DILG: Communist rebels plan to disrupt Marcos' inauguration
THE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) assured Tuesday, June 21, 2022, that it will not let the alleged plan of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to disrupt the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to happen.
DILG Undersecretary and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said they are taking such intelligence reports seriously and they will do everything necessary to prevent it from happening.
He said they are no longer surprised that the leftist group is working on something to disturb the historical event where another Marcos is set to take the helm of the national government.
“That’s part of their playbook. Whoever sits in Malacañang is their enemy because ultimately, all they want is to overthrow the government through violent means to be followed by a socialist revolution,” said Malaya.
The inauguration will be held at the National Museum of the Philippines on June 30.
On Monday, former cadres of the communist terrorist group Orlando “Ka Warly” Baluyot, now chairman of Tinang Samahang Nayon Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and Ka Pong Sibayan, a farmer from Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion, Tarlac, claimed that the CPP has started organizing farmers in their province to disrupt the Marcos’ oath taking.
Baluyot said they want to prevent Marcos from assuming the post.
Malaya said they have also received reports that leftist organizers have been organizing in Tarlac, Cavite, Pampanga, Laguna in the past weeks to mobilize people for their “nefarious ends.”
“They are even misleading the youth to join them in their protest actions,” he said.
Malaya said they have already ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to double the number of their deployed forces during the event to deny the success of the terrorist group.
He said they are also already coordinating with other government security forces to augment the operations.
Earlier, incoming Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile warned of a credible plot to embarrass the incoming administration.
“I just picked up what I consider to be a credible information that there are groups in America and in the Philippines planning and preparing to cause serious embarrassment and trouble for our newly-elected President,” he said in a Facebook post.
“I have a humble unsolicited advice for the national security officials of the new regime. Instead of making soft and pacific statements seemingly intended to quiet and to gain the cooperation, trust, and confidence of the habitual trouble makers in this country, I suggest that they should sharpen their intelligence information,” Enrile added.
In a statement, the CPP said that Marcos is an “international embarrassment,” and that the DILG is making such a claim to prevent the people from joining mass actions during the inauguration day.
“The DILG must be condemned for engaging in brazen red-baiting to justify their plan to use the police to suppress by force the mass actions set to be mounted on June 30 by various democratic sectors who aim to protest the fraudulent May 9 elections and the inauguration of the illegitimate Marcos I regime. This clearly aims to intimidate and bully the people from joining the planned mass demonstrations,” Marco Valbuena, CPP chief information officer, said in a statement.
“The so-called ‘communist plot’ is a Marcosian concoction of the militarists in the National Task Force-Elcac and the DILG. It reminds us of the same claims made by Marcos Sr. as pretext for declaring martial law in 1972. These militarists see a ‘plot’ wherever there is opposition, dissent and criticism. They are exposing their fascist mindset when they publicly consider the exercise of democratic rights as nefarious,” he added.
Valbuena urged the public to join in the mass actions to protest the collusion of Marcos and Duterte regime for a fraudulent election to ensure his win and for “evading justice over the past decades” following the ruling of his father.
The Marcos family was criticized over their alleged stolen wealth, as well as alleged human rights violations during Marcos Sr.’s regime. (SunStar Philippines)