PCG head Gavan on alleged civilian-military junta calls: We leave politics to politicians

Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) chief Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan on Thursday dismissed the alleged calls for a civilian-military junta, saying that no one has approached the agency for such a move against the administration.

“The strength of the Coast Guard is its weakness. We are only 35,000 weak, so we can't create a dent in any political circus. So walang ganung nag-a-approach sa amin (no one was approaching us). We are insignificant in this scheme of things,” Gavan said in an ambush interview.

“And as a matter of common understanding amongst us in the Coast Guard, we leave politics to politicians,” he told reporters.

Asked if the Coast Guard has a contingency plan in case of chaos, Gavan said, “We are focused on providing the public services that our people deserve.”

Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson earlier said that he received, and subsequently ignored, offers to join a “civil-military junta” aiming to remove President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte from office.

The offer was made by some retired military personnel, according to Lacson, who graduated from Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and headed the Philippine National Police.

The PCG is an armed uniformed service attached to the Department of Transportation. In the event of war, the Coast Guard shall fall under the Department of National Defense.

On Tuesday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) maintained that there is no military junta within its organization and that it will not engage into such activities.

“Our (AFP Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr.) has already clarified this multiple times that there is no such thing as a military junta within the AFP,” AFP spokesperson Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla earlier said.

“The AFP will never subscribe to any reset plot and our Constitution has no cheat codes. So we will always go to the side of the Constitution, the constitutional processes that are in place,” she added. —RF, GMA Integrated News