Why bother with martial law nationwide when you can have a revolutionary government?

President Rodrigo Duterte floated the idea on Tuesday as a way for the Philippines to make real progress.

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He made the comment during the mass oath taking ceremony at Malacañang for his new appointees, including new Supreme Court Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo and new Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña.

“For me, my advice to a President who wants to change [is] do not go for martial law,” Duterte said in his speech. “They will just make an issue of it. Go for a revolutionary government so that everything will be finished.”

He noted that President Corazon “Cory” Aquino also presided over a revolutionary government – which meant she had both executive and legislative powers – after the 1986 People Power Revolution that ousted the Marcos regime.

Aquino’s revolutionary government ended when a new constitution was approved and a new Congress was elected in 1987.

“If Cory can do it, why can’t you also do it? Why? Is there a monopoly here for our love for our country?” Duterte said.

The President said he was “not joking” but added that he was “not into it.”

“For the Philippines to really go up, I said: What the people need is not martial law. Go for what Cory did – revolutionary government. But don’t look at me. I cannot go there.”

“You declare all positions of the government vacant and change all. The mistake of Ma’am Aquino was to give it all back to the politicians,” he added.

Critics of Aquino noted that while she brought back democractic institutions, like Congress, after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, it also meant the return of the old political dynasties and the economic elite.

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“So [they came] back… It was the golden opportunity [that was missed],” Duterte said.

Duterte’s critics accuse him of having an authoritarian bent, especially with the bloody war on drugs and the declaration of martial law in Mindanao after terrorists overran Marawi City. /atm

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