MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang on Tuesday, November 26, chastized former president Rodrigo Duterte for urging the military to step in and fix the “fractured” government — a move the Palace saw as seeking the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“No motive is more selfish than calling for a sitting president to be overthrown so that your daughter can take over,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said in a statement.
“And he will go to great and evil lengths, such as insulting our professional armed forces by asking them to betray their oath, for his plan to succeed. The former president should respect the Constitution, not disobey it. He should desist from being as irresponsible as he has become,” Bersamin added.
In another of his late-night press conferences, Rodrigo Duterte called on the military and police to “protect the Constitution.” The former president went on to say that “there is a fracture in government, and only the military can see the solution” — although he stopped short of explicitly calling for a coup d’état.
For Bersamin, Duterte was egging the military to overthrow Marcos.
“Nakakagulat ang garapalang panawagan ni dating Pangulong Duterte sa ating sandatahang lakas na maglunsad ng kudeta laban kay Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.,” he said.
(The explicit call of former president Duterte for our Armed Forces to stage a coup d’état against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is shocking.)
“Hindi katanggap-tanggap ang marahas na pang-aagaw ng kapangyarihan upang madaling maluklok bilang pangulo sa pamamagitan ng pagpaslang, panggugulo at pag-aalsa. Maghintay kayo sa tamang panahon, sumunod sa tamang pamamaraan,” he added.
(A violent power grab — through killings, disturbance, and an uprising — to quickly install a president is not acceptable. Wait for the right time, and follow the right procedure.)
Bersamin also warned that it would not “shirk from its sworn duty to govern and manage the affairs of the Filipino Nation according to the Constitution and the Rule of Law.”
“This administration…will defend its legacy before the Filipino People only by lawful means. The state will act resolutely to go against all unlawful attempts and challenges,”he said.
It’s unclear what Malacañang might have meant by saying that it would “act resolutely.” We’ve asked the Presidential Communications Office for clarification and will update this story once they respond.
Duterte held the press conference less than an hour after Marcos left for a one-day working trip to the United Arab Emirates on Monday. Earlier that day, Marcos had openly criticized his 2022 elections running mate for the first time, over her threat that she had arranged to have him, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez killed in the event that she is killed.
While she has backtracked on her statement, the Marcos government is bent on seeing the matter through, beginning with a subpoena served by the National Bureau of Investigation to the Vice President through her Mandaluyong office on Tuesday.
At the heart of the Vice President’s latest word war with the Marcos government is the House detention of her long-time aide and chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez. Lopez was cited in contempt for her “interference” in the House probe into Duterte’s alleged misuse of intelligence and confidential funds in the OVP and the Department of Education, when she led the agency.
Duterte’s angry tirade against Marcos and the First Lady on Saturday was sparked by the decision of the House committee on good government to transfer Lopez to the women’s prison in Mandaluyong. Since she suffered an anxiety attack on Saturday, the House panel had ordered her confinement at the state-run Veterans Memorial Medical Center. – Rappler.com
