Conscience

Proc 1017 was lifted last Friday. Are we back to normal?


Press Secretary Bunye says Emergency can be reimposed.
It seems that sedition charges are being filed against Olivares and several other columnists.


It’s becoming more and more apparent that 1017 was signed into existence to coerce the press into publishing only the Good News, like newspapers were the Bible. They're not. And the government today is hardly the Messiah this country needs and is wanting for.

Though I must admit that it’s amazing that we’re turning more and more to religion as we forge on. I can’t recall the last time the Church called for the Oratio Imperata. I do know that even atheists turn to prayer when they’re on the verge of death or are dying.

We’re not- dying. But our freedom to speak is. Although I won’t say that losing the freedom to speak isn’t equivalent to the former.

I don’t know why people should be all het up about other people speaking their minds to say how crappy a government is. You’d think they’d be ecstatic if they’re prohibited from saying that their government’s making their lives Heaven-On-Earth. Of course, since we’re supposedly a democracy, then maybe we should go and ask everyone if they’ve finally found paradise. Today. Here. If they have, then maybe we’ll all just keep quiet and keep our opinions to ourselves. Last I heard, my right to speak is guaranteed by the Constitution. Otherwise, my profs will have all been lying to us.


We're asking the Supreme Court to rule on the petitions to invalidate Proc 1017. Especially now that the government has made the justices' lives easier by lifting the Proc. It's probably the hardest thing in the world to nullify an Order of the President. Pressure at every turn. But now that the Executive herself has withdrawn it, then maybe the law should be properly heard. No pressure; it's already been withdrawn anyway.

The court has decided on cases in the past, even if they’ve already been held to be moot and academic. They may be moot, but they’re certainly more than academic.

In the case of Evelio Javier v COMELEC, the Court called itself the government's conscience. The court said…

"The abolition of the Batasang Pambansa and the disappearance of the office in dispute between the petitioner and the private respondents-both of whom have gone their separate ways-could be a convenient justification for dismissing the case. But there are larger issues involved that must be resolved now, once and for all, not only to dispel the legal ambiguities here raised. The more important purpose is to manifest in the clearest possible terms that this Court will not disregard and in effect condone wrong on the simplistic and tolerant pretext that the case has become moot and academic.

"The Supreme Court is not only the highest arbiter of legal questions but also the conscience of the government. The citizen comes to us in quest of law but we must also give him justice. The two are not always the same. There are times when we cannot grant the latter because the issue has been settled and decision is no longer possible according to the law. But there are also times when although the dispute has disappeared, as in this case, it nevertheless cries out to be resolved. Justice demands that we act then, not only for the vindication of the outraged right, though gone, but also for the guidance of as a restraint upon the future."

Let the conscience speak.


Next.

I don’t know why some people are saying that we’re overreacting when we go and compare the Proc to Martial Law. The name is different, sure, but even if we call something a rose it doesn’t mean that it is. Unless God Himself calls the thing a rose, then by golly, it Is a rose. But last I heard, God didn't run for and win office here.

We argue with facts, which Congressman Lagman is doing, by the way. Very enlightening speech.

If we’re afraid that the past is coming back to haunt us, that is our prerogative- fueled by instinct- honed by thousands of years of evolving. If we ignore it, we might as well consider ourselves extinct. Now. Here.


Finally.

The best way to quell people’s fears and doubts isn’t to go and tell them to shut up. Or to go and arrest them for them to shut up. You contain pressure and it can only explode. What you do is stick to your mandate, which is to care for All the people of this country- not only to those you’re indebted to- and… explain.