MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has ruled out any credible plot to unseat President Rodrigo Duterte amid persistent reports.
“Some people say there are (ouster plots). We have intelligence people going around. Meron tayong ongoing operations. Wala naman kaming nararamdaman ( We have ongoing operations, but we did not feel it),” the defense chief said in an interview with GMA News Digital on Tuesday afternoon.
His statement comes amid persistent claims of the Palace that groups are plotting the President’s ouster. It even came out with a matrix, a diagram mapping a network of journalists, lawyers’ group, critics, news organizations as among those involved in the purported destabilization plot.
“If you want to destabilize the government you have to recruit a lot of people — military police, government officials,” Lorenzana said.
“Itong mga lumalabas, maybe the Malacanang has some information na may maliliit na grupo. May very small plot na sila lang nakakaalam (This is what came out. Maybe Malacanang has some information on small groups. There are very small plots that they know)…But before you have to do that, you have to get some people from the military and police…to give it a credible chance,” he added.
Lorenzana also said they were not consulted on the new matrix released by the Palace.
“We did not have prior information to that. Hindi ko nga yan nakita except yung pinakapaliwanag ni Sec. (Sal) Panelo (I didn’t even see that except the explanation of Panelo),” he said. (Editor: Eden Estopace)
RELATED STORY:
READ: No specific threat to oust Duterte — military