Are proponents of this revolutionary government already permanently silenced by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte himself? Or, these people are still at it?
After generating a very controversial week-long publicity, it seemed that RevGov proponents who are mostly middle to senior-level officials of the Duterte administration shut their mouths the minute President Duterte made a highly embarrassing rebuke of the group. It’s interesting to know how these proponents, who publicly declared they belonged to the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte for President (MRRD) Executive Council, one of the original groups that asked and worked for the election of then Davao mayor Duterte to the Presidency, felt when they got a series of direct rebukes from Duterte, Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana, the DILG, Armed Forces of the Philippines thru its newly installed chief of Staff and its spokesperson and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Blame it to perennial Makati mayoral candidate Bobby Brillantes and a certain Atty. Francisco “Arlene” Buan who went out publicly alongside other staunch Duterte supporters and announced their manifesto asking President Duterte to head a revolutionary government.
Unknown to many, these two characters are perennial dreamers and born out of a pseudo-revolution. Brillantes and Buan are like twin political brothers.
When Cory Aquino ascended the ladder of the presidency, she installed a lawyer, Jejomar Binay as OIC and with him, a young Bobby Brillantes. Buan was a protege of ex Pampanga governor Bren Guiao, who also ascended into the spotlight when Cory appointed Guiao as O-I-C.
Both share the same path to politics–both were appointed post-revolution yet failed to change their political lots when politics stabilized. Buan tried but failed miserably against the Lazatins in Pampanga. Brillantes made war to the hand that fed him and despite all his hail and brimstone, support for his enemy, Binay, from the people remained strong. It only took a young biker molded like a Magdalo to defeat the former Ilokano human rights advocate.
With these two at the forefront of the revgov appeal, it is of no surprise that their “revolution” failed to even lift off the ground. First, these two are more dreamers than strategists. They think it is too easy to launch a revolution like EDSA Uno that gave them their fifteen minutes of fame. Choose an historic place, gather 300 people who are mostly like them, call out the media and read a statement that conveys nothing but a convoluted mash-mash of political concepts all sewed together to form paragraphs.
Of course, who would not miss the chance of having 15 minutes of fame for a defeated Bulakan politician and a former barangay captain now politically resurrected after several failed attempts even at the councilor-ship levels in Quezon City? Making a map and connecting dots seem too easy.
Second, those who did join should have made their assignments first. Or they are too self-absorbed by their shit that their eyes were tightly shut and too delusional for their own comfort. They probably shared the same political history with the two and thought that they need another boost to protect their hides from possible political backlash the minute their benefactor lose all his capital to the dogs.
I cannot, by conscience, blame these guys from doing what they did. Had you been one of them who spent your considerable time, monies and even some futures all for believing in a promise filled with dreams, you will likewise call for a revolution.
Many of us, admittedly thought that Duterte had the balls to do what is supposed to be done. We failed to subject Duterte to a thorough check because back then, we were really disappointed with the failed straight path. Maybe it’s not that bad to experiment with a man who did bad things. Maybe even if he fails, the hole that he dug would not be THAT big. UNFORTUNATELY, it was not just a hole– it was a crater that he dug for us, for our families and future generations of Filipinos.
Duterte’s failure prove one thing— it is very hard to defeat the Oligarchs because the very system allows them ascendancy and supremacy. It is too big a dream experimenting on non-violent alternatives that only amount to absolutely nothing.
