All
you need to know
 |
| Angelo Angeles |
The Constitution itself is not a
perfect document. Hence, how can you expect perfection from an imperfect
document? Therefore, it is necessary that it should be amended or revised, as
the case may be.
The Bill of Rights is embodied in
Article III of the 1987 Constitution. It is the source of the fundamental civil
and political rights of the inhabitants of the state and imposes limitation on
the powers of the government to secure the enjoyment of such rights. “The Bill
of Rights governs the relationship between the individual and the state. Its
concern is not the relation between the individuals, between a private
individual and other individuals. What the Bill of Rights does is to declare
some forbidden zones in the private spheres inaccessible to power holder.” (Sponsorship Speech of Commissioner Bernas;
Record of the Constitutional Commission, Volume 1, p. 674; July 17, 1986) It
serves as protection against the possible oppression by the State to its
citizens, and not to the individuals between themselves.
Section 7 of Article III, which
provides:
“The
right of the people to information on
matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official
records, and to documents and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions,
or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy
development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may
be provided by law.”
The rights guaranteed here are: (1)
right to information on matters of public concern as well as to government
research data used as basis for policy development; and (2) corollary right of
access to official records and documents. The matters of public concern include
all the transactions of the government in furtherance to its promotion of
public welfare. A more interesting and a current issue related to this is the Priority
Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). It was discovered that these funds were
taken by some government officials through the means of ghost projects and
other similar designs. These funds are devoted to government projects and
developments in the society but were stolen by these alleged government
officials and used it for their own benefit which can be a contributing factor
to the high percentage of Filipinos who are indigent and have no means of
supporting themselves. Said funds should have been used to alleviate the
hardship fought day by day by the oppressed and used to promote social programs
for the development of the society.
It should be noted that with
respect to population, there are more poor Filipinos than rich Filipinos. In
layman’s term, the ratio is about a thousand to one. By the succeeding year,
there will be about a hundred million Filipinos. Therefore there will be a
great inequality in all the aspects of life, especially on the standard of
living. The primary commodities, like food water, shelter and clothing will
have a tremendous increase in demand due to the scarcity of resources pounded
by the rapid increase in population. As we all know the rule in economics is
that the lesser the supply, the higher the demand. This can be the long term
effect of this problem if it is not address properly.
By necessity, section 7 of the Bill
of Rights should be amended as follows:
“The
right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be forever allowed. There should be an
annual reporting by the government to the people on how all the government
funds were spent. Access to official records, and to documents and
papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to
government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be
afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by law.”
There
right of the people to information shall not just be recognized but as a
fundamental right, it should be forever allowed. A mere recognition of the same
is contrary to the principle of a democratic and republican government as
stated in section 1 of Article II of the 1987 Constitution which provides: “The
Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Sovereignty resides in the
people and all government authority emanates from them.” The State’s primary
duty is to promote the general welfare of the public. It is incident to its
existence and purpose for the need to exact contributions from its inhabitants.
Thus, these contributions shall be used accordingly.
Furthermore,
to ensure that said contributions are being according to its intended purpose,
it is utmost important that there be a periodic reporting of the expenditures from
said contributions. It is better if it would be done annually so that the
public can assure themselves that there is an equivalent compensation for said
contributions to the State. The annual reporting must be part of the session of
the Congress. It is better done together with the President’s State of the
Nation Address (SONA). To reduce the possibility of misleading reporting and
promises to the people that they have done this and that when in truth and in
fact, they did nothing but to make more of our countrymen are suffer while they
live in prestigious villages and drive fancy cars.
Knowledge
is the most important thing in this world. More important than life, than your
towering skyscraper, than your luxury car or any other material things. All you
need to know are the things which are important and you may disregard the rest.
You will probably find a way to use it not for your own benefit but for the benefit
of the other living things on earth.
Let's Discuss
-G-
Let's Discuss
-G-
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