What is government with revolutionary powers?

Is it the same as revolutionary government. That is the question that many are now asking because it is the only way to implement the main campaign slogan for change of President Digong. The question comes from both politically literate Filipinos and illiterate Filipinos.

Several previous administrations have tried to set up government with revolutionary powers to pave the way for federalism but these have failed. The main objective is to enable government to switch to federalism with parliamentary system. But vested interests, some local and others foreign have resisted the change in our system of government. There have been several debates and information about federalism has been disseminated. With Duterte as president, this resistance may be changed. Even if he does not favor government with revolutionary powers, he may soon not have much choice.

Federalism with federal government is the way to solve the country’s corruption, criminality and of course, the Bangsamoro problem which needs to be solved sooner than later.

To implement a change in our system of government will also mean to change the Constitution. At present we have a presidential unitary system which has not worked. That is why more and more Filipinos now favor change. And by change they do not only mean a change in the Constitution but a change in the structure of government and a new Constitution to bind the nation together. It has also become obvious that those who do not want change have used the Constitution of the presidential unitary to keep the status quo.

How can we expect to use the present Constitution which protects the status quo from change to federalist parliamentary government? We are in a contradictory situation with the few on one side and the many on the other. We need a revolution to do that with all the powers and advantages reserved for the few. Until Duterte came along and upset the apple cart.

That is why we need a government with revolutionary powers. Without these powers, it is not possible to change the present presidential unitary system that has excluded marginal sectors and the society of greed it engenders. Indeed, it is the problem. As one congressman rightly said the 1987 Constitution cannot be amended with its own provisions for amendment – by constitutional convention, constituent assembly or people’s initiative.

The people’s initiative was added to the 1987 Constitution as a concession to the EDSA people power revolution. In the constitutional convention it was said the people as sovereign took charge. A new Constitution would have to acknowledge that. Moreover, a people power revolution could happen again but it may be violent. Edsa might have been peaceful but the danger of violence breaking out was foremost in the minds of the drafters.

A compromise was reached when a people’s initiative was accepted by the body but it was left to the elite and oligarchs or their subalterns to set up stringent rules that would make it impossible to implement. And it was left at that. I have participated in three people’s initiatives to say so.

Until Davao City Mayor Duterte came along it seemed a hopeless effort. His victory in the elections changed all that. It was not thought possible that someone without funds, money or organization could win with the present system. His election itself was the revolution.

But how would he implement federalism? Under the system power is divided between a central national government and local governments. It gave real autonomy to local government units while national defense, currency and foreign affairs, would be the prerogative of the national government.

With Duterte now in power, people are watching what he meant when he said, “I have to stop criminality and corruption. I have to fix this government. I won’t do it if you want to place me there with the solemn pledge to stick to the rules,” he said.

Then he would be another Marcos, critics said. Marcos declared martial law in 1972, suspended the 1935 Constitution, dissolved Congress and assumed absolute power. He also ordered the arrest of political opponents and closed down all media outfits.

That did not daunt him. Didn’t Cory do that too when she assumed power after EDSA.

Duterte sees the problems of the Philippines cannot be solve if we stick to the Constitution of the status quo. By citing Cory instead of Marcos he understood what was needed for the reforms the country needed. It could only be done through revolutionary government. Like Marcos before her, she abolished the 1973 Constitution that was in effect during martial law, and she promulgated the provisional 1986 Freedom Constitution, pending the ratification of a new Constitution. With the Cory revolutionary government she exercised executive and legislative powers but that would have only been the beginning. She should have pursued government with revolutionary powers until real change could be achieved.

Other prominent reformists like retired Chief Justice Reynato Punto have declared the same thing. Duterte said he went around the country why we need to promote federalism. This realization was further bolstered by the Mamasapano raid on Jan. 25, and the delay in the passage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno in June formed a campaign called “Bagong Sistema, Bagong Pag-asa” to amend the Constitution.

Pushing it further Duterte said “the wellspring of corruption is the Constitution itself,” which is the theme of this column. So it is incumbent on voters who gave him the power to lead the country on May 2016 to convince him that it is what they elected him for.

But as I said in an earlier column the making of a Constitution follows the desire for a new country and Filipinos must show in numbers if they truly want a “Bagong Sistema, Bagong Pag-asa.”

The desire for change is there. Duterte must push his government to meet those ends, not to disappoint the millions who voted him into power. He has been given power in an election not after a revolution. To those who ask what is government with revolutionary powers it means doing what needs to be done instead of following those who do not want change. Only that will avoid a bloody revolution.