Marcos vows to crush destabilization plots, combat disinformation online
By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter
PHILIPPINE President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. vowed on Thursday to fend off destabilization plots, as he cited disinformation efforts spreading online to undermine his administration.
“We will also not allow agents within the country to destabilize our government and create division within our nation,” he said before an audience of troops at a military camp in southern Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao.
Mr. Marcos urged them to develop new skills “to combat new forms of warfare, including those that extend up to the digital realm.”
“We must be prepared to fight false narratives, disinformation, and digital operations that seek to sow conflict [against us] and among us,” he said.
In a press release, the Presidential Communications Office said the President also warned that the country’s enemies “may be hiding in the shadows, or infiltrating the very communities and institutions that the government seeks to protect.”
Mr. Marcos said his government is ready to counter any destabilization attempts. Last week, he said he had not received any destabilization plot report involving active police officials, although he did not rule out the possibility of retired officials making such a move.
Former senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV, a former soldier, earlier said ranking police officials were recruiting colleagues to join a supposed ouster plot against the Marcos administration.
He has been linking the alleged plot to the camp of former president Rodrigo R. Duterte, who led a political rally earlier this month calling for Mr. Marcos’ resignation.
At the House of Representatives on Thursday, Mayor Rey T. Uy of Tagum City told reporters that Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon D. Alvarez — an ally of Mr. Duterte — should be expelled from Congress for calling on the Philippine military to withdraw their support for the President.
“Congressman Alvarez, during the rally, (called) for the… military, army to withdraw their support to President Marcos. To us, that’s unacceptable,” said Mr. Uy on the sidelines of the hearing on his ethics complaint against the former House speaker.
However, Party-list Rep. Felimon M. Espares, who chairs the House ethics committee, said the panel was only concerned with deliberating whether or not Mr. Alvarez’s conduct during the political rally was unbecoming of a congressman. The panel won’t deliberate the legal and criminal aspects of his statements, he said.
In April, Mr. Alvarez urged the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to withdraw their support for Mr. Marcos to de-escalate tensions with Beijing over the South China Sea.
The Philippine leader has veered away from some of the key policies of his predecessor, standing up to China amid its intrusions into Philippine waters and vowing to shift the anti-drugs campaign to rehabilitation from a deadly approach. — with a report from Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio