MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to declare a “revolutionary war” was meant for the enemies of the state, according to Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo.
Panelo on Monday said the President’s statement was “not made on a whim but brought about by a series of acts committed against the people.”
“The bold entry of illegal drugs in the country despite the relentless war against drugs, the unmitigated corruption in the bureaucracy and the outrageous bureaucratic red tape as the reasons for the hindering of government projects,” the Palace official stressed.
These resulted in many problems, according to Panelo, like delayed services to the people; the seeming impunity of criminals; the onerous contract entered into by the government that prohibited it from performing government action protective of the interest of the people; the rebel attacks on military and police personnel and local government units, and their continuing extortion activities; and the continuing threat of terrorists and other acts of its enemies that imperil the safety of the nation.
“The threat, if it is a threat, is not against the people but precisely against their enemies, the criminals, the people manning the illegal drug industry, the corrupt bureaucrats, the greedy politicians, the communist rebels, foreign and local terrorists, and other enemies of the state,” Panelo said.
He added that Duterte’s narrative of the revolutionary war was “expression of frustration” over “transgressors of the law.”
Panelo said the President won’t “sit idly and watch their transgressions unabated and that he will exercise powers the Constitution bestowed him.”
“The Constitution is a living instrument, the dynamics of which cannot be understated, whose framers would have not intended the President to have without recourse in confronting any exigency that places the people’s interest in jeopardy and their safety in mortal danger,” the Palace official added./PN
