Thoughts on the Philippine Constitution 2

Nation is sovereign Foundation.
State is sovereign Expression.
Country is sovereign Motion.
---<--@

Our Constitution being the rule of the Filipino people, the ideals and consequent provisions derived therefrom must be responsible in particular to the question of power.

How sovereign authority is to be utilized to serve the Nation through the Republic within a Philippine democracy are its principles.

These principles serve the Constitutional vision and are the principles of national power.

National power and its structures are Constitutional accommodations - exclusively.

Therefore -

National power must be aligned with Constitutional authority - always.

National power must be made to serve the people - always.

Justice serves the State not because the State is perfect but because the State is flawed and human from the very beginning. This is why the symbol of a Republic is a shield.

And it's wings are sheltering wings.

All Country are zealous for their peoples. But the most zealous of all, as far as our experience may tell, are Republics. This presents us with dangers and advantages unique to our form.

And the most severe, as far as the question of rule is concerned, is the subject of how power is to be preserved, accommodated, and duly exercised in and through the Republic form.

Whatever advantages of permanence lost to us shall linger long after the flames from which all Republics are born have become transformed into the light that warms us, ever guides us, and bids us to carry on marching forward.

Continuity, Concordance, Concentration, Coherence - which Monarchical States, though differing in each their accommodations, reserve to each themselves in a way original to their form, we must in a Republic consistently address as though they were in danger.

This is cost of our Liberty, an eternal vigilance.

Because if we do not properly address these matters - whenever we must, our own zeal will consume us. Toxic power will poison our labor of Country.

In a democracy, we are all responsible for each other's good. The rights we enjoy demand it.

If we as a people falter in our vigilance, if we lose our civic sense and cause this public's trust to fail, what trustworthy fruit shall we reap from this Republic then?

Sovereignty is an emanation of the popular will of the Philippine nation - the people - as our whole in general, but specifically, especially where politics are concerned, in our present form and favor.

How our Republic builds is enabled by how the Philippine State establishes itself in power.

Let us always be reminded that - power without authority is toxic to the State. That power must always align with Constitutional authority - for our own sake. Power itself in a Republic does not necessarily corrupt. A lingering sense of popular powerlessness does - and will.

Tyrants and tyranny are not just of people. They have a powerful social manifestation. Betrayal of the public trust is a betrayal of national power.

Corruption is born of political ambition first. It is never a thing that arises from origins purely civic in nature. But will consume with desire what is civic and make it all political.

A purely political State will appear obscure even to itself. Civics and politics must always agree on a balance. It is a tension, not born of evil fears, but of zeal for the good - a vigilant trust.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so the saying goes.

And since we have to take the human being as we are, we have to also take our society as it is - there will always be a degree of corruption in an otherwise healthy Republic, but when the common cold is enough to kill us off, that is another matter altogether... Something, somewhere is not in order...

Politics serve. We must demystify the political culture of our Republic and make it clear. Public service is a calling to serve. It is not an ambition to power but nonetheless remains a reward unto itself.

For all consequent successes of the State begins and ends with its most faithful servants - along with its prestige and its rewards.

There is a better way to for the Filipino to prosper, a much surer way. Indeed, if only we can get Country right, it shall be very well for all of us - rich or poor, man or woman, young or young-once.

The popular ambition is a meaningful happiness born in pursuit of freedoms reachable, reasonable, and real; emanating from a Liberty that shines out as a light, to enlighten our nation, nourish the souls of our citizenry, and embrace with a sheltering warmth, the life of the many communities that live within our one Republic whole.

Happiness is different for each person.

However, it is always a consistent theme among all States. How happy it is to be happy - and be whole; one, clear blue Sky in an eternal, golden Summer. War will not purchase for us these things. Therefore, wherever war may seek to present itself, war must be met and withstood. By our peace.

And with all our means.

My fellow Filipinos, brothers and sisters of the promise -

The peace process is a litmus test for this one Filipino nation. I have long carried this message of peace and have consistently conveyed it through my writing.

If by 2020 we are still a split people, it might become less and less likely that we will reach our goal by 2046, and we will fall short.

Hopelessness in all our national communities along with all its attendant paralysis is what we must address: Stagnation, retardation, and impotency in the national life.

National power must be made to serve the vision of our Constitution and build for our people something more worthy of our labors together as one Country.

Hunger in the nation should be one of the first on the list of things we should seek to efficiently channel our national power onto and effectively address.

If we take us for what we are, we know it may not be a thing we can do in haste, or an accomplishment we may claim by our disparate parts.

This nation must prosper the peace, prosper the people - together this time.
---<--@

Thoughts on the Philippine Constitution

Nation is sovereign Foundation.
State is sovereign Expression.
Country is sovereign Motion.
---<--@

Our Constitution entrusts us with an outline of the Philippine State.

Every State is unique. No one State is ever the same.

In a Garden of Many Trees, each State speaks for a distinct type of tree, intended by Providence and its people to bear, harvests of good and edible fruit - each in its own due time, across seasons in time.

Each tree is particular to the nurture of its own Nation; each a labor of living life belonging to a unity of human peoples, and to their living and breathing economy (of generations). That all may in time be - in fullness gathered - by the Peace all their generations shall come to possess forever - as an everlasting heritage in the LORD and a present promise of His good will.

So shall it grow in time. We see this present promise of good will in the spirit of our Constitution - the words of which however splendidly stated and contained therein, we all instinctively know, shall never be enough. For an outline alone will not produce. Country is motion.

Peace is the soul of our nationhood. The fundamental spirituality of this Peace is connection. Our Nation is a formless spirit. We are always more than what appears to the external eyes of this world -

a peculiar labor we are indeed...
for as Nations together,
we are sown to the gathering,
sworn to sacred life, and dedicated
to those shining ideals (such as peace)
unintelligible to the darkness of this world.

Therefore, my beloved brother and sister Filipinos, any meaningful faith in our peoplehood must embrace the whole of our nationhood - past, present, and forever: here, now - in our hearts.

That the common trust of our generations be safeguarded by the good will of every generation, each in their own present time.

And the living economy of our common Posterity proceed to gather for all generations, the accumulation of the Means National, spiritual as well as material, to enable the present to prosper our Peace as well as our Peoplehood through the ages of our Country in time.

Wealth itself - where Country is faithful - may become a means to produce more Wealth.

We become citizens to each other when we belong. The peace in our souls is the soil of Country. The more faithful the Peace, the more sovereign the Being of our Nation in our souls.

Realizing the Peace of our Nation in ourselves makes our Labor and its Trust truly present upon the lands of our earth. We become a sovereign Nation upon the world.

We profess the Ideals of our Nationhood unto other sovereign Nations through the Philippine State. And in their Good Will, through the grace of Providence Divine, we are duly recognized before their Assembly for what they as Nations themselves possess - we claim our eternal Right to Family.

Our Constitution is not a rote study of history. One does not reach back to collect it.

It is the foundation of a great story.

Between its covers is the unfolding of an epic journey every generation must live, each in their own present time.

It is like a thing we must trust - to be more than what its pages are, containing a vision that has been ours forever.

If we are able to hear what it speaks, more than just read what it says - our Constitution, by its every present legal iteration, shall tell us something more about ourselves that is true.

It is up to each of us to discover what it is... it is different for each one.

Do not just study it. Trust yourself to love it enough... and receive it as if you already have.

If our Constitution merely stayed on the paper it is published on, my dear Compatriots and in particular to you, O youth of this Nation, there may come a day when there shall be none of us left but the ghost of a people on paper; a cautionary tale of a labor and a light of humanizing civilization that could have been.

And the world shall be a lesser place indeed - for every tree matters, every life matters; ever drop, every fruit is possessed of a value that is more than what the darkness of this world may ever understand.

Why were we Nations in the first place if our work was merely the annihilation of all life?

Why ponder on a circular thing that is not worth our time and our thought?

Furthermore, as we walk the Way of Amity with and among all our kindred Nations -

How we relate to other States is important. Just as vital, at times even more so, is how we relate to each other within our own Philippine State.

We come to a respect of other States through knowing our own labors, realizing the necessary battle we together stand - to obtain a maturity of peace - upon this world is hard for all peoples. That all States are weakened when every one of them absolutely believe they are strong - against each other.

We must always presuppose something human about all human States. That all Nations arrive - in a world intrinsically hostile to our common humanity, flawed and incomplete. That no Country springs up upon this world fully mature and fully armed.

For as Man is, so shall his Nations be.

War is an exception. War is a failure of peace. It is always an outcome of a battle we have already lost. And were we as Nations together to become so deceived as to think that War is a native of our earth, we will begin to believe all our necessary battles may be won through war. That this devouring beast was a faithful steward to our human realm. That it has precedence over us...

And we will certainly lose our place to it.

On earth and in heaven.

To sum it up, we have hope. Never despair.
---<--@

Salutation #199

The right to rule is a sovereign authority.

The right of rulers to reign among the nations is an expression of the authority of their rule.

The rule of kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, and all chiefs appointed among all the human peoples scattered across all the lands of the earth is a power to govern the nations of mankind.

The right to rule is a sovereign in authority because it is a Divine authority. Every rule sufficient to govern the nations must itself be invested in an authority which is sovereign.

Rule and the authority to rule is sovereign only when they are one and the same.

Only the LORD,
the one Sovereign of all nations
possesses in perfection forever 
both Sovereign Rule
and Sovereign Authority.
---<--@

(The Flaw of Human Government)

The rule of human government is sovereign only in authority inasmuch as the lawful rulers of mankind recognizes in the one Sovereign of all nations, the Source of their rule and its authority.

That their reign may be as wise and as faithful as their rule is just and humble.

No human ruler, from their every time and place, true to his or her appointment may lay claim to a perfect rule. Whatever form of election there may be in them, whether eternal or popular, all human government regardless of their particulars must share the burden of this reality.

All forms of human government is intrinsically flawed from the very beginning.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in pondering about human government:

"Government that governs least governs best".

Because government that governs best governs not at all.

The flaw of human government is that it exists. And it exists because it is necessary to exist.

The flaw of human government is that it is human. And that government must exist among the nations is the question the State must address, each in its behalf, and according to its own particulars.

The cause of the State is the flaw in human government. The purpose of the State is to address the question of rule. All States thus, are flawed. But the most flawed of States exists only to rule without question.

The cause of the State seeks the State to be just. The purpose of the State causes it to come to a knowledge of its own virtue.

Vigilant Trust. Faithful Authority. Faithful Rule.

Rule is the fundamental language of States.

No State emerges in time and upon our world fully armed and fully mature. As thus, the State is ever an incomplete expression of sovereign authority, to be expressed faithfully - in every generation, in every nation. The State is answerable to its question, and exists to be interpreted - the cause of politics.

Politics is neither the cause of the State nor its purpose. It is and shall continue to be while time is time, an accident of the State.

When necessary to the well-being of the State, effective politics provides for moments of necessary sufficiency within the State which through the auspices of human government creates betterment in the souls Providence has peopled in the nation and fulfills the power of human government upon the earth. Politics that is unnecessary and extraneous to the State serves it not by need of its accident but by its own independent design.

There is no good or bad politics, only effective politics. It is the art of the real.

The politics of the State is not flawed in and of itself alone. It is the science of human government.

Politics however, inherits the flaw of artless leadership in the government of the State. Where the flaw of human government is only human. Flawed politics is not. It is less than.

Politics is never apart from its reality integral to the common good of the State. Whenever and where ever it is meaningfully expressed to its nation, it is faithfully expressed as a service to Country. In the government of the State, it comprehends duty. In the communities of the people, it comprehends honor. It is never beyond its science, and is never away from its art. What it loves forever is to make our society better than ourselves.

A good politician is skilled in effective politics. More than that, he or she is a civil servant with a genuine heart of service to the nation; the living communities that together form the being of our peace, the very soul of our nationhood. Love of God and Country is not an obscure ideal to him or her, it is a principle he or she is able to bring right down to the very soil of our people, from up the loftiest places in his or her soul of citizenship -

as a service to the nation that gathers us all - across our generations -
unto the peace of one belonging - endowing us as a people
with a common identity, a living memory,
and a shared spiritual heritage.

An edifice of corruption arises from a culture that agrees to its monument. 

Corruption through collaboration, ignorance, or indifference will invariably permeate the climate of Country, turn our Republic Sky into another unfamiliar, unfeeling, unseeing darkness. It shall as the night invite the unhappy heralds of the Adversary of all our nations - war being the first herald, the first of four. 

Sovereignty is the being of our nationhood realized in time and in the truth.

The formless spirit of nationhood that is our timeless, changeless foundation proceeds as flowing water from generation to generation - with every present generation tasked to realize a living and a present remembrance of the national account, commanded by God, that we may bring constancy and form to our citizenship, and make sovereign the presence of our labor Country upon the world we must as nations rebuild together with freedoms anew... ever as nations dreaming together this time.

Where this realization is weak, citizenship loses its potency. It becomes a corruption of itself. It becomes a malignancy that shall lessen what is sovereign and true in ourselves, and bring unto the bones of our people a weakness that prevents not as our laws prevent (to make a necessary social passage for all of us safe and straight) but only prevents to block our strength from rising from its very marrow.

As thus, a bad politician is the corruption of all the things a good politician is. He is a victim first, a coward later, and a criminal last.

Evil has its own gravity, as war does. Evil intent where all other choices are taken away soon become relative to our Liberty, and the freedoms we must keep absolute lose their sacred value.

Soon enough the rights we keep equal unto all men and women before God through Country shall lose their responsible power to shelter in safety the principal foundations of our democracy.

Liberty that is dim is also narrow of light and short of sight. But it is a fullness and a vision that has ever been ours from the very beginning; perfect freedom reborn forever from a Liberty that is perfect. 

The further away the rot of corruption takes us from what is common to all our good, least to great, the less and less we become in love with our journey of return to an Eden rebuilt as nations in exile. 

The less and less we understand a clearer vision of those things we must behold in our love, the more difficult it shall be for us across our generations, past, present and forever, to emerge triumphant into our ages in time as Country.

But the more we hold fast to what belongs to us. The more they shall cleave, truth unto truth. And we shall experience the pull of another gravity, an ascendant brightness - simple and easy and light. 

Remembrance that is right does not suffer evil to enter into the living memory of the present time.

---<--@

Politics is an accident of the State. Civics on the other hand, is integral to the State and its political custom.

We can not all be relating to each other politically all the time since we are neither just numbers nor abstract ideals floating around in space...

We are a real people.
---<--@

An Identity of Participation

Democracy is built upon the strength and merit of individual choices.

Our citizenship is an identity of participation.

It is important to empower personal freedoms. It is also just as important to enable these personal freedoms to serve in society with other citizens.

As thus, the Philippine State exists.

And invokes for itself a Republic serving among an already free and fair people.

And in their behalf.

Popular leadership is exercised through the virtue of a representative form of government.

That in the Philippine Republic duly represents the people in the formal affairs of the State.
---<--@

Salutation #195

(The Sun of Liberty)

The Sun in our Flag represents Liberty. 

T'is the Sun in our Republic Sky,
A light to our labors by Day,
A comfort to our dreams by Night.
It guides our Country ever forward.
Our Nation it shields against the darkness.
It is a warmth to all our peoples.
The sight in their eyes.

It is the gold of Eternity.
It is the Splendor of Truth.
The Light of the Divine Presence.

The radiance of the Shekhinah Glory.

It is the Peace in our midst.

Freedom to bring our peoples 

And our generations courageously forth 

Unto the fullness of Country

And liberation from every bondage of slavery.

It is symbolic of the Philippine State.
And unites together our three Foundation Stars.
---<--@

Personal Reflection

The Sun on our Flag is a potent symbol of the Philippine State.

Imagine the sun above the sky, how it shines evenly on all people. How it seeks to belong to all equally. Imagine how its light allows us to know the sight in our eyes.

Reflect upon its warmth by day. Reflect upon its guidance by night.

Meditate how free it is. How our freedoms are bounded by its freedom. How it informs and shapes what is sacred and absolute to our Liberty. Imagine its cycles and seasons and how it shapes our living culture.

How constantly it renews in our nation, the life of our generations.
---<--@

The Politics of our State

Two thought exercises -

Sea and Sky

Politics in our Republic
is like Sea and Sky

The Nation the Sea, the State the Sky
thought reflecting thought, blue upon blue
salt and water and spirit - in faithful motion
we, the people, in deep conversation.

Turbulent water disturbs it,
stormy Skies don't calm it -
but then, Nights turn to Days,
clouds, storms in their great rounds,
governments, parting ways, election days,
gold and silver rays.
---<--@

The Talk in the Walk

Let us first recall to mind - 

Countries take, people make. 

And that this is true for all Countries, including ours... 

More interested should we be in what Countries do 

than in what their people say - whether true or false. 

Because as regards decisions, 

people make them, Countries only take them - 

that Country may translate water into Motion. 

Country, for the intent and purpose of this blog, being a verb, 

its motion is only as faithful as the substance that give rise to it. 

And the richness of this substance 

depends on the depth of our civic spirituality 

as a human people. 

---<--@

If our Nation stops talking the talk, 

our Republic stops walking the walk.

Now, imagine if you will, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

that upon this - our Land of Promise - 

you were this Republic - 

the particular spirit of Country 

tasked by the deeper workings of Providence 

to shepherd this one Filipino Nation, 

not the Nation itself, mind you - 

but our Republic organism.

Imagine it were you. 

What would you like to hear from your Nation? 

Worthless banter? Bitter silence? Empty thoughts? 

Unfeeling, uncaring politics? Contemptuous prattle? 

Distasteful murmurings of unbelief? Scornful distrust? 

The incessant noise of battle, of war and discord? 

Hate speech and the ignorance of your Liberty? 

Or the happy chatter of a joyful people? 

Let us look now at our National bird - the maya bird - 

An industrious, little, long-suffering creature with wings. 

Almost invisible to us Filipinos for its commonality. 

T'is a bird 

who lives in the moment, 

not because it wants to 

but because it has to

humble
with a life span of only a fraction 

of what is allotted to us human beings  

yet courageous enough for its future 

displaying great fortitude for their young  

at times even more solicitous
than human mothers. 

Hear them sing in the morning... 

just before they go about their day, 

its almost like a daily prayer 

of praise and adoration 

to our God. 

- selah -

Do you think our Nation sounds like the bird 

we carefully took to symbolize and represent 

something we cherish in our people?

Certainly,
we can not all be incapable of worthwhile talk. 

But certainly also,
there is still much to be desired 

in that same regard.

- selah -

What is the center of the Republic? 

The place in the heart 

from which we speak to each other 

as citizens not unlike
one another. 

If we, in this thought exercise, 

should come to the same conclusion 

that there is indeed insufficient 

"chattering of a joyful people" 

going around these days, 

then we must find this center - 

the citizen in ourselves. 

And rejuvenate
the National Dialogue - 

that we may fill it once again 

with substance becoming 

of the Philippine State.

- selah -

My brothers and sisters in the Nation, 

nowhere can we find the best solutions for our problems 

than in ourselves. 

For we are each other's keeper  

keeper to our common humanity, 

our human community, our remembrances, 

our liberty, our posterity - before God.

We were born into it - 

by a choice to live the values 

that make our citizenship 

noble and worthwhile. 

Hence, 

whether natural or naturalized, 

we profess one spirit.

So let's talk the right talk, 

and together walk the right walk.

We can not build the right world with the wrong values.

Nor the right Republic with the wrong civics.

---<--@

=^.^=

Salutation #193

The State is not the Government.
The State is the Ideal of the Sovereign.

We all own the Philippine State
- and - at the same time
none of us do. It is a free State.

It is a Responsible State.

(On the Philippine State)

The State represents the Truth 
of everything we are - as a Nation;
Keeper to the Memory of our Generations,
and Repository of the Common Hopes
of our National Communities.

Any meaningful sense of Timeless Regard
for the lasting Ideals of our People - as a Nation
and the prevailing spirit of our Country - as Motion
proceeds from the reality of the Philippine State.

It is the Knowing
that constantly abides as Learning
prevailing within our living National Culture.

It is the spirit of everything noble, everything good,
and everything worthy of the National Excellence and therefore,
worthy of the praise and the love of our peoples together
- as citizens and as human beings to each other -
passing quietly - as Beauty - from generation to generation.

Our President as Head of State
is the Exemplar of the Philippine State;
the Office of the President of this Republic
being the noblest of all public Seats-of-Service.

- selah -

The Virtue of Citizenship
is the Primary Endowment of the State.

It is the authority to govern
the Citizen in the Person of the Self.
In it is contained the power
that makes each of us
together a "we".

The Authority to Govern
our Peers in the Nation is the Secondary
and proceeds from the Primary (as a function).

This Secondary Endowment
establishes for the Nation - from the Nation,
a Government that is - in constant and faithful keeping -
to the Providential Reality of the Philippine State.

We recognize in the spirit of our Constitution
and also in the labors of the Philippine Republic
from timeless Ideals enshrined in the Philippine State
- what is Sovereign to our Nation - in our entirety,
AND the Sacred and Inviolable Trust - that must exist -
between our Government and our Nation (as a free State):

THAT the Virtues of the Republic Government
in order to freely abide in a Government for the People
must have its Reliance upon the Faithfulness of the People
 
AND that the People
in order to conserve - in All our behalf -
our one, common, human Reliance
in the Good Governance of the Nation
must preserve - in and across - our Generations
those two Endowments - Primary and Secondary -
that are proper to the Philippine State,
particularly in our youth but also in all our citizens -
and ensure that a Government of the People
within each ourselves forever prevail.

- selah -

The free Philippine State
is the source of our Sovereignty.

We, the people, 

receive it each Day - in Peace - 

and lay it down each Night - in Goodwill.

In the collective peace
of our National Communities, 

particularly in the life of our Cities together, 

our common labors are its wellspring.

We shape it - and - it shapes us - 

   (we are therefore, we must -
   in being and in becoming)

across our generations - to the last... 

Sovereignty emanates from the People!

And exists - for us - with each present time
in behalf of our children and unborn generations.

We are Citizens First, 

our Nation - a People first - 

ONLY THEN 

shall the rest of the Elements of Country 

follow - and then fall into place -

or not at all.

All that ends and all that begins 

in our Republic - must rise and fall - 

from the Sovereign being of our Nation: 

THAT we are the one Filipino People 

and our Nation, a Nation among Nations;
AND that - this is - our Sovereignty of Being - 

supreme in us - and (simultaneously) - exclusive for us.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas - Long Live the Memory.



Thought Exercise - What if?

(1)
The State is the Ideal of the Sovereign

We profess allegiance to an Ideal of a Free State through its Symbols and its Virtues, in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship.

Essentially, we profess allegiance - to each other - as citizens and as human beings - in order to mature our labor of Country and to bring our Nationhood forth into perfection, e.g. Democracy, Meritocracy,

(2)
The State is the Government

We profess allegiance to the Government in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship.

The Government is the source of Sovereignty and utilizes the people and the life of their communities in order to mature its labor of Country and to bring its Nationhood forth into perfection, e.g. Communism, Socialism.

(3)
The State is one person

We profess allegiance to one person in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Fascism, Despotism.

Hitler was the German State, the Nation Germany incarnate - look at what happened to him. And then look at what evil it did to his own as well as to our other kindred Nations. We will carry a burden from that war for a long time to come.

Even Monarchs who are directly responsible to God for the Authority of the State, profess it accordingly, delegate it when necessary, and do not lay a claim to the power of the State as absolute as these.

(4)
The State is a selection of persons

We profess allegiance to an elite few in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Oligarchy, Plutocracy.

Capitalism distorted by materialism. We are struggling against this now.

(5)
The State is in the many and in the all

We profess allegiance to the self alone (and from the self to the other - but not with each other) in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Anarchy, Social Darwinism.

Democracy distorted by moral relativism. We are struggling against this now.

(6)
The State is undefined

We would not be having this exercise. God will spit us out of His mouth.