Duterte orders to declassify conversation of Magdalo, Reds, critics of alleged conspiracy to overthrow him

September 11, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he had asked the authorities to "declassify" the "conversation" provided by a foreign country sympathetic to his administration on the supposed conspiracy among the Magdalo members, the communist rebels and his critics to overthrow his administration.

In what could have been a press conference and address to the nation, Duterte instead held a tete-a-tete with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo in Malacanang regarding the controversies hounding his administration.

Panelo asked several issues, including politics and economy, during the about one-and-a-half hours televised conversation.

When asked about his critics, such opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Duterte said since he assumed office, they were already against him.

"We have the evidence and we have the conversation provided by a foreign country sympathetic to us," he said, noting that "connection" among them.

"I asked that it be declassified and shown to all...so they were in constant communication," he said, citing in particular the alleged communication between Trillanes and Sison.

"It might be a loose conspiracy but they are into it," he said.

Duterte warned the military and the police to be careful about such conspiracy with Magdalo, which Trillanes co-founded with the other soldiers who launched coup d'etat during the administration of former President and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

"Magdalo is all in agreement. Its membership to destabilize and overthrow the government," he said.

Duterte again made his offer of quitting from the post if the Armed Forces of the Philippines thought that he was no longer competent and qualified as a sitting president. Celerina Monte/DMS