[Editor’s Note: The article is an analysis made by veteran MNLF ranking Political Officer Datu Benjie Andong reposted
from his social media account with permission]
The emergence of a Revolutionary Government is the end result of the revolution that begin from the Center. The declaration of the Malolos Constitution of the Katipuneros, the Marcos declaration of Martial law and the revolutionary government declared by Cory Aquino were the three faces of revolutionary form of government generated by natural event and by the historical and political dynamism which were independent of the man’s will – a natural social healing process for a rotten and dying society.
The simple-minded view is that government cannot lead a democratic revolution-‘for there is no revolution from above’. This view forgets that history is change, that countries evolve their special character and that government itself develops in theory and practice.
Rarely does a statesman publicly describe his actions and motives in the very heat of crisis. In the middle of great events.
A revolutionary government is a government whose main tenets are popular sovereignty, rule of law, and representative of pure democracy. It is based in part on the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers, and was favored by revolutionaries during the Age of Revolution.
A revolutionary government tends to arise from the formation of a provisional government after the breakdown of an existing dysfunctional government system and political regime. It often takes the form of a revolutionary state, which represents the will of its constituents.
The emergence of a revolutionary government is not a man made will but a demand required by natural event as an offshoot of a dysfunctional social and political system. This emerging unique political system are formed by a core of reformers who collectively drafted a “freedom constitution” that will creates regulation. These regulations are systematized into laws, and revolutionary government is erected to create and enforce those laws. These laws are intended to act for the people.
This unique political system should not lie with people who are tainted with corruption and opportunist tendency but with the people, who have an absolute right to make or unmake laws and governments as they see fit.
The present system, obviously, contained no mechanism to allow the people to change the government. It was therefore necessary, a reformist argued, to sidestep the system by forming a new system called Revolutionary Government.
The “general will” of the people should be sovereign in nation, and that with transparent and fair election to the convention, private interest and corrupt practices would be squeezed out.
The political life of a country always includes exceptional circumstances.
Whenever exceptional situation occurs… only one person, the President, must be able to operate above the law, suspending it and taking all steps necessary to save the state.
The exception is more interesting than the rule. The rule proves nothing, the exception proves everything.
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