(signed) Atty. Voltaire Veneracion
We stand against the creation of a “Revolutionary Government.”
On October 12, 1987, the Filipino people ordained and promulgated the Constitution. Reeling from hundreds of human rights violations and abuses done under the authoritarian rule propagated by President Ferdinand Marcos, the Country’s fundamental law was created to ensure that another dictatorship is prevented and that human rights are protected.
To prevent the reoccurrence of the situation where full state powers are in the hands of one person is the precise intention of the Constitution. At the cost of the lives of hundreds of martyrs who stood against brutal military rule, the Filipino people learned that dictatorship only leads to abuse of power and degradation of human rights. Hence, our bill of rights now enshrines and protects fundamental human rights such as the right to due process, right against unreasonable searches and seizures, custodial rights, privacy of communication and correspondence, and freedom of speech and expression.
Furthermore, the Constitution has strengthened the principle of separation of powers and divided the supreme powers of the Government among the co-equal branches of the Legislative, Judiciary, and Executive to ensure that never again will a single person acquire a monopoly of Government. Martial Law, the weapon which allowed Marcos to usurp control, is now checked by powers given by the Constitution to Congress and the Supreme Court.
The disregard for human rights and abuse of unchecked powers — the exact event sought to be prevented by the Constitution — is the reason why President Rodrigo Duterte’s call towards a “Revolutionary Government,” must be prevented.
On numerous occasions, the President has threatened to set up a revolutionary government to combat efforts to destabilize the Philippine Government. President Duterte declared that under the revolutionary government, all government positions will be declared vacant, even the positions of officials who have been duly elected by the Sovereign people. Alarmingly, the President has claimed that declaring martial law nationwide is not an option as this will need the approval of Congress.
These statements, alarmingly, belies the intention of the President to curtail the checks and balances imposed by the Constitution against one-man or one-woman rule. Under the guise of a “Revolutionary Government,” the President will seize power greater than what he would have under Martial Law- beyond the controls given to Congress and the Supreme Court by the Constitution. The event sought to be prevented by the Constitution, the endangerment of human rights by an authoritarian ruler who controls entirely the full might of the State, will be realized should “Rev Gov” be allowed.
Unfortunately, the concern for the degradation of human rights is deepened by the disregard which the President has displayed on numerous occasions. President Duterte has called upon the police to shoot human rights activists, threatened to abolish the Commission of Human Rights, and vowed to kill millions of drug addicts. Given these statements, it is troubling how the human rights held sacred by the Constitution may be disregarded under dictatorial rule of a Revolutionary Government.
In line with this, we therefore call on the President to cease suggesting and organizing a Revolutionary Government, to abate efforts towards escaping the safeguards against dictatorship placed intentionally in our laws, and to uphold the fundamental principle of separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. We plead with the President, also a lawyer, to remember the oath he has taken to “faithfully and conscientiously fulfill [his] duties as President, preserve and defend its Constitution.”
We call on the Legislature, our duly elected lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate, to demonstrate steadfastness against efforts to create a revolutionary government- a clear effort to revise the fundamental law without going through a Constitutionally mandated process such as Constituent Assembly or Constitutional Convention.
Finally, we call on duly elected officials of Local Government Units to resist any attempts towards the fulfillment of a Revolutionary Government and to decline invitations to positions in such an illegal set-up.
While indeed all laws are subject to change, the power to revise the fundamental law by which the Philippines binds itself lies properly in the hands of the sovereign people through the procedures mandated expressly by the Constitution itself. The Revolutionary Government being contemplated by the President is unconstitutional and a manifest disregard for our country’s suffering and eventual victory over the atrocities imposed by a dictatorship.
