Supposed 'Red October' plot

Rights workers hit the dismissal of petitions for protection against alleged state harassment.

“The dismissal of our petitions for the writ of amparo and habeas data is a gross disservice to all the human rights defenders of Karapatan who have been killed and to those who continue to remain in the line of fire. In doing so, the appellate court has refused protection for defenders at risk. This is tantamount to complicity on the attacks perpetrated against us,” says Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

The groups will continue to exhaust all legal processes to appeal and overturn the decision, Palabay adds.

More than 300 filmmakers, media workers, cultural workers and members of the film and artistic community have so far put their names on a statement to protest the Armed Forces of the Philippines "essentially [accusing] us and the organizations that sponsor film screenings on martial law of recruiting for the New People’s Army."

The AFP, through Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr, claims communist rebels have been recruiting students in at least 18 universities by showing them films on martial law during the Marcos administration to supposedly influence them into rebelling against the government.

"This is red-baiting and slander of the worst kind. It impinges on our right to freedom of expression, speech and assembly, and endangers us and our audience, especially in the context of the Duterte regime’s murderous anti-war and counter-insurgency campaigns and the president’s recent pronouncement that 'rebels' are now targets for 'neutralization' or can be arrested without warrant, despite constitutional guarantees against it," the manifesto, which has been spreading on Facebook, reads.

"Our film screenings provide an invaluable service to the youth, the students and the general audience, especially since our education system has largely failed in informing them about the systemic atrocities that happened during the martial law era," they say.

"The screenings hope to provide them with knowledge and insight into that dark chapter in our history, especially since many of the actual perpetrators and beneficiaries of that fascist dictatorship have fully rehabilitated themselves back into mainstream politics and into positions of power," they also say.

Emilio Aguinaldo College in Manila "vehemently denies" that it is being used for recruitment of students to the Communist Party of the Philippines as the Armed Forces of the Philippines claimed on Wednesday.

It says neither the school nor its students have any "record of participation in any partisan political activity," adding the school is more engaged in outreach and community programs.

"Absent any proof or actual basis, the statement by the AFP should be rectified immediately," lawyer Joseph Noel Estrada, EAC legal counsel, says in a press statement.

Emilio Aguinaldo College denies AFP allegation that it is being used to recruit members of the Communist Party of the Philippines. @PhilippineStar pic.twitter.com/bfLxUDUtek

— Janvic Mateo (@jvrmateoSTAR) October 4, 2018

"[T]he college adheres to peaceful and non-violent means of expressing grievances and, more importantly, to democracy," he says, adding the school will not allow itself to be used for subversive activities.

EAC, which has campuses in Manila and in Cavite, follows similar statements from De La Salle University, the University of Santo Tomas and the University of Makati denying allegations made by the AFP that their campuses are being used as recruitment areas for the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army.

The AFP claims films about abuses during martial law during the Marcos administration are being used to influence students to rebel against the government as part of a supposed "Red October" plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte from office.

The CPP has repeatedly disavowed the supposed plot, which initially allegedly also involved the pro-military Magdalo group and the Liberal Party.

The AFP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government have both said Magdalo and LP are not involved.

The government should charge supposed and unnamed Liberal Party members it says are part of a supposedly communist-led conspiracy to overthrow the government, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon of the LP says.

In a press statement, Drilon points out Gen. Carlito Galvez, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff, has already said neither the LP no Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV are involved in the supposed "Red October" plot.

"I challenge Malacañang, particularly presidential spokesman Harry Roque to file charges against LP members who are allegedly in cahoots with the communists to overthrow the government," Drilon says.

In response to Galvez' statement, Roque said: "It could be true that there is no formal memorandum of agreement between the party itself and the CPP-NPA. It does not prevent leading personalities with the Liberal Party from having such collusion."

Roque also insisted that Trillanes is involved because the senator "has repeatedly called for the ouster of the president... [H]e has actually verbalized time and again he should step down. He should removed from office, he should be sent to jail."

Drilon says Wednesday: "Let me borrow Secretary Roque’s own words. We should not take Roque seriously."

Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) rejects the Armed Forces of the Philippines' assertion that a so-called "Red October" plot is in place and is meant to create a reason for President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law and a revolutionary government.

"May we strongly point out that, the youth and labor movement do not yearn for martial law. It was precisely the reason why we went to Luneta on the 46th anniversary of the declaration of martial law. Everyone who attended clearly had one message in mind for the Duterte administration: 'Never Again'," SPARK, which is not affiliated with the national democratic activist movement, says in a statement.

"The student and labor movements have been active in the parliament of the streets the past two years because they are the very sectors of society that have been gravely affected by the autocratic and erratic economic policies of the Duterte administration," the group says.

The Communist Party of the Philippines brands as incredulous a statement by the Armed Forces of the Philippines that the so-called "Red October" plot is meant to cause chaos that will force President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law nationwide.

"The claim simply defies logic. Why should the CPP 'push' for martial law nationwide when it has repeatedly condemned and called for the lifting of martial law in Mindanao?  Why should it 'push' for something which has relentlessly inflicted atrocious crimes on the people?" CPP says in an online statement.

Opposition to martial law in Mindanao—declared in May 2017 and extended to December 31, 2018—was among the issues that led to the bogging down and eventual suspension of peace talks between the government and communist rebels. 

"Again, there is no Red October plot orchestrated by the CPP," it says Tuesday, October 2.

President Rodrigo Duterte claims some soldiers are working with the Liberal Party and communist rebels to oust him.

Duterte: Diyan ako naghinanakit sa kanila yung mga sundalo. Hindi na bale magalit sila... akin wala yun, pero to do it in cahoots sa kalaban...if you are true to your country do not bed with the enemy.

— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) September 25, 2018

Tete-a-tete with Panelo

He floated the idea of a conspiracy on September 11, in his televised conversation with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, claiming a sympathetic foreign country had recorded conversations to prove the supposed conspiracy.

He said then that the conspiracy was among Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and the Magdalo party-list, the Liberal Party and the Communist Party of the Philippines. It was an echo of a same claim made last year that the "yellows", members of the clergy and the CPP were conspiring against him.

RELATED: Supposed 'Red October' plot a military fiction, CPP says

Vice President Leni Robredo said last week that the LP is not working to oust Duterte and said on Tuesday that the military's "Red October" narrative is baseless and dangerous.

"Baseless allegations that link my involvement in legitimate opposition activities with illegal actions, particularly when they come from high ranking military officials, undermine not just the opposition but also our democracy," the vice president added.

"Filipinos are not keen on supporting another uprising. It will not be good for the country if we will go through another political upheaval the likes of EDSA. I feel we have gone through so much already,"  she said last week.

'Reds will die for me'

Duterte, who previously identified as a socialist, said in December 2016 that "the Reds" would die for him.

“They will never go for the ouster. Look at their posters. They would just condemn the burial of Marcos. But that was really their line, their favorite lines actually because Marcos was their enemy,” the president said then. — with a report from The STAR/Alexis Romero

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that as far as he knows Vice President Leni Robredo is not among the opposition figures whom the military claims are plotting to overthrow President Duterte.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque: AFP has not named VP Leni as one of the personalities behind the supposed ouster plot against Pres. Duterte | @alexisbromero

— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) September 25, 2018

He insists, however, that, according to military intelligence, some members of the opposition are in the supposed plot.

The Communist Party of the Philippines says the Armed Forces of the Philippines has conjured a fictional plot to set the stage for "increasingly draconian measures against the Filipino people."

The party says that it "unequivocally denies claim of a so-called Red October plot of the CPP and New People’s Army to overthrow the Duterte regime by October."

It says the government has yet to show any proof of the supposed plot. It adds that "the NPA, at this stage, is not yet strong enough to cause the overthrow of Duterte and the ruling system."

"The so-called plot is a Duterte straw man for him to beat and make himself look strong and invincible," it also says.

Vice President Leni Robredo says a supposed 'Red October' plot by an alleged communist-led conspiracy with opposition groups are "laughable if they were not dangerous."

She says the "attempt to delegitimize various opposition groups and personalities to an alleged extra-constitutional 'plot' are alarming," she says in a statement.

"Baseless allegations that link my involvement in legitimate opposition activities with illegal actions, particularly when they come from high ranking military officials, undermine not just the opposition but also our democracy," she says.

The military had earlier claimed that communist rebels are planning to destabilize the Duterte administration next month as part of international celebrations for communism and Marxism. 

Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Armed Forces deputy chief for operations, claimed that the "Red October" plot remains even if a plan to oust Duterte by September 21 failed to materialize.