Aquino bares ouster plot

By Jaime R. Pilapil, Reporter

A plot to remove him from office purportedly by people who plundered government in the past and who would want to return to the “old system of graft and corruption” was bared by President Benigno Aquino 3rd himself on Thursday.

In his speech during the 26th anniversary ofthe Presidential Security Group (PSG) at Malacanang Park, the President disclosed that some people who were influential in the past are behind such attempt.

“There are some who want to bring back the old system where they amassed huge amounts of money, because they know that we will not agree to that, they want me removed from the picture so that no one will prosecute them anymore,” Mr. Aquino said.

But PSG commander Colonel Ramon Mateo Dizon seemed clueless about any move to have the Commander-in-Chief ousted, saying that they have not monitored any planned coup d’etat or threats to the life of their principal.

“It is business as usual for us. But as far as a possible coup is concerned, that is negative. The Armed Forces of the Philippines is solid behind the President,” Dizon said.

The President did not identify in particular who are the individuals or groups interested in booting him out.

Although Mr. Aquino mentioned former President Ferdinand Marcos, who was then his family’s fiercest nemesis, he did not say whether the late strongman’s family was behind the plot.

The Marcos family is facing several cases ofill-gotten wealth, with a number of its piecesof property already confiscated in favor of the government.

The President also did not attribute such sinister plot to his immediate predecessor, former President and now Rep. Gloria Arroyoof Pampanga province, whose family is being accused by authorities of allegedly massive graft.

But Mr. Aquino said that he was not bothered by reports of any planned coup because he was protected by the PSG, “the people who serve as my shield from elements who want to prevent the reforms that we are pushing for.”

The President is not alien to coups d’etat.

He was barely in his early 20s when his mother, Corazon Aquino, who was then the country’s president, experienced nine coup attempts.

In one fierce fighting in 1987, Mr. Aquino sustained serious gunshot wounds when renegade soldiers tried to take over Malacañang.

Since then, he became fascinated with guns, maybe in hindsight just so he could protect himself at the very least.