Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. delivers his speech at the 22nd General Assembly of the Veterans Confederation of ASEAN Countries 2023 (VECONAC 2023) at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila in Pasay City on Tuesday, November 28, 2023. (File photo from INQUIRER.net/RYAN LEAGOGO)
MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Tuesday called “futile” any attempts to make the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) turn against the Constitution and the current administration.
Teodoro made the statement as Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez urged the AFP to withdraw their support for Marcos peacefully.
“The AFP is standing steadfast in upholding the Constitution under the leadership of the Commander in Chief President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.,” Teodoro said in a statement.
“Any attempt to sway them away from this duty or to patronize them to support a partisan agenda is futile, particularly when this agenda dovetails with a foreign interest contrary to our own national interests,” he also said.
“Calls for them to ‘withdraw support’ will not amount to anything but to a possible criminal investigation,” he warned.
AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla on Monday reaffirmed the armed forces’ loyalty to the Constitution and the Commander in Chief.
READ: AFP vows loyalty to chain of command after Marcos ouster call
Alvarez on Sunday urged the AFP to “peacefully” withdraw their support from Marcos to avert a possible war over the West Philippine Sea issue, which he said would bring “countless dead bodies, unimaginable destruction, famine and hunger.”
The resupply activity of BRP Sierra Madre grounded in Ayungin Shoal and the humanitarian activities in Scarborough Shoal became flashpoints of tension between Manila and Beijing.
Beijing asserts sovereignty in the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, even if such a claim has been effectively invalidated by a July 2016 international tribunal ruling that stemmed from a case filed by Manila in 2013.