President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday denied involvement in a campaign by supporters for a “revolutionary government.”
“Wala akong pakialam niyan, wala akong kilala na mga tao na ‘yan at hindi ko ‘yan trabaho,” he said in a televised address.
The group Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte-National Executive Coordinating Committee (MRRD-NECC) organized a meeting calling for the establishment of a revolutionary government last week.
A video posted by GMA News’ Joseph Morong on Twitter showed Duterte attending an MRRD-NECC convention in 2018.
https://twitter.com/Joseph_Morong/status/1298086912075247616
MRRD-NECC member Martin Diño was appointed by Duterte as interior undersecretary last 2018.
Diño was used by the ruling PDP-Laban party as a placeholder presidential candidate ahead of the 2016 campaign. Duterte later substituted for Diño and won the presidency with 16 million votes.
Malacañang over the weekend said “the call to establish a revolutionary government came from a private group and the organizers are free to publicly express their opinion.”
Palace spokesman Harry Roque also said that the government’s priority remained addressing the Covid-19 pandemic and creating programs to cushion its socioeconomic impact.
“The most pressing and most urgent concern, which requires [Duterte’s] full attention, is the gradual opening of the economy while safeguarding the people who are working/going back to work amid the pandemic,” he said in a statement Sunday.
Both the Department of Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines thumbed down the initiatives for a revolutionary government, saying the advocacy was “illegal and unconstitutional.” John Ezekiel J. Hirro