MANILA, Philippines — The Reds, the Yellows, and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV are the ones who want to bring the country down and are behind moves to overthrow the administration, according to President Rodrigo Duterte.
The chief executive said that while he was not certain if Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, whom he wants impeached, were “part of the concerted effort” and the “program of the Left” to topple his administration, he was sure that communists and the opposition led by the Liberal Party (LP) were planning together to have him ousted.
“But what is really very clear is ‘yong Left, pati — ang kaalyado ng Left is, ng mga Bayan is the…mga…‘yong mga dilaw. Gusto nila ako paalisin dito sa Malacañang,” he said on Wednesday, Oct. 4.
The Bayan that Duterte was referring to is the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, among the staunchest critics of the previous administration and the LP. Bayan is composed of left-wing organizations chaired by Carol Pagaduan Araullo and whose other leaders include former party-list representatives Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño, and Neri Colmenares.
Groups under Bayan supported Duterte when he assumed office on June 30, 2016 and for the first time in recent history staged a rally in support of his presidency. Bayan groups hoped the Duterte administration would be able to once and for all address the root causes of poverty and cater to the needs and aspirations of the masses — things that the Aquino administration and other past administrations allegedly failed to accomplish.
Leftist leaders belonging to the alliance were then given key government positions, including Rafael Mariano as chief of the Department of Agrarian Reform and Judy Taguiwalo as secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, but the two failed to get the nod of the Commission on Appointments (CA).
Last month, following the CA’s rejection of Mariano and Taguiwalo’s appointments and amid allegations of massive human rights violations caused by Duterte’s pet anti-drug war campaign, leftist House members from the Makabayan bloc bolted the majority coalition, claiming the President and his administration had already become “fascist” and “anti-people.”
‘Kayabang mo’
Besides the Left and the opposition, Duterte also considers Trillanes as a major enemy of his administration.
“It’s Trillanes who will bring this government or this country down to the dogs,” the President said last Wednesday.
But according to Duterte, while the senator leads critics of his administration, Trillanes is just pretending to be brave and is full of hot air. Also, the President claims the senator has “congenital” abnormality because he was born with only one testicle.
“Nanguna ang gago. Patapang-tapangan…Kaya unahin ko nga siya, putang-ina,” the President said.
“Balita ko isa lang ‘yang bayag mo. Congenital. Kayabang mo. Maglaban kaya sa akin ng barilan? Ay sus, ipagyabang mo ‘yang bunganga mo,” Duterte added.
‘Creating his own ghosts’
Meanwhile, in a statement issued Wednesday, Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. denied Duterte’s claim that there was a Red-Yellow conspiracy.
“The President is the one creating his own ghosts,” Reyes said.
“Bayan is part of a broad movement fighting tyranny and a return to dictatorship. It stands against extrajudicial killings, Martial Law, and political repression under the Duterte regime,” the Bayan leader said.
“The broad movement involves different groups and personalities with different political affiliations. Church groups, students, and artists are also part of the growing movement,” said Reyes.
Bayan said that instead of complaining about the “imagined” Left-Yellow conspiracy, the President should explain why the Department of Justice was backing “what appears to be a pro-Duterte vigilante group” called Citizens National Guard.
“More alarming than the imagines Left-Yellow conspiracy is the proliferation of disinformation using government resources,” said Reyes.
Click and watch this video report below:
