By Martin Sadongdong

After the Philippine government sent a notice of termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) to the United States, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison has claimed that some pro-America officers in the military were talking about a possible coup d’etat against President Duterte.

Sison, who is in self-exile in The Netherlands, said Duterte has “aroused” the interest of some pro-US Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officials after he approved the sending of the termination of the two-decades-old military pact with America.

“Just by giving the US a notice of terminating VFA, he has aroused quite a number of pro-US military officers to talk against him and curse him for prejudicing hundreds of projects under the VFA. Some of these officers have been talking about a coup,” Sison said in a statement on Saturday.

Sison also noted that quite a number of the officials planning the ouster plot were “assets” of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and Central Intelligence Agency who remain “loyal to their pocketbooks rather than to the Filipino people.”

But as early as last week, AFP Chief General Felimon Santos Jr. had already dismissed the rumors that some military officials disapproved of Duterte’s decision to scrap the VFA.

Santos had said that there was no need for the military to conduct a loyalty check among its ranks since the change of command, with Duterte on top as the military’s Commander-in-Chief, remains uncompromised.

“We are loyal ever since,” Santos said on February 12.

The Philippine government sent last week the notice of termination of the VFA to the US government. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper had confirmed that Pentagon already received the notice.

The VFA, signed in 1998 to allow joint trainings between American and Filipino soldiers in the Philippines and govern the conduct of US troops while they are in the country, will officially be terminated after 180 days since the sending of the notice.

Advice

Sison also offered pieces of advice to Duterte for him to overcome all ouster plots against him due to his firm stand to terminate the VFA.

The top Communist leader said it would be “laudable” if Duterte could scrap all military agreements with the US, including the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), and the Mutual Logistics and Support Agreement (MLSA).

“For him to do so and counter any coup threat from pro-US military officers, he would need to invoke national sovereignty and at the same time, complement this with highly patriotic and progressive social, economic and political reforms to get solid support from the people as in Cuba, Vietnam, and Venezuela,” Sison said.

Doing so would enable the President to get the support of the “truly patriotic” military officers and enlisted personnel, Sison added.

‘Do it with China, too’

Meanwhile, Sison argued that if Duterte was capable of asserting national sovereignty over America, he should also be able to do it with China by demanding its withdrawal from artificial and militarized islands built in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the country in the West Philippine Sea.

“Otherwise, the scrapping of the military agreements with the US would be considered as merely favoring Chinese imperialism and the surrender of the West Philippine Sea to China,” Sison said.