Brawner admits there were calls to withdraw support from Marcos

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. admitted some retired officers called on the military to withdraw its support from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., but they refused to do so.

Brawner on Friday said the retired officers' call was made amid public protests over the flood control anomalies revealed last month.

"So, the grievances were mainly against the President. And they were calling for, as I mentioned earlier, they were calling for the withdrawal of support by the AFP from the President. So that was their grievance, is that they're saying that somebody else deserves to be President. But they did not mention who that somebody else is,” Brawner said at a forum.

He said recruitment activities were held by some retired officers of the AFP who also tried to reach out to him, their commanders and younger officers “to intervene through several means.”

“Maaaring through a coup d'état, as written, a military junta, in order to come up with a reset for the entire Philippine society, or withdrawal of support. So, several forms of military intervention,” he said.

However, no such activities transpired during the September 21 protests.

“As the chief of staff, I was confident already that none of the members of the Armed Forces would, in fact, heed the call by some sectors, by some individuals, to intervene, because of the professionalism that we have reached in the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” he said.

Nevertheless, Brawner said the calls were present in the rallies, and they informed Marcos about it. According to him, the President maintained his trust with the AFP.

“But we mentioned this to the President, him being our commander-in-chief. And he just said that, ‘I trust the AFP, I trust you to do the right thing.’ And so he wasn't really that worried,” Brawner said.

The Department of National Defense (DND) also previously denied rumors of an alleged coup plot by the military against the Marcos administration.

“Walang nagbalak sa AFP. Maraming nagdadasal na may nagbalak sana. Pero walang nagbabalak sa AFP,” said Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr.

(No one in the AFP planned such a thing. Many could have prayed that someone planned on doing so. But no one from the AFP is planning to do that.)

According to the report, the Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO) alongside other groups met with Marcos last September 19, a few days before the anti-corruption protests on September 21 wherein a riot also erupted in Mendiola in Manila. —KG, GMA Integrated News