Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon challenged Malacañang to slap members of the Liberal Party (LP) with charges, who supposedly worked with communists rebels in a plot to overthrow President Rodrigo Duterte.
“I challenge Malacanang, particularly presidential spokesman Harry Roque to file charges against LP members who are allegedly in cahoots with the communists to overthrow the government,” Drilon said on Wednesday, October 3.
“In fact, I believe it is the responsibility of Malacañang to file the charges now because its credibility is at stake for issuing baseless allegations that are later denied by the military,” he added.
The senator said this after Roque insisted that several LP members are part of the alleged “Red October” plot against Duterte, even after Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Carlito Galvez denied the accusation in a budget hearing at the Senate on Tuesday.
“I’m sure individual members of the Liberal Party, as the President said, may be in collusion with the CPP-NPA,” Roque said in a press briefing yesterday.
“It could be true that there is no formal memorandum of agreement between the party itself and the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army), [but] it does not prevent leading personalities with the Liberal Party from having such collusion,” he added.
However, Drilon dismissed Roque’s remarks, saying that Galvez’s statement regarding the ouster plot “should put the issue to rest.”
“Roque’s insistence shows that he is merely making up stories to harass the critics of the President and the political opposition,” he stressed.
In defending the Chief Executive’s controversial statements, the latest was when the latter said his “only sin” is the “extrajudicial killings (EJKs),” Roque had told the public on recent instances that Duterte was not serious.
That is why this time, Drilon would like to ‘borrow’ the spokesman’s own words, saying “We should not take Roque seriously.”
The senator also urged the current administration to give more attention to bigger issues that the country is facing such as increasing prices of goods, poverty, hunger, and lack of jobs, instead of involving itself on politics.
Duterte earlier urged the public to watch out for LP, Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV, and the communists – whom he claimed to be conniving with each other to unseat him.
The three parties, however, denied such accusations.
[READ: Sison, Alejano deny working together to unseat Duterte]