THE revelation of President Rodrigo Duterte that the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plans to kill him and the fear of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. that there are quarters planning to oust the President are not remote. These internal and external threats like assassinating the President and a coup d’etat or People Power are clear and present dangers the Duterte presidency faces.
Internally, there are quarters, especially Duterte’s political opponents, who are now disgruntled and unsatisfied by the way he is managing the affairs of the state. He has no economic policies that will boost the country’s
economy. What we are hearing are all killings in relation to his anti-drug and criminality campaign.
Duterte has no concrete plan to address the economic problem to uplift the economic plight of the poor and to solve the unemployment problem. In fact, because of some uncertainties, some foreign investors are apprehensive to invest here.
Duterte’s “association” with the Left might also be the reason some quarters are beginning to worry about the future of his administration, fearing that we might be heading toward communism. This could be a reason for military adventurism. What if these disgruntled sectors recruit and create divisiveness among the Filipino people and in the military that might result to People Power?
Duterte should not rely on the 16 million Filipinos who voted for him in the last elections and in his high trust ratings. People might be influenced by these disgruntled sectors plus some financial considerations by quarters who are willing to finance any plan to overthrow this administration.
The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada were ousted by a few thousand Filipinos who staged a People Power backed by a faction from the military. The political opposition, disgruntled investors and drug lords can anytime pour their resources to oust Duterte. In Metro Manila, there are people who have no work and income who are willing to join paid rallies and demonstrations. What if these quarters are able to recruit a faction from the military to back massive protests?
Externally, the US can “play” with us through covert operations. Not only through direct assassination or by declaring a war against us like what they did to Iraq and Libya. The US can finance a “fake” People Power. The US forced Marcos to flee.
Read the history of other countries like Turkey and Honduras and you will know the “US’s unseen hand” in the ouster of their leaders.
Look what happened to former Panamanian president Manuel Noriega, who was suspected of being a drug lord. Noriega was forcibly taken by US servicemen in a lighting raid in his Palace and was brought to the US and detained there.
The US is not the only concerned by the extrajudicial killings in our country. The United Nations (UN), the European Union and now Germany and Jewish groups all over the world resented Duterte’s latest statement comparing the mass murder of the late German dictator Adolf Hitler against the Jews and his (Duterte’s) “killings” of drug personalities here. Do you know the Jews are very sensitive about this issue?
And mind you, the Jews partly control the economy of the US. They were able to penetrate the US economic market, including the Hollywood.
Duterte’s “courting” China and Russia, which are known as communist countries, might also trigger the growing animosity between the US and the Philippines. Do you think the US government will take it sitting down without retaliating? Has Duterte thought about what a US economic pressure can do to us? What if the US orders the pullout of US-based business process outsourcing (BPO) operating here?
Where will Duterte employ these 1.2 million Filipinos currently employed in the BPO sector? What if the US and UN pressure international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund not to give us a loan?
What if the US decides to make the lives of Filipino migrants and overseas Filipino workers in the States miserable? The US can also pressure its allies like Japan and Saudi Arabia to do the same.
Sus, daghan kaayong paagi nga lisud-lisuron ta sa US. Mao nang dili na lang gyud ta pagtuga-tuga og sukol nila.
(bobby@sunstar.com.ph)