The push for a revolutionary government by supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte will only bring “chaos” than improvement, Catholic bishops warned.
Caritas Philippines national director Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan said that “not only that it is inciting to sedition, it is at best will ruin the government”.
“Declaring a revolutionary government will only bring chaos to an already beleaguered administration,” Bagaforo said.
“It will not solve the problems we are facing but instead use the Filipino people as pawns to justify vested interests,” he said.
Echoing Bagaforo’s statement, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, the apostolic administrator of the Manila archdiocese, said the proposal is “unjust and immoral”.
“That is seditious. That is being a traitor to the country,” Pabillo said over Church-run Radio Veritas.
The bishops instead urged the government to focus on pressing matters such as addressing the coronavirus health crisis.
“(They) should focus on the pandemic, the ongoing health crisis in the country instead of setting up a revolutionary government,” Archbishop Martin Jumoad of Ozamiz said.
For his part, Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga said that the proposal is not only unconstitutional “but an open admission that the present government is a total failure.
“They want to change the government just to install the same government officials. There is no sense, void of human reason. It is just like the maxim same dog different collar,” he said.
Bagaforo called on Filipinos to be more vigilant and make sure that “deceiving plots” against democracy and people’s welfare will be closely scrutinized.
The prelate also stressed the importance for Duterte to “truthfully disclose” his state of health.
“Not for his successor and critics to benefit from, but for Filipinos to be assured that we have a sound, fit-to-rule executive, able to carry-out decisions with the best of intentions for the Filipino people at heart,” he said.
Some 300 people gathered at Clark Freeport in Pampanga on Saturday to call for the establishment of a revolutionary government to be headed by Duterte. CBCPNews