Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson revealed Sunday, November 23, that retired military officers had approached him about joining a supposed “civil-military junta,” an idea he said he rejected outright.
In an interview on radio dzBB, Lacson recounted that some individuals had been pushing extra-constitutional options and even urged him to sit in a proposed “council,” which he immediately brushed aside.
The revelation came days after San Miguel Corporation president Ramon S. Ang was floated as a “caretaker” should a military-backed “reset” occur. Ang, however, insisted that he has no intention of entering politics.
“There were those inciting and wanting a civil military-junta. Some retired military officers have reached out to me, I won’t mention names, I was ignoring them. Some even offered that I be part of the ‘junta’, of the ‘council’. But I did not entertain them,” Lacson said.
“I hope such a military-backed intervention would not happen because nothing good can come of it,” he added.
Lacson noted that political crises often give rise to people imagining shortcuts outside the law, driven in part by anger over deep-seated corruption.
“There are so many people with active imaginations. During times of crisis like this, we cannot blame them for thinking up extra-legal and unconstitutional ways, perhaps in their passion to change the system because they saw how systemic corruption has become. That’s where they are coming from,” he lamented.
The senator stressed that suggestions for a “transition council” or any form of military intervention run counter to the 1987 Constitution. “Dream on,” he said, stressing that public outrage over anomalous flood control projects must not lead to unconstitutional fixes.
Lacson also pointed out that the constitutional line of succession ends with the House Speaker, which is why he has been pushing his proposed “Designated Survivor bill” to ensure continuity of government in extreme emergencies.
