The lack of opposing views in a policy debate about national security is an abuse of power. Abuse of power is the true national security threat.
PBBM's order to remove the Dutertes (PRD and ISD) in the National Security Council is not illegal per se. PBBM can do that on his power.
However, breaking a 90-year-old tradition and manipulating the structure that this council has developed in the last 9 decades may raise eyebrowns as to its urgency and necessity.
While having more members is more helpful in offering representations of the different sectors of the society that are more knowledgeable of the security threats in the sectors apart from the wisdom of former prsidents, this admin is downsizing the council; and I couldn't see any valid justification of this decision aside from personality politics and the lack of management skills (of the President) to manage rift and conflicts.
The admin supporters argue that this order is justified apparently due to VPISD's pronouncement of allegedly hiring an assassin if she gets assassinated too (VPISD claimed that she also got death threats) as a form of retaliation to the admin.
But then again, the pronouncement was clear that such act can only be executed if she gets killed by some powers in the admin. Why would the admin feel threatened about that? Are they going to kill Sara to feel threatened of the retaliation?
They couldn't understand the wordplay there. They probably have understood it, but they may have wanted to turn it into sound bites to divert the more important issues that they can not address.
If conditional threats are the basis of the removal of VPISD, then the President should also be removed from the council due to similar allegations of death threats to Inday. Inday said that she also had death threats, apparently pointing the admin as an alleged culprit.
If the above is the basis of the removal, then this is a sign of poor management skills, IMO. It's a leadership lapse mess that they created, and now they are panicking that they groomed a monster who is now fighting back.
This could be a manifestation that the admin may have felt threatened of the unwavering influence of the Dutertes in national politics because the Duterte brand of leadership is backed up by organic movements. Compared to admin, many online pages and ground supporters have funding support from the PCO and other governemnt agencies. It's funded by the people's money.
In the end, corruption is the greatest national security threat, yet this admin seemed not to care about the threats of unprogrammed billions of funds, money transfers, and unliquidated spending (no OR) of the Congress—apart from the threats of terrorism, inflation, and drugs.
VPISD is not a national security threat. The real threat here is the incompetence of the admin to clean the true mess that threatens our nation—and these are the smugglers, drugs, terrorists, and issues of corruption in his own yard that he failed to address.
The Dutertes being removed from the national security council under this admin will be painted in history as a silent political meltdown from an insecure leader who cannot publicly confront the person involved; and the most convenient escape is to remove them from the circle, thereby disregarding the importance of policy debates from different POVs in a council session.
The lack of opposing position in a policy debate about national security is an abuse of power. Abuse of power is the true national security threat here.
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