Coup efforts will not succeed – AFP spokesperson

AFP spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla (AFP website)

MANILA — Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Restituto Padilla on Sunday said that all efforts to bring down the present government with a coup d’ etat will fail.

He attributes this to the high degree of dedication and professionalism in the military today among the factors.

“We firmly believe all these efforts will fail. First, because of the high degree of dedication and professionalism of our AFP today; Second, majority of our citizens no longer buy these kind of efforts and easily see through it’s real intent which is, that all these are political in nature with an end view for 2016; and third, the administration still enjoys a high degree of support,” Padilla stressed.

He also clarified that he does not have any information or reports on the claimed coup in his possession as talks are coming from the outside.

“However, talks within military circles say that a number of them have served in previous administrations and have pushed various reform agendas previously as cover for their efforts,” the AFP spokesperson stressed.

Another factor why the military won’t support these coup plots as reforms in the AFP, which include those of the modernization, infrastructure, and personnel support, are starting to kick-in.

Coup plots started coming out in the wake of the Mamasapano, Maguindanao incident where members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters killed 44 members of the Special Action Force last Jan. 25 during an encounter stemming from the operation to neutralize Malaysian terror bomber Zulkipli bin Hir alias Marwan.