ON June 30, 2016, just before 9p.m., Rodrigo Duterte arrived in Tondo to dine with some of the poorest families in the country. It was his inauguration night and rather than attend some lavish ball to celebrate his victory, Duterte chose to eat rice in the slums.
One of the more interesting things to come out of this short period of having Harry Roque as Presidential Spokesperson: it has revealed that the frontline informal communications team of the President cannot be told that they are doing something wrong.
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday advised his critics to unite and form one group … his latest call to dissenters as allies and supporters accused them anew of destabilization efforts.
“I would be happy, really, if they will start to merge into one command. Itong mga Komunista at itong Liberal (Party), at itong mga iba na gustong paalisin ako, mag-isa isa na lang kayo,” he said in a speech in Malacañang.
… “Isang grupo. I think you share the same ideological whatever. Para hindi na masyadong magkalat ang ano… we can focus on all of you,” Duterte said.
the next day, this.
“Pag ang destabilization ninyo patagilid na and medyo magulo na (If your destabilization is worsening and it is becoming chaotic), I will not hesitate to declare a revolutionary government until the end of my term, and I will arrest all of you and we can go to a full scale war against the Reds,” [Duterte] said in an interview with Erwin Tulfo aired over PTV Friday night.
“Mag-declare ako ng revolutionary government, period. And I will declare — I will clear the streets and I will declare all government positions vacant.
Mas matuloy, wala na akong problema kasi habulin ko na ngayon ‘yung mga corrupt para matanggal ko. Sige, mag-demonstrate kayo, bring it to a point na talagang tatagilid ‘yung gobyerno.”
am i so out of the loop that i haven’t heard of, or feel, moves to destablize the duterte government in aid of ousting him? meron ba talagang gumagana na destabilization plots ang mga dilawan at / o ang mga pula?
ang pakiramdam ko nga, parang ang presidente mismo at ang kanyang sobrang matitinik na social media forces ang nangde-destabilize, nanggagalit, nanguudyok, nananadya, practically, literally, goading us into rising up in anger at all the lying and killing.
parang they would like nothing better than to provoke us into what he tagged “EDSA terrorism” (correct me if i heard wrong) which would give him reason, excuse, pretext to declare a revolutionary government. parang si marcos noong 1972 — kinailangan munang ma-ambush si enrile before marcos dared sign proclamation 1081.
but the similarity ends there. for what he wants to do 60 days of martial law would not suffice, so duterte’s being creative. if you’re on facebook, read jose alejandrino’s primer on rev powers that is making the rounds.
once duterte finds an excuse to abrogate the constitution, he will next do a cory instead, declare a revolutionary government, rule by executive decree, change the constitution to provide for federalism atbp., hold a plebiscite in may 2018, the people vote yes, and the shift to federalism happens, i can’t imagine how, though i can imagine da who.
i also imagine that the duterte constitution has already been crafted, naghihintay na lang ng tamang panahon. so bakit ba sobrang nagmamadali? i think it has to do with mindanao. i think nangako siya sa MI at sa MN and he’s being held to that promise or else there will be more war. kung ma-approve nga ang bagong constitution in may 2018, then by may 2019 we would be voting in “new” officials to regional governments and to some kind of parliament. and that would be the end of the revo government daw.
rep edcel lagman insists that there are no destabilization plots or serious threats from the left and political opposition.
He also said that establishing a revolutionary government has no constitutional basis.
“A revolutionary government is the result of a successful people’s uprising or revolt overthrowing an incumbent President and his subalterns like the EDSA People Power revolution,” he said.
He added: “It is not a product of a self-serving declaration of a sitting President ostensibly to retain and prolong the exercise of powers and “crush” perceived enemies of the state.”
but there are ways and ways of spinning the cory “precedent” to make it seem like this is a similar moment for duterte given how radical his federalism agenda, and how great, allegedly, it would be for country. at matagal na niya itong sinasabi. read chit pedrosa’s Federalism is the answer.
In his speech after being proclaimed the standard-bearer of PDP-Laban political party, Duterte said he has no ambition to run for president, but decided to do so when his political party’s leaders urged him to run and push for federalism.
“Kinausap ako to carry the torch of federalism,” Duterte said. “I will build a nationwide consensus for federalism.”
a nationwide consensus would be good. i’m against federalism but i’m open to being overruled by the majority — an informed majority, of course. kung ibig talaga ng presidente na ituloy ang may 2018 plebiscite, may panahon pang pag-usapan ito nang masinsinan. sana may information campaign on what that new constitution would be like, and what federalism coupled with economic liberalization would mean for the impoverished masses and the oppressed middle class, in aid of public discussions in the run-up to a plebiscite. ‘wag naman tayo masyadong biglain.
meanwhile the political oppositions can only warn against a dictatorship, not about what the president thinks he needs dictatorial powers for. in denial ba sila about the president’s agenda? o baka naman okay sa kanila ang charter change at federalism? it’s time to have this conversation, folks.
we get asked: paano ba mag-edsa. aliw. naging verb na ang dati ay noun, which is good. it’s a good question to be asking, and to be thinking on.
in october last year, in the run-up to the burial of marcos sa libingan ng mga bayani, when there was dilawan talk of ousting duterte by staging an edsa in support of the president’s impeachment or a coup d’etat, i said no way. i was sure there was no ousting duterte: aint gonna happen.
…their best hakot efforts would be as nothing compared to the throngs that the duterte camp is certainly capable of mobilizing throughout the country. of course they could also shoot for a “crony”-business boycott a la pre-EDSA 86, but the duterte camp could just as easily mount a counter-boycott of the vp’s business allies, and it’s easy to imagine kung sinong pupulutin sa kangkungan.
but here we are again. and this time, ubos na, said na, ang benefit-of-the-doubt. read radikalchick’s How we lost our rights in 15 months #Duterte.
i thought the CHR one-k budget was past the limit and hoped it would be the last of the offensives for the nonce, coming so soon after the marcos 100 celeb sa libingan ng mga bayani. like, you know, give us a break?
instead it got worse. nasundan ng sereno impeachment — one of two complaints found sufficient in form and substance by house justice committee (next week pa daw si bautista) — na nasundan pa ng ombudsman’s indictment of pNoy over mamasapano, this while the president warns against violent protests on sept 21, the war in marawi rages on, finance sec dominguez salivates for the marcos wealth, jinggoy is suddenly out on bail, and the president just called out chr chief gaston: why daw does he care so much about male kids being killed. omg, the president doesn’t care? it would seem that they really have no valid case vs gascon, and so they’re resorting to dirty tricks to pressure him into resigning. (why kaya aren’t they doing that to comelec chief baustista instead?)
“You are so fixated with the death of young males, kaya nagdududa ako na pedophile kang gago ka.”
offensives galore. nang-iinis, nambabastos, nananadya, dismissing us as bleeding-heart dilawans (which most of us are not) or subversive communists (which most of us are not either), hoping to provoke us, no doubt, deliberately fueling a simmering rage, the kind that could lead to angry protests that could turn violent which would give him the excuse to sic the police on protesters, sabay declare ng martial law.
paano nga ba mag-edsa. all i know for sure is that it will take more than one huge protest rally where dilawans and leftists, and everyone in between, come together for a common cause. the september 21 rally of the multisectoral Movement Against Tyranny (MAT) that very specifically seeks only an end to drug killings and the attendant fascism is one such common cause that both extremist dilawans and extremist leftists (both affirmists and rejectionists) should have no difficulty getting behind in union with independent middle forces.
lampasan muna sana yung “but i want duterte ousted” at yung “but i don’t like leni” for maximum effect in the context of a process unfolding.
the template, of course, is the august 1983 to february 1986 movement that started out as a call to justice for ninoy, justice for all that only towards the end evolved into marcos resign. it bears pointing out that the ruling mantra of every rally over those 30 months was NON-VIOLENCE. it helped, of course, that the cops practised maximum tolerance then, kept their distance, marcos was on his best behavior since ninoy’s assassination, the world was watching kasi.
the world is still watching, but these are different times. we have trigger-happy cops and a president who threatens martial law if rallies get out of hand. sana the cops keep their distance on sept 21. but if not, don’t push back, don’t strike back with sticks or stones, don’t burn rubber tires, not even effigies. where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
non-violent tactics worked then and can work now as long as everyone’s on the same page. one page at a time.