By Erik Espina
FOLLOWERS of this Administration calling for a revolutionary government (RG) has been doused with cold water by Malacañang in their explanatory note of President Rodrigo Duterte’s open discussion on the matter. If this presidency could be faulted, it is to a sense of transparency.
Indeed, this bears advantages for a public frustrated to pierce the veil of official discourse behind thick doors, the people, left to read the fine print of their leaders’ inclination, body language, etc. on serious state affairs.
With RG, it is out in the open. There is no agenda or motive in the president’s mind to degrade into a dictatorship.
The RG statement is not akin to “O Plan Sagittarius” (early 70s) where a clandestine operation was hatched in Malacañang to arrest communist and political opponents, shutting down media and press offices etc. to shoe-horn Martial Law. Note, next to President Emilio Aguinaldo, it was a Cory Aquino in Philippine history who declared an RG, “innocent” of the ramifications and threats to a government of “paramount force”.
Opponents of Duterte simply did not allow RG to be laid to rest. Reactions audibly focused on the specter of declaring an RG, harping on legal and constitutional implications, while purposively avoiding context and defined conditionalities clearly stated by the Chief Executive. Reports of colored alliances (red and yellow) working to destabilize this government must be taken seriously.
Intel reports, only the president is privy to, prompts him to respond stating in strict terms, the gravity of response expected if they pursue such conspiracy to the point of widespread violence, to decapitate and overthrow a legally constituted and elected presidency. We must now be familiar with the language of this presidency. The provocative pronouncements, is not as important as the predicate of contextualizing his statements. The objective however is obvious for a minority chorus of anti-Duterte. They will always change the narrative, in order to simply attack this president.
