Palace confident about failure of ouster plot against Duterte

Malacanang yesterday voiced confidence the supposed ouster plot against President Rodrigo Duterte, dubbed “Red October,” would not prosper, as the opposition did not have the support of the people.
Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade over the weekend claimed the Red October plot would push through and would be led by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leader Jose Ma. Sison.
President Duterte had said the communists, along with the Liberal Party and the Magdalo group, would push for his ouster in October.
In a news briefing, Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr said Filipinos continue to bestow “overwhelming support” on the Duterte government.
“We have no doubt the CPP has been out to overthrow the government since they were founded. We have no doubts that there are power-hungry individuals in the opposition who would like to resort to extra-constitutional means to bring down the government and we have no doubt the Magdalo group is addicted to coup d’etats,” Roque said.
“However, what I will say is that we enjoy overwhelming support from the people and therefore what these groups would like to see, the ouster of President Duterte, will not happen,” he added.
 The people would be the offended party if the ouster plot succeeds “because they gave the president the mandate to lead,” Roque said.
“You cannot people-power a person with the mandate. (Duterte) defeated their candidate by 6mn votes. Do not dream of a people power to oust him from his position,“ Roque said, referring to the president’s 2016 margin over the defeated Liberal Party presidential candidate, former senator Manuel Roxas.
The Palace spokesman also cited the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that almost eight out of 10 Filipinos were satisfied with the administration’s anti-illegal drug war.
Roque said that six months ago, he commissioned a survey on the drug war. It had the same results, he said.
“When you won by the margin the president had in the (2016) elections and when you have this kind of support being shown in surveys, they will have a hard time (ousting) the president,” Roque said.
In his tete-a-tete with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on September 11, Duterte said a “sympathetic” foreign country told him of the supposed plot being hatched by the Liberal Party, the Magdalo and the CPP.
“Sison, Magdalo and the others who do not want me, who cannot accept me since the election, they have combined. And, we have the evidence and we have their conversations provided by a foreign country sympathetic to us,” Duterte said.