Duterte knows MRRD-NECC but he isn’t in favor of revolutionary gov’t — Palace

President Rodrigo Duterte knows the volunteer organization reportedly behind calls to establish a revolutionary government under his watch, Malacañang said Wednesday, even as the Chief Executive had distanced himself from the movement.

Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque said the President knows the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte-National Executive Coordinating Committee (MRRD-NECC). The President attended an event of the organization in March 2018.

“He knows MRRD,” Roque said in an interview with CNN-Philippines.

But Roque added that seeing someone in a public event with Duterte did not necessarily mean that “the President will know that person.”

“And I think as a result of human experience, people can understand this,” Roque said. “What is important is [that] the President has said he is not in support of revolutionary government because obviously he is a constitutional government.”

Interior and Local Government Undersecretary for Operations Epimaco Densing III also said on Wednesday that the President knows the MRRD-NECC since some of its key members are now serving in government such as Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones.

Duterte on Tuesday denied that he has a connection with the MRRD-NECC,  saying that he does not know them.

The MRRD-NECC had pushed for the candidacy of Duterte, a former mayor of Davao City, for president in the 2016 elections.

Nearly two years after winning the presidency, Duterte attended the oath-taking of its officials and national summit on March 21, 2018 in Pasay City where he spoke about the organization’s support for his political career. — RSJ, GMA News