THE supposed plot to oust President Duterte is well-named as most supposed ouster plot usually are. “God Save the Queen,” for example, was a plot hatched against the “queen” herself, then president Corazon Aquino. In the Duterte case, the “red” refers to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and since the plot is supposed to be implemented in October, thus “Red October.”
Apparently, those who conceived the plot’s name must have known of the Cold War-era film “The Hunt for Red October” starring the most popular portrayer of the James Bond character, Sean Connery. The movie, based on Tom Clancy’s book of the same title, is about a mutiny of a different kind: a Soviet Navy submarine commander defecting to the United States.
“Red October,” though, is too much of a giveaway. Which brings me to a question I have been asking since I got acquainted with all these supposed plots. Why the giveaway? Wouldn’t the name of the plot itself cause its failure because the intention is obvious in it? The naming seems amateurish compared with the way the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos hatched his Martial Law plot.
To recall the late Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., a senator before Marcos declared military rule, exposed the plot in a privilege speech in the Senate. He said the Marcos plot was code-named Oplan Sagittarius. On this the late Primitivo Mijares, in his book “The Conjugal Dictatorship,” wrote:
“One of the best kept secrets of the martial law planning of Marcos was that, when he had finalized the plan and he had come to a decision to impose it, he distributed the copies of the plan in sealed envelopes to the military officials and leaders of the intelligence community. He took great care and caution to assign different Zodiac code-names to the copies he handed out to the would-be martial law enforcers. The first letter of each code name corresponded to the first letter of the surname of the recipient. The copy that was code-named ‘Sagittarius’ went to Gen. Marcos Soliman, a Pampango who was the chief of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA). It was so easy and convenient then to pinpoint Soliman as the source of Aquino. Thus, ranking officers of the armed forces did not have to commit mental dishonesty when they denied the existence of ‘Oplan Sagittarius.’ They were not aware of any game plan by that code name. However, they did acknowledge to newsmen that the contingency plan was the martial law plan itself.”
By the way, what happened to Soliman after that should be a no-brainer. According to Mijares, a few days after martial law was declared, Soliman was reported to have died of heart attack. “The truth is that he was shot dead by Metrocom troopers personally dispatched by President Marcos to arrest and detain him at Camp Crame for ‘tactical interrogation’ for the leakage of Oplan Sagittarius,” Mijares wrote.
Is there an ouster plot against the president named “Red October”? Just by the name alone I could not help but be suspicious. I mean, aren’t the plotters more intelligent than the way they named their plot? Then again those who exposed it may have compelling proof. The next thing they should do is present the proof.