{"id":245294,"date":"2020-02-18T19:33:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T00:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=245294"},"modified":"2020-02-18T19:33:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T00:33:46","slug":"military-coup-vs-duterte-a-pipe-dream-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/18\/military-coup-vs-duterte-a-pipe-dream-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Military coup vs. Duterte \u2018a pipe dream\u2019: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the San Isidro Central School in Leyte on January 23, 2020. VALERIE ESCALERA\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday described as a \u201cpipe dream\u201d the claim of communist founder Jose Maria Sison that some Philippine military officials who are pro-Americans are planning to stage a coup d\u2019etat against President Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Palace reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo is confident that soldiers would never overthrow Duterte because they are \u201c100 percent\u201d supportive of their Commander-in-Chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a wishful thinking. It\u2019s a pipe dream. It will never come to fruition. Filipinos \u2013 the majority or overwhelming of (them) \u2013 they are supportive of the President,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) has \u201caroused\u201d some pro-United States (US) officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to launch a coup d\u2019etat against him, Sison claimed on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Sison said coup plotters are \u201cquite a number\u201d of AFP officials who were \u201cassets\u201d of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and Central Intelligence Agency and are \u201cloyal to their pocketbooks rather than to the Filipino people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust by giving the US a notice of terminating VFA, he has aroused quite a number of pro-US military officers to talk against him and curse him for prejudicing hundreds of projects under the VFA,\u201d Sison claimed.<\/p>\n

Panelo merely brushed aside Sison\u2019s claim, saying the abrogation of VFA would not prompt military officials to unseat Duterte.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala \u2018yun<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s not an issue). Military is 100 percent in support of the President. The AFP has already expressed its support to the President,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte was forced to terminate the 22-year-old VFA after the US had canceled the visa of his ally, former national police chief and now Senator Ronald dela Rosa.<\/p>\n

The Philippines on Feb. 11 sent a formal notice to the US, signifying its intent to revoke VFA that apparently gives preferential treatment to US troops who are visiting the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Under the VFA, American forces can go to the Philippines without visa and passport and can use their licenses and permits in the host country.<\/p>\n

The military pact will be revoked 180 days after the receipt of the formal termination notice.<\/p>\n

There was no need for Duterte to meet with high-ranking AFP officials to thwart the supposed coup plot against him, Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Last week, AFP chief Gen. Felimon Santos Jr. denied rumors that some military officials had expressed objection to Duterte\u2019s move to scrap the VFA.<\/p>\n

Santos said the military supports the President\u2019s latest act because it will survive even without the VFA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday described as a \u201cpipe dream\u201d the claim of communist founder Jose Maria Sison that some Philippine …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":243140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245295,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245294\/revisions\/245295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}