AFP slams Joma Sison for claiming US can stage coup vs. Duterte

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday hit back at Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison for claiming that the Unites States (US) can easily stage a coup against President Rodrigo Duterte.

"This coward has gone insane. He is already muttering words of an old man whose memory has abandoned him. Come back to the Philippines and face reality," AFP public affairs chief Colonel Noel Detoyato said.

Detoyato underscored that the Philippine government would not take orders from the US as the Philippines has its own democratic institutions.

"'Yung sinasabi ni Joma is an indication of his state of mind," Detoyato said.

In Malacañang, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo maintained that Sison has a “wishful thinking.”

“That's a wishful thinking coming from a tired, old, failed revolutionary,” he said.

Panelo said Sison should “wake up from a half century of sleep” and that it was “pitiful” that “this man has to rely on a foreign country to effect a change of leadership in this country.”

“It's wishful thinking. Why? Apart from the US will not listen to him, a country which abhors in the first place, he hates to the bone, Filipinos trust this President. The military and police love this President,” he added.

On Sunday, the self-exiled communist leader said the US could easily instruct its followers from the military and police to arrest Duterte and have Vice President Leni Robredo be installed as the successor.

Detoyato emphasized that the security forces would not arrest the Chief Executive: "Of course not. He is our duly elected president and commander-in-chief."

Just last week, Duterte had asked security forces not to stage a coup d'etat against the government under his term.

Both the military and police ensured that there have been no plans of coup d'etat against the Duterte administration. — with Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News