{"id":266312,"date":"2020-08-24T09:01:38","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=266312"},"modified":"2020-08-24T09:01:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:01:38","slug":"duterte-still-pushing-for-federalism-but-not-revgov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/24\/duterte-still-pushing-for-federalism-but-not-revgov\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte still pushing for federalism but not ‘RevGov’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Matina Enclaves in Davao City on August 17, 2020. SIMEON CELI JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte does not need to establish a revolutionary government to make true on his promise to push for a federal system of government, Malaca\u00f1ang said Monday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte has not abandoned his campaign promise but never considered establishing a revolutionary government as one of his options.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman po iyan kasama sa<\/em>\u00a0constitutional options\u00a0dahil<\/em>\u00a0constitutionally elected President\u00a0po si Presidente<\/em>\u00a0Duterte (That\u2019s not included in the constitutional options because the President is constitutionally elected),\u201d he said in a virtual Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

He explained that Duterte is only looking at three options to amend the 1987 Constitution namely Constitutional Convention (Con-Con), Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass), or people\u2019s initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the three po, any of the three will do\u00a0para po isulong iyong<\/em>\u00a0charter change\u00a0para sa<\/em>\u00a0federalism (to push for charter change for federalism),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque also dismissed suspicions that Duterte has plans of extending his years in office beyond 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung kayo po ay nagkakaroon ng agam-agam na<\/em>\u00a0(if you have any suspicions that) he will stay beyond his term,\u00a0naku<\/em>\u00a0that\u2019s the farthest from the mind of the President and I can assure you that po,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said a revolutionary government would be practically \u201cuseless\u201d amid the prevailing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u00a0ngayon po, wala pong magiging silbi ang<\/em>\u00a0revolutionary government,\u00a0tuluy-tuloy lang po tayo na ginagawa ang ating mga tungkulin<\/em>\u00a0(At present, a revolutionary government would be useless. So we\u2019ll just proceed with our duties),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

‘No clear and present danger’<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday, the People\u2019s National Coalition for Revolutionary Government and Charter Change assembled at Clark Freeport in Pampanga to push for the establishment of a revolutionary government and the adoption of a new federal constitution.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, said he does not see a need to criminally charge revolutionary government proponents for inciting sedition as there is no \u201cclear and present danger\u201d in their actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cKinakailangan mayroon pong<\/em>\u00a0clear and present danger\u00a0para masupil po iyong ganyang pananalita; at wala naman pong<\/em>\u00a0clear and present danger (There should be a clear and present danger to curtail speech, and there is no clear and present danger in theirs),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque also pointed out that Duterte is far too busy prioritizing the government\u2019s Covid-19 response.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng importante po, malinaw po na iyan po ay isang pribadong<\/em>\u00a0initiative\u00a0ay iyan po ay hindi kabahagi ng<\/em>\u00a0priorities\u00a0ng ating Pangulo sa ngayon<\/em>\u00a0(What\u2019s important is that it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s a private initiative and not among the President\u2019s priorities),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he could not stop them to push for their own advocacies, including the push for a revolutionary government.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet there be free exchange of ideas in the free marketplace of ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cMayroon naman po silang karapatan ng malayang pamamahayag\u00a0<\/em>so\u00a0hayaan na po natin sila<\/em>\u00a0(They are entitled to free speech so let\u2019s leave them alone).\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Roque was mum on the remark made by lawyer Antonio La Vi\u00f1a, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government, that the call for a revolutionary government is being used as a “diversionary tactic” to draw the public away from frustration over the government\u2019s efforts to address Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cHinahayaan ko na po iyong mga pribadong nagsusulong niyan na sabihin kung ano ang motibo nila<\/em>\u00a0(I will allow the private individuals pushing for a revolutionary government to explain that their motive is). I cannot speak for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last month, Malaca\u00f1ang rejected claims that Duterte is behind the new push for amendments to the 1987 Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi po prayoridad ang<\/em>\u00a0Charter change (Charter change is not a priority),\u201d Roque in a virtual Palace briefing last July 20.<\/p>\n

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate earlier chided the Duterte administration\u2019s \u201cobsession\u201d for allegedly pursuing Charter change while the country continues to grapple with the health crisis.<\/p>\n

The League of Municipalities of the Philippines headed by Narvacan, Ilocos Sur Mayor Luis \u201cChavit\u2019 Singson earlier launched a signature campaign proposing Charter revision.<\/p>\n

The organization of municipal mayors is independent of the national government.<\/p>\n

Based on the President\u2019s recent public addresses, Roque pointed out that Duterte did not mention Charter change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte does not need to establish a revolutionary government to make true on his promise to push …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":265673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266313,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266312\/revisions\/266313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}