BACK TO BASICS

Laws  have categories and a hierarcy. Divine, natural or moral law has pre-eminence among God-fearing humans if they wish to be humane.  Downstream,  we have Civil Law  for citizens for civic life, Military Laws for men of arms, and during the pre-Modern times, there was priority to Canon Law when men of the cloth lorded it over during the age of Frailocracy, as the great hero Marcelo H. del Pilar would characterize the Spanish regime before the Americans came to replace our conquistadores in the Battle of Manila Bay.  This could not happen today anymore, for it would be renamed as the Battle for Reclamation Projects. Spanish and American ships would pitifully be grounded along the dolomite beach by the Manila Yacht Club. 

Among present day legal students, the priority is given to our basic or fundamental law which is none other than the Philippine Constitution. We had a few already in the life of our struggling nation, beginning with the Laws for Overseas Possessions during the Spanish era for 333 years. The confused state of affairs during the transition from Spanish to American Occupation yielded the Malolos Constitution of Emilio Aguinaldo and shortly thereafter, the Americans ruled us via the Philippine Bill of 1902. The Americans first talked of ridding us of the oppression from the Spanish empire, but after seeing our beautiful islands and the islanders who had mixed Spanish, Chinese, Malay and Denisovan chromosomes, the Americans opted to include the Western genomes to the Filipino genepool mix, originating the term halu-halo by blood before it became a summer ice-cold drink.

Then came the Jones Law of 1916, the Philippine Constitution of 1935, the anomalous Constitution of 1973 which was supposedly approved by the raising of hands, (sino may gusto kay Nora Aunor?) then the Constitution of 1987. Our basic laws have been observed in the breach, and by way of example, the anti-dynasty law it mandated had not seen the light of day till today, or a sleep of 40 years nearing Rip Van Winkles record.  At any rate, if there is one reason that the Filipino is living the life today dreaming of better times, we can point to our failure as a nation to be ruled by Law. Money, friendship, kamag-anak, kumparism, and all other relativity principles in addition to Einstein’s, may be the reasons why. I have reached my limit in number of words for this column, so, as my eldest daughter Anna would say, Love you, bye.