DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Sunday shot down the notion of a “revolutionary government” pitched by diehard Duterte supporters, while the national lawyers’ group called it “repugnant” to the Constitution.
Palace officials, meanwhile, distanced the President from the idea, which a group raised in a forum in Clark.
“We do not support them,” the defense chief said of the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte – National Executive Coordinating Committee (MRRD-NECC), the group behind the effort to change the current system into a revolutionary government, and still to be led by Duterte.
The MRRD-NECC is an organization that reportedly convinced the former mayor of Davao City to run in the 2016 presidential elections, where he won on campaign platforms of strong anti-corruption and anti-criminality.
The group assembled on Saturday at Clark in Angeles, Pampanga where it signed a manifesto, an event it said would be followed by a series of events around the country leading to a march to Malacanang wherein it would ask Duterte to declare a revolutionary government.
The MRRD-NECC led by its president Bobby Brillante, invited government officials, including Lorenzana, Philippine National Police chief General Archie Gamboa and Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Gilbert Gapay to its Clark meeting, but they did not attend.
The invitation was confirmed by Lorenzana, but he said it was not sent to him and he only saw it on social media.
“We got it through viber, but not sent to us by the alleged authors,” Lorenzana told defense reporters on Saturday.
During the term of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, several individuals and groups composed of civilian and retired military generals advocated a revolutionary government to replace what they perceived as a “rotten administration.”
The prime movers of the movement, including the late retired General Fortunato Abat and the late ambassador Roy Seneres were instead slapped with charges.
The MRRD-NECC held an assembly on Saturday at Clark Freeport in Pampanga and came up with a resolution to call on Duterte to declare a Revolutionary Government, which will facilitate the creation of a new Constitution.
The resolution was said to be approved by 300 supporters of the President.
The coalition is proposing that President Duterte lead the revolutionary government to last until December 31,2021, which would pave the way for the establishment of a federal system of government.
After the said period, elections will be held under a federal form of government.
National elections are scheduled by law in May 2022.
“The principal objective of pursuing a revolutionary government through peaceful and non-violent means is to bring about a genuine change that we, and then Mayor Duterte, promised during the 2016 presidential campaign to establish law and order, public safety, equal opportunity in public service, social justice and economic freedom,” Brillante’s group said.
They did not explain why such “genuine change” they sought did not happen since 2016.
Among government officials, it is Gamboa who first disclosed the invitation of the group for him and the officials of the defense and military establishments to attend the gathering on Saturday, but he said the invitation did not reach him and he only saw it on social media.
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said they would never support any move to establish a revolutionary government.
He said the PNP will remain “true and loyal to the Constitution.”
‘Repugnant’
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) assailed the call for the establishment of a revolutionary government, deeming it “repugnant” to the Constitution. This, as Palace officials distanced the President from the move, saying his administration is fully focused on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
IBP National President Domingo Cayosa
said there are other ways to effect change in society aside from forming a revolutionary form of government.
“A revolutionary government is repugnant to constitutionalism. It should be discouraged and denounced, as we do now. There is no legal, factual, practical or moral basis for a revolutionary government under the present circumstances,” Cayosa said.
“The call for a revolutionary government may at best be excused as a constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression, but it should not be allowed to progress into actions that violate existing laws,” he added.
Instead of what he described as adventurism or other legal shortcuts,
what is needed, said Cayosa, is an “efficient, transparent, accountable and democratic governance under the rule of law.“
Unnecessary – Palace
Malacañang officials on Sunday said the proposed “revolutionary government” to be led by Duterte is not only unnecessary during the pandemic, but also “pregnant with repercussion.”
In a statement, Presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo said Duterte is already implementing reforms even without such revolutionary government.
He doubted the validity of the proposal.
“The call of a revolutionary government must come from the people and not from a single organization or an individual,” Panelo said.
“It must be an overwhelming call, and there is no present perceptible people’s clamor for such,” he added.
For his part, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said they recognized the freedom of the said group to publicly express their appeal.
However, he noted the proposal is untimely as the administration is preoccupied with responding to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
“The most pressing and most urgent concern, which requires the Executive’s full attention, is the gradual opening of the economy while safeguarding the people who are working/going back to work amid the pandemic,” Roque said.
With Joel R. San Juan, Samuel Medenilla
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez