I have spoken to some dynastic politicians who lost in the May 2019 elections, and their invariable explanation and excuse is that they were no match to Smartmatic’s cheating machine. There was no real election, they claim, but except perhaps in places like Taguig, where some voters had expressed their dissatisfaction, losing politicians have not organized any protest action.
They claim to have been threatened with trumped-up criminal charges and physical harm. They have no independent courts to run to, no free and impartial press, no viable opposition party, and no international organization to take up their cause. And those in power have taken the offensive.
The Philippine National Police has filed sedition and other criminal charges against Vice President Leni Robredo and 34 other individuals, for having allegedly participated in the making and distribution of defamatory videos titled “Ang totoong narco list” (“The true narcolist”), which used a hooded character code-named “Bikoy” to accuse the President’s son, Rep. Paolo Duterte, his son-in-law Atty. Manases Carpio, and former presidential assistant (now Senator) Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go of having received billions of pesos from the multi-billion peso illegal drugs trade.
The respondents include Senators Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros and Antonio Trillanes, Dagupan Archbishop and former Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president Socrates Villegas, Caloocan Bishop Pablo David, Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco and Bishop Emeritus Ted Bacani of Novaliches, religious priests Albert Alejo, Flavi Villanueva and Robert Reyes, and all the losing senatorial candidates of “Otso Deretso,” except for former senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas.
On May 6, a certain Peter Joemel Advincula surfaced at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines to claim he was the hooded Bikoy in the videos, who had accused DU30’s son, son-in-law and former special assistant Bong Go, at the behest of and in collaboration with all the accused, of having raked in billions from the illegal drugs trade. Granted the Bikoy accusations were all defamatory and false, how could they be called seditious when they did not constitute an attack on any state organ or the state?
In fact, since the offended parties are all private persons, they should have filed the charges themselves against those who have besmirched their honor and reputation, instead of the PNP accusing them of a public crime. Bikoy’s crimes against his victims were/are all private crimes, not state crimes, and should be the subject of complaints from the victims, not from any state organ. Since when have the honor and reputation of Paolo Duterte, Manases Carpio, and Bong Go become synonymous and interchangeable with those of the Philippine state?
And how did the PNP manage to put together 35 respondents and make them jointly responsible for one silly propaganda act against certain individuals related to the President? Otso Deretso could not even wage a unified senatorial campaign to win a single senatorial seat in the May elections; how could they and all those other personalities have worked together to produce and propagate a series of videos whose first obvious objective — which monumentally failed—was to make sure Paolo Duterte lost his bid as Davao’s representative?
This raises serious doubts about the state of law and order in the Philippines. The senior members of the Cabinet have to make sure the conduct of the presidency is not easily compromised by the extremely garrulous Malacañang spokesman and legal chief and the President’s propensity for ill-spoken “jokes”; if there are “higher brains” and “lower brains” in the Cabinet, those who belong to the first should stay close to the President always.
The need to be served by these “higher brains” will be particularly felt during President Rodrigo Duterte’s fourth State of the Nation Address. A serious rethinking is said to be going on within DU30’s inner camp, which has little to do with what specific program to push in the next three years, and more to do with what type of governance will give DU30 as much power as he wants and needs.
He is already in control of the three co-equal, coordinate and interdependent branches of government, but some supporters apparently want more. As his friend Pastor Apollo Quiboloy has already evolved from “Appointed Son of God” to “Owner of the Universe,” some supporters seem to believe DU30 deserves a more appropriate title. “President” no longer seems sufficient. Usually reliable Palace sources tell me a group close to the President would like him to adopt a “revolutionary government” to remove the last remaining figleaf of a constitutional government.
This was an original proposal of the National Transformation Council during the last two years of the B. S. Aquino 3rd administration, as contained in the Lipa Declaration of Aug. 27, 2014. At that time, the NTC feared the nation was heading toward total collapse, and needed an urgent period of constitutional reconstruction and reform before holding another election. Unfortunately, the idea was overtaken by events — presidential elections were held in May 2016, and former Davao city mayor DU30 was elected as president.
Since then, the term “revgov” has entered our political lexicon, to describe an option some people were not afraid to recommend to DU30. But it is a contradiction in terms. As the constitutionally elected President and commander in chief, DU30 can declare a revolutionary government only against himself and the entire government that came into office last June 30, this year. It would destroy the entire constitutional order, and bring down the very ground on which he stands.
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