The
Basis for Government
All
rights reserved
We,
as individuals, are FREE. Man was free before he formed societies,
and before he became the subject of those who rule. It took man
eons, tears, TONS of blood, and sweat to realize and remember that he
is naturally free.
Fast
forward to the present, we, as free men, wrote in our Constitution
the following words: sovereignty resides in the people and all
government authority emanates from them.1
Let that sink in for a moment.
Done?
Good.
Now
let me explain what those words mean.
Understand
that the phrase "in the people" refers to the individual.
So, YOU are the source of government's legitimacy and its political
authority.2
This is because YOU are free, and all men are equal. As EQUALS, no
one can govern another man unless the latter consents to being
governed. In this country, the agreement to be governed by those
governing is evidenced by our Constitution.
Do
you now understand the implications of sovereignty residing in YOU?
Nope?
Let
me spell it out for you.
In
this State, we created government3
by limiting the exercise of our inalienable natural rights4
to to life, liberty, and property so we can enjoy whatever remains of
those rights.5
We gave it powers to pursue the common good, that is for the
protection and advancement of our natural rights, which we now call
human rights.6
As such, the individual has every right to control how he is being
governed by exercising all of his rights found in the Constituion.7
The
same basis for government also defines the limit of its powers.8
Thus, in order to properly limit the individual's human rights,
there must exist a constitutionally sound law, or indicated in the
Constitution itself. Otherwise, the deprivation of human rights
amount to government oppression and tyranny.
Should
the government undermine the reason for its creation then we can
exercise our right to overthrow it;9
which in turn is the basis for the Second Amendment of the USA
Constitution.10
But on our side of the pond, we all agreed to... errhmmm... be
unarmed.11
Essentially, should a tyrant come our way, we will be the lame ducks
in his shooting gallery, or be a facing the wall, kneeling down in a
shaddy basement, or laying down on pavement with a cardboard.
Que
horror!
Anyways,
it should be very obvious then that freedom is VERY fragile. It can
easily be snuffed out by a number of things, from coup de etats to
fascist governments.12
As
a demonstration of how fragile freedom is, a certain misinformed
portion of the Philippine population are clamoring to end criminality
by using whatever means is necessary. They believe in the
unjustifiable ideology that the natural rights of the innocent carries
more weight than the human rights of the "undesirables".13
They would even go so far as to say that protecting the life of a
single innocent justifies the DEATH of a million "undesirables",
as well as riling up the misinformed mob to JUST burn the houses of
these "undesirables".
Clearly,
the misinformed do not see the "undersirables" as their
equals, thus, the latter are NOT entitled to human rights.14
In other words, they see the "undesirables" as
sub-humans.15
(I
am pretty sure Thomas More just turned in his grave.)
These
misinformed "innocents", if you could call them that, cheer
and defend those who parrot their idiology. An ideology which is so
diametrically opposed to the very basis of OUR government!
Sad.
Scary.
Source:
1) Tolentino v. COMELEC, 465
Phil. 385 (2004); 2) North Cotabato v. The Republic of the
Philippines Peace Panel on Ancestral Domain, 589 Phil. 387 (2008); 3)
Republic v. Sandiganbayan and Major General Ramas, and Dimaano, 454
Phil. 504 (2003); and 4) Manila
Memorial Park, Inc. v. Secretaries of the Department of Social
Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Finance (DOF),
G.R. No. 175356, December 03, 2013
1Section
1, Article II, 1987 Constitution of the Philippines
2It
is a basic postulate of our democratic system of government that the
Constitution is a social contract whereby the people have
surrendered their sovereign powers to the State for the common good.
(Marcos v. Manglapus, 258 Phil.
479, 504 (1989)); See also the discussion of Puno,
J. In Tolentino v. COMELEC, 465 Phil. 385 (2004)
3Government
is but an element of the state. You can be a country in the Middle
East, without respect for man's inherent equality, and still be a
state.
4So
called because these rights exists even without a state or
government.
5See
Puno, C.J.'s discussion in the sources
6"To
obviate the danger that the government would limit natural liberty
more than necessary to afford protection to the governed, thereby
becoming a threat to the very natural liberty it was designed to
protect, people had to stipulate in their constitution which natural
rights they sacrificed and which not, as it was important for them
to retain those portions of their natural liberty that were
inalienable, that facilitated the preservation of freedom, or that
simply did not need to be sacrificed." - Republic v.
Sandiganbayan and Major General Ramas, and Dimaano, 454 Phil. 504
(2003)
7Free
Expression, and Suffrage to name a few.
8See
also the Bill of Rights, and other sources of constitutional rights
under the 1987 Constitution; Secretary of Justice v. Hon. Lantion,
379 Phil. 165 (2000) where the Court ruled that: "The
individual citizen is but a speck of particle or molecule vis-à-vis
the vast and overwhelming powers of government. His only
guarantee against oppression and tyranny are his fundamental
liberties under the Bill of Rights which shield him in times of
need."
9"Third
and finally, individual subjects have a right of last resort to
collectively resist or rebel against and overthrow a government that
has failed to discharge its duty of protecting the people's natural
rights and has instead abused its powers by acting in an arbitrary
or tyrannical manner." - Republic
v. Sandiganbayan and Major General Ramas, and Dimaano, supra.
10I
often muse at how hard it took us to recover our freedoms. Weird
that the only safeguard we have against its infringment is the TRUST
we have for those in power, and our Constituional Rights.
11In
this State, only those who are financially capable AND willing to go
through the eye of a needle are legally armed. On the other hand,
the government and the unlawful elements are armed to the teeth.
12Our
current crop of "rebels" are terrorists, and they do not
care about your way of life. Who among you can remember Pol Pot, or
the dastardly acts of Chairman Mao, Stalin, and Che Guevarra? How
about the on going human rights violations of the Middle Eastern
States on its own people?
13Or
the scum of soceity a.k.a. criminals
14SS
is that you?
15
See the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas on the traditional natural
law theory.
