us, these are things that we take seriously so we will look into it,” said Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, AFP spokesperson.
He added that after Duterte prioritized visiting military camps all over the country, there has been good relations between the commander in chief and the soldiers, especially with the promises of better benefits.
“So base dyan mataas po ang morale ng ating mga kasundaluhan at lahat po ng nagsisilbi sa ating hukbo at wala pong nagbabago diyan hanggang sa kasalukuyan,” Padilla said.
Padilla also denied any division in the soldiers’ ranks.
So, those claims made by the Duterte blog du30newsinfo about Trillanes are false, baseless claims. Until the military confirms anything, since the soldiers are at the center of the intrigues, all these talks about coups and Trillanes’ involvement are plain rumors.
Sources: (rappler.com, gmanetwork.com)
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