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:
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." http://www.socialchanges.info
