No amount of destabilization, chaos or designs to topple the government will justify President Rodrigo Duterte’s projected declaration of a revolutionary government (RevGov).

The RevGov to be imposed by the President has neither constitutional anchorage nor historical ancestry.

A revolutionary government emerges as an aftermath of a successful people’s revolution like the EDSA People Power Revolution.

A current dispensation does not stage a coup d’état against itself.

If the chaos, destabilization and ouster movement constitute invasion or rebellion, the President can declare martial law when public safety requires it.

However, such imposition of martial law is subject to the oversight powers of the Congress and the Supreme Court.

The President cannot institute a reactionary government monikered as a revolutionary government to evade the restrictions of martial law under the 1987 Constitution.

The declaration of a revolutionary government to scuttle so-called threats to oust the President is a flimsy alibi and a feeble excuse to exercise authoritarian rule even as it is a blatant betrayal of the safeguards of the Constitution to protect and preserve democratic institutions and processes.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN