Inaction on call for revolutionary government dangerous, lawyers' group says
MANILA, Philippines — The government allowing talk of establishing of a revolutionary government and not taking action on it is dangerous and would erode the rule of law in the country, a group of lawyers warned.
“There is danger in letting movements like this fester without immediate action,” the Philippine Bar Association said, especially when taken against a backdrop of a Philippines grappling with a pandemic and economic crisis, and a presidential term nearing its end.
Over the weekend, the Mayor Rodrigo Duterte-National Executive Coordinating Committee assembled at the Clark Freeport to call for a revolutionary government. It is a call first raised by the chief executive himself several times in the past but one that he has distanced himself from in an address aired Tuesday morning.
Similar calls were also mounted in 2017, with the Palace saying then that while Duterte does not want a revolutionary government they would not prevent citizens from expressing their support.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said then: “The chief executive in numerous occasions articulated that he allows protests and other forms of mass action as long as public safety and convenience are not compromised.”
PBA said that the gathering “was just the latest in a series of openly defiant acts that target the duly-constituted government.”
“While the true principals have yet to show their faces, their method is already clear—to sow subtle seeds meant to erode the Rule of Law and the Constitution,” the lawyers’ group said.
The PBA noted that revolts do not happen overnight. “It summons its strength over time and creeps on the unwary. It capitalizes on overconfidence.”
“The greatest sin we can commit right now is to dismiss or to ignore the true dangers these repeated calls for ‘revgov’ pose,” it added.
PBA also warned that the Philippines’ current situation—a pandemic, economic crisis, and a presidency on its last two years—paints “an alluring combination for those who desire power above all.”
“We should not allow glamour-seeking upstarts to undermine the Constitution and cast the country to another dark era of chaos,” it added.
The Philippine National Police said Tuesday that they will look into the group and its call, calling the event as “ill-timed.”
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said they do not support the call for the establishment of revolutionary government.
"Given the objective of setting aside and disregarding the present constitution to promulgate a new one under the auspices of a so-called revolutionary government, I certainly do not agree with, much less share such calls in my capacity as a lawyer, a justice secretary and as an ordinary citizen," Guevarra said Tuesday.
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