Philippine defence officials deny threat to withdraw support from Rodrigo Duterte over South China Sea row with Beijing
"We denounce the irresponsible propaganda being propagated in online posts alleging that a group of retired and active military officers are withdrawing their support for the president," defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a Sunday statement.
"This is fake news! I am not, and will never be, a part of any such group - nor are the officials at the Department of National Defense, many of whom are also retired military officers," he said, calling on the "destabilisers to cease from propagating malicious statements".
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Some 200 Chinese vessels, including some believed to be maritime militia, moored around the Whitsun Reef in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone last month, an incident Beijing insists was prompted by bad weather. Nine vessels were still moored at the reef as of last Tuesday.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines were firmly behind the chain of command, Sobejana said, and committed to the nation "its unflinching loyalty to the constitution and the duly constituted authorities".
Top security and defence officials on Monday confirmed to CNN Philippines the existence of several Viber groups among the military community, some members of which were described as "very opinionated". National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said there was a group with "about 400 members", though he did not say if it was the same group to which Lorenzana had referred.
Defence and security analyst Jose Antonio Custodio dismissed the recent posts as "acoustic baiting [that] started out as serious insinuations of unrest in the Philippine military" and on Monday turned into a "social media cat fight" between the military and an account going by the name "Info Ops PH" on several social media platforms.
Custodio, who was once employed in the military's planning sector, said griping among army personnel was "normal and typical" and that the army had given the account legitimacy by responding to its claims.
The alleged criticism of Duterte by the military came as an online petition calling for him to step down over his handling of the pandemic and perceived subservience to China drew more than 50,000 signatures by Monday.
Custodio said Info Ops PH was "riding on the pandemic and the general dissatisfaction over the response of the government", describing Covid-19 as the "greatest security threat right now" to the stability of the Philippines.
A greater threat than the withdrawal of support by retired generals, he said, would be if the country's captains of industry disapproved of Duterte's actions.
A political and economic risk analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some prominent industry figures had taken a step back out of frustration over the president's handling of the pandemic.
"They have no choice but to dance [with Duterte]," he said. "These are also the captains that want to reopen the economy fast and the challenge really is to strike a balance between pandemic management and improving confidence, between spending and prudence."
Former senator and retired Philippine Navy officer Antonio Trillanes IV, who has in the past been accused by Duterte of plotting against the president, denied that he had anything to do with the Viber groups.
An active duty military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said whoever was behind the claims "know the value of military support".
That same year, he claimed Chinese President Xi Jinping had promised that Beijing would not allow him to be removed from office, nor would it allow the Philippines "to go to the dogs". In a 2019 speech, he told soldiers to tell him if they wanted his removal rather than launching a coup, while on April 12, in a pre-recorded national address, he asked whether the military would "allow me stay on" if he had become pointless.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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