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Philippine election: Is Leni Robredo allied with ‘communist terrorists’? No, former military spokesman says
- The presidential candidate has been the subject of many ‘scurrilous’ rumours linking her to communist insurgents, retired Major General Domingo Tutaan Jnr said
- The practice, known as ‘red-tagging’, can have deadly consequences. But hundreds of Facebook accounts are still sharing the lies, an analysis found
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Does Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo plan to form a coalition with armed communist rebels if she wins the presidency on May 9? Retired Major General Domingo Tutaan Jnr finds the claim to be laughable.
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“These accusations are all scurrilous,” the former spokesman for the Philippines’ armed forces said on Saturday in an exclusive interview with This Week In Asia. “This is just a very funny thing that these claims are coming out.”
Robredo has, in fact, been consulting “a group of retired generals from the armed forces and the Philippine National Police about national security and our defence posture,” said Tutaan, who once commanded an army brigade in an area of southern Mindanao where communist New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas were active that included Davao City.
“It’s not in her platform that there will be a coalition government with [communist insurgents],” Tutaan said, calling the allegations “very malicious, very conduct unbecoming of a public official … especially when you say it using your position but you are not presenting any facts.”
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