THE Department of National Defense (DND) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday rejected calls for the declaration of a revolutionary government made by a group called the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte-National Executive Coordinating Committee (MRRD-NECC) which is seeking to rush changes in the 1987 Constitution.
The MRRD-NECC is the core group of the People’s National Coalition for Revolutionary Government and Charter Change. It was among the many organizations that pushed Duterte to run for President in 2016.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana refused the call: “We do not support them. We have a legally constituted government. The President is an elected president and enjoys popular support. Why should there be a need for a RevGov (revolutionary government)?”
Lorenzana said that he received an invitation via the messaging application Viber to attend a gathering of the MRRD-NECC last Thursday.
This was the same event where PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa was likewise invited. The invitation was coursed through the PNP directorate for operations.
Both Lorenzana and Gamboa snubbed the event.
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac also rebuffed the MRRD-NECC as he appealed to the public to decline the group’s moves to drum up support for its cause.
“The PNP will never support any move to establish a revolutionary government. We urge the public not to be distracted amid our fight against (the COVID-19) pandemic,” Banac said, adding: “The PNP remains true and loyal to the Constitution. We will continue to uphold it and obey legal orders from the duly constituted authorities.”
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the notion of a revolutionary government is a mere “titillating idea” for academic discourse as “there is no present perceptible people’s clamor for such.”
Panelo said the idea of a revolutionary government “is pregnant with repercussion, not the least whether or not the forces of society are ready for it.”
He added that the call must come from the majority of the people and not from a single organization or an individual.
Banac said the PNP is now monitoring the movements of the group. “We need to study and monitor this group because its name is unique. We have to closely monitor the next actions of this group,” he said.
Banac said the PNP has not monitored any active member of the PNP supporting the call of the group and said the entire police force remains supportive of the chain of command, all the way up to the President.
Following the Thursday meeting which both Lorenzana and Gamboa missed, the MRRD-NECC on Saturday had another assembly at Clark in Angeles City, Pampanga to sign a manifesto, which was called the “Pahayag ng Bayan Tungo sa Tunay na Pagbabago”.
The group appealed to President Duterte to head the revolutionary government which it said would be set up and will be authorized under a revolutionary constitution. The revolutionary government will last until December 2021. An election will subsequently be held as authorized by a newly-amended constitution under a federal form of government.
Vice President Leni Robredo assailed the revived calls for President Duterte to lead a revolutionary government until the end of next year to pave the way for a new election under a new constitution, saying it is clearly “illegal.”
Robredo scoffed at the People’s National Coalition for Revolutionary Government and Charter Change’s call for a revolutionary government and said this was “unjustifiable” especially at a time when the government should be focusing all its efforts in addressing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis. “It’s such a big nonsense,” she said on her radio program over RMN-DZXL. “What they meant to say, what they’re asking, is for us to disregard our Constitution. That, itself, is already illegal.”
The Vice President said it is ironic that Duterte’s supporters are the ones calling for a revolutionary government amid rumors that the Chief Executive is sick.
“There are a lot of rumors that the President is sick and you’ll talk about this RevGov?” she said, adding: “They’re like fanning the flames. Why talk about revolutionary government while President Duterte is in power? And you call yourself his supporters?”
Sen. Francis Pangilinan urged Malacañang to stop the MRRD-NECC from pursuing its advocacy. He said the Palace should instead rally the group to help the government map out new strategies to contain the further spread of the novel coronavirus.
Pangilinan said the concept of a revolutionary government “is not stated in any existing legal documents, such as the 1987 Philippine Constitution.”
He said while calls for the establishment of a revolutionary government must be taken lightly, the people, however, should remain vigilant. — With Jocelyn Montemayor, Wendell Vigilia and Raymond Africa
