A CALL FOR REVGOV: UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND ILLEGAL
The Chief of the Philippine National Police, Police Gen. Archie Gamboa, confirmed receipt of the letter of a group advocating and pushing for a revolutionary government. Their activity is to launch a planned long or grand march to Malacaňang Palace to install a so-called “revolutionary government”. The Revolutionary Government will be headed by no less than the duly elected and sitting President, Rodrigo R. Duterte. Once installed, the President will direct the crafting of a new Constitution before scheduling an election. The campaign did not gain traction or support given the current pandemic. But this drastic move alarmed political and legal observers of the seeming inaction of our law enforcement officers as this declaration is apparently seditious.
The Revised Penal Code, particularly Article 139 thereof, punishes the crime of Sedition which is committed by persons who rise publicly and tumultuously in order to attain by force, intimidation, or by other means outside legal methods, any of the following objects: 1) to prevent the promulgation or execution of any law or the holding of any popular election; 2) to prevent the National Government, or any provincial or municipal government, or any public officer thereof from freely exercising its or his functions, or prevent the execution of any administrative order; 3) inflict any act of hate or revenge upon the person or property of any public officer or employee; 4) to commit, for any political or social end, any act of hate or revenge against private persons or any social class; and 5) to despoil for any political or social end, any person, municipality or province, or the National Government of all its property or any party thereof.
The move or series of acts in furtherance of this “Revolutionary Government” clearly falls under par. 1 of Article 139 of the Revised Penal Code. The group is essentially calling for the scrapping of the constitutionally mandated 09 May 2022 National and Local Elections. Clearly, they want to amend or revise, if not to abrogate, the 1987 Philippine Constitution outside legal means. Under Article XVII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, our fundamental law of the land may only be changed either through: 1) Constituent Assembly or by Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members; 2) Constitutional Convention, which may be called by two-thirds of all members of Congress or called by the people after being submitted to the latter by majority of all members of Congress; and 3) People’s Initiative or by a petition with signatures of at least twelve per centum (12%) of the total number of registered voters, of which every legislative district must be represented by three per centum (3%) of registered voters. Section 4, Article XVII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides that any amendment or revision shall be valid only upon being ratified by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite.
It is incumbent upon our Department of Justice to investigate and recommend filing of charges against those who are advocating this so-called “Revolutionary Government”. Otherwise, the Duterte Administration may be accused of double standard and being selective as the charges against a leading figure of the Opposition, former Senator Antonio Trillanes, was revived for the lame reason that there was no copy of the Amnesty granted to him by former President Noynoy Aquino. More than being untimely because of our pressing concern, which is COVID-19, we should not allow any travesty of our laws much more trampling of our Constitution and assault of our democratic and legal processes.