EDITORIAL - Sending the wrong message

It seems President Rodrigo Duterte has changed his tune about the call for a revolutionary government.

After initially distancing himself from calls for the establishment of a revolutionary government made by the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte – National Executive Coordinating Committee --who also wants Duterte to head that same revolutionary government-- the president is now saying talks about establishing a revolutionary government should be done in public for all to participate in.

“Sabi ko nga, ‘yung revolutionary government should not be discussed in sub rosa (in secrecy). It should be discussed publicly. Including the military, they should be able to say what… if the troops do not want it, they should say so and explain. Eh, kung mayroon rin silang gustong pagbabago, then let us hear them out,” he was quoted as saying.

The way we see it, the president of this republic himself should not be encouraging any discussion about extralegal means of replacing the current administration, and ironically the one that he heads.

In fact he should be coming down hard on those who are proposing that we cast down the Constitution, the same one that has given him his power and his mandate to govern. As president of the republic it his duty to protect the nation from threats foreign and domestic.

There should be no mistake about it; a group that calls for the abolition of a current government so it can be replaced by another is essentially destabilizing that government. And under the new Anti-Terror Law --the law that this administration was so eager to implement-- destabilizing the government is tantamount to a terroristic act.

In encouraging talks about a revolutionary government, the president sends the wrong message. He seems to saying that he isn’t totally against the idea of replacing this government which, as its head, he should be.

We cannot be blamed if some of us see something more in this sudden change of heart. What does the president hope to achieve by encouraging talk about a revolutionary government?

Would he have been more open to the idea had it been made by another group? Would he have been more accommodating to such a proposal if another person was named to head that revolutionary government? Or would he have come down hard on them as if they were drug lords.