ANKARA

The Philippine army chief on Friday said that he rejected calls to stage a coup against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during last month's protests against alleged corruption, Bloomberg reported.

Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said this during an interaction with international media hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines in Manila.

The army chief said some retired military officers had approached him to remove Marcos, but he ultimately rejected their overtures, according to Bloomberg.

They tried "to reach out to commanders, reaching out to me and convincing us to intervene through several means, possibly through a coup d’etat," the general said.



Last month, thousands of people staged protest in different parts of the Philippines, including capital Manila against alleged corruption.

Rallies erupted after mass fraud was detected in some 9,855 flood-control projects that were worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9.5 billion).

Protesters demanded accountability from corrupt politicians, the release of statements detailing assets, liabilities, and net worth, and the signing of bank secrecy waivers by all government officials.

However, Brawner said he was "confident that none" of the military commanders "will heed the call to intervene because of the professionalism that we have reached."

"Once military intervenes, it will set us back several years," he said, adding that the investors would start to pull out in such a scenario.

Brawner said the retirees’ grievances were "mainly against Marcos."

"They were saying that somebody else deserves to be president, but they did not mention who that somebody else is," he added.

Days before the mass rally on Sept. 21, Marcos had held a meeting with leaders of veteran groups amid reports of unease against his administration.