By Raissa Robles

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Coup rumours swirled in the Philippine capital over the weekend, with the military placed on “red alert” and all leave for its personnel cancelled, ahead of planned protests against corruption in state-funded flood control projects.
Sources close to and within the military confirmed to This Week in Asia that certain private individuals, former generals and groups were trying to persuade active-duty officers to withdraw their support for Commander-in-Chief and President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.
Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr and Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff General Romeo Brawner Jnr issued a joint statement on Saturday espousing “national unity and upholding the Constitution amid calls for withdrawal of support” of the Philippine armed forces.
“We reject all attempts to patronise the armed forces by certain groups that insinuate or suggest unconstitutional, unilateral interventions by the [armed forces],” they said, calling such moves “futile” without identifying any groups or individuals.
Teodoro and Brawner warned that “at this critical juncture for our national security in the face of threats to our peace and regional stability, politically motivated attempts to distract the armed forces from focusing on their mission are not only futile but also irresponsible”.
They assured that the defence department and the armed forces were “fully committed” to upholding the 1987 Constitution and the military “abides” by it through the chain of command and “our mandate to the Filipino people” as professional and non-partisan institutions.
On Sunday, the spokeswoman for the armed forces, Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla, told a radio station that while all units of the armed forces had been placed on “red alert status” as of Friday, it was a “precautionary measure [and part of] standard security protocols”.
“We would like to emphasise that there is nothing to worry about,” she said.

Massive anti-corruption protests
The move comes ahead of a three-day transport strike in Metro Manila starting this Wednesday, followed by a “trillion peso march” against corruption on Sunday, which coincides with the 53rd anniversary of the imposition of military rule by the president’s father, the late dictator Marcos Snr.
On Monday, Akbayan, which topped the party-list election last May, announced that 200 organisations had signed up to take part in the march this Sunday including university students, church, labour and civil society groups, business executives and retired military officers.
In a press statement, it said the event was to be held on the anniversary of the Marcos Snr’s declaration of martial law in 1972 to “channel the spirit” of the 1986 EDSA people uprising, which forced the Marcos family to flee the Philippines following revelations that it had robbed the national treasury of billions of dollars and tortured and killed thousands of Filipinos.
The 1986 uprising was triggered by the withdrawal of support by then defence minister Juan Ponce Enrile and then vice-chief-of-staff of the armed forces Fidel Ramos for Marcos Snr.
Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos then surrounded two military camps along EDSA to block the tanks that Marcos Snr had sent to crush the revolt, but the protesters blocked the tanks from moving.
Akbayan congressman Chel Diokno, whose late father Senator Jose Diokno was jailed by Marcos Snr, said the timing of this week’s protests was intended to highlight “that plunder is the cruellest form of robbery against the people”.
Fellow Akbayan congressman Perci Cendana urged fellow Filipinos: “Let’s make this country unsafe and inhospitable to all plunderers, especially the repeat offenders.”
Public outrage has been growing since last month when the government disclosed that from 2023 to 2025, up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) of state funds annually were being wasted on non-existent or substandard flood control projects due to systematic payoffs to state officials.

Claire Castro, the presidential communications office undersecretary, said on Saturday that Marcos Jnr supported the protesters and that he respected whatever grievances they had and their freedom of expression “because these are levelled against corruption”.
However, she added that the government’s “prayer” was that these protests would not be exploited “by those whose only motive is to destabilise the government”, without naming any individuals.
In a hurriedly arranged press conference at the presidential palace on Monday, Marcos Jnr said: “If I weren’t president, I might be out on the streets with them. Do you blame [protesters] for going out on the streets?”
A highly placed source close to the military confirmed to This Week in Asia that certain groups, including retired senior military officers, were trying to recruit active officers to withdraw support for the president, but “no one in the military is inclined to join” because they would not allow Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio to take over.
The source said the military viewed Duterte-Carpio as “not only lazy but crazy”.
Hardcore supporters of the vice-president want to participate in the protests “with the intention of having the president resign so that if he does, the lazy Sara takes over”, according to the source.
The comments come after the media and Filipinos noted that Duterte-Carpio had spent considerable time flying to The Hague and various parts of the world in recent months to drum up support for the release of her detained father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, on humanitarian grounds and health reasons.
A top military official told This Week in Asia: “All is normal in the armed forces. We are busy with our respective missions.” He said the joint statement by Teodoro and Brawner was to reassure the public. “We are professionals and will follow the chain of command.”
Even if Duterte-Carpio were somehow to replace Marcos Jnr, “our loyalty is to the president and to the chain of command, whoever is the president”.
Manolo Quezon, a former presidential palace official, told This Week in Asia said he was guessing someone had been “spending” money to recruit people to oppose the president.
Ronald Llamas, a political risk analyst, said the joint statement reflected the “serious” situation faced by the country.
The plotters “are looking for a trigger, a trigger for a mutiny”, Llamas, a former presidential adviser on political affairs to the late President Benigno Aquino III, told This Week in Asia. If there were no progress in the investigation ordered by Marcos Jnr into the flood control scandal, that would be “a trigger”, he added.
“It means that the massive corruption within the present system cannot be fixed.”