Senator Leila de Lima INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to declare a revolutionary government could lead to a military takeover that would overthrow him, Senator Leila de Lima said on Friday.
De Lima issued the statement a month after Duterte warned he would declare a revolutionary government if his critics’ alleged attempts to destabilize his administration would escalate.
READ: Duterte floats idea of ‘revolutionary government’ for PH
“Those asking for a so-called ‘RevGov’ or revolutionary government under Duterte should be careful what they wish for,” the senator, one of the staunch critics of the President, said in a statement.
“A revolutionary government means the abrogation of the Constitution, the only thing that is keeping Duterte president of the country. Without the Constitution, there is no longer any legal basis for keeping Duterte in power,” she added.
Without the Constitution, De Lima said “the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), possibly the only government institution that will survive without the constitution, is no longer bound to recognize Duterte as president, and might be inclined to grab power for itself.”
“Unless Duterte’s sycophants are so sure of the AFP’s loyalty to their idol, they should therefore think twice before opening a pandora’s box to a military takeover,” she stressed.
For De Lima, Duterte’s looming threat for a revolutionary government is “the most immediate domestic threat to the country.”
“Who needs Duterte and his ‘kakistocracy’ of the worst and banal of public officials, if the military has so much more talent to offer from its ranks than Duterte’s dysfunctional lot of ‘the best and brightest’? she asked.
“We should never welcome a military takeover. But because of this infantile call for Duterte to declare a revolutionary government, that is exactly what we might end up with, and Duterte’s head at the end of a stake,” she added. /jpv