LIBERTY or
TYRANNY?
As much as
a person can be held liable for what he
does, at the same time he can be held liable
for what he does not do. When a person is
being assaulted on the street by a group of
thugs in plain sight and no one does
anything to stop it, all are guilty.
---- Mark
Glenn
Independence
for the Philippines was declared on June 12th,
1898 which makes it our 111th year of
celebration.
How many of
you, out there, really thought through on what
brought this country its Independence? How many
of us ever really ponder on just what the design
of our flag means when we look at it in honor of
remembrance?
Symbolic
meaning of our Flag:
The white
triangle stands for equality and fraternity
The blue
field for peace, truth and justice
The red
field for patriotism and valor.
The eight
primary rays of the sun represent the first
eight provinces (Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite,
Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and
Tarlac) that sought independence from Spain
and were placed under martial law by the
Spaniards at the start of the Philippine
Revolution in 1896.
The three
stars represent the three major geographical
divisions of the country: Luzon, the Visayas,
and Mindanao.
The same thing
also should be asked about the 1987 Constitution
that we have lived under for the last 22
years…how many of us have read it, studied it
and help towards keeping our people and
government accountable to it?
Simple
quotes of our Constitution:
ARTICLE
III BILL OF RIGHTS
Section
4. No law shall be passed abridging the
freedom of speech,
Section
7. The right of the people to information
on matters of public concern shall be
recognized.
ARTICLE
11 ACCOUNTABILITY OF PUBLIC OFFICERS
Section
1. Public office is a public trust. Public
officers and employees must, at all times, be
accountable to the people, serve them with
utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and
efficiency; act with patriotism and justice,
and lead modest lives.
If we are to
really ever have true independence we need to
know our rights and enforce those very rights
that are legally ours otherwise those who are in
office, who are simply servants of the people,
will puff up their pride and began looking to be
served instead of serve.
Within their
Constitutional Commentary, Reynaldo B. Aralar &
Hector S. De Leon shares just how important it
is to keep our leaders accountable when they
explain Article 11:1 for us in saying:
“Servants of
the people, not their rulers.”
“It is not
to be understood as a position of honor,
prestige and power but a position of rendering
service for the public good and not for
private gain.”
Hector S. De
Leon also shares a great insight on just why the
Constitution is important and worth fight for
when he says:
The
Constitution “…is often referred to as the
fundamental law or supreme law or higher law of
the land because it is promulgated by the people
themselves, binding on all individual citizens
and all agencies of the government. It is the
law to which all other laws enacted by the
legislature (as well as administrative or
executive acts, orders and regulations having
the force of law) must conform. This means that
laws which are declared by the courts to be
inconsistent with the Constitution shall be void
and the latter shall govern. (see Art. 7, Civil
Code.)”
“When the
courts declared a law to be inconsistent with
the Constitution, the former shall be void and
the latter shall govern.”
So the
question I must really ask the readers is this,
“is our Independence really worth continually
fight for or do we just sit back and do nothing
because: "It is enough for good people to do
nothing, for evil people to succeed."
It is time we
take a stand and say to our leaders that “I TAKE
MY ORDERS FROM THE CONSTITUTION” and begin
celebrating our Independence by remembering what
our soldiers did for us which began our freedom
and it is up to us today, and our soldiers, to
continue this good fight otherwise what we hear
from the mouth of others will come true and this
country will die.
In my most
honest conviction, "The youth is the hope of our
future" as José Rizal has shared.
We do not need
weapons which bring forth destruction and even a
Civil War but we need people who know their
rights who will help towards keeping our people
in office ACCOUNTABLE.
I end with a
quote by Thomas Jefferson who has once said:
