Over my lifetime – a journey full of dreams, hopes, aspirations,
and ambitions, I came across people I admired for their brilliance, wisdom,
humility, honesty and integrity. Many, like me, just had sufficient
means to finish higher education. The sacrifices of our parents could
only go so far.
Yet, given the conditions at the time, I was so full of hope and
so sure of my expectation that
our country would have a brighter future because
these great people would run it. I thought then that there was “equal
access to opportunities for public service.”
Along the way from my days in primary grades to high school, to my
AFS (American Field Service) tenure in the U.S.A., and then to college, law and
graduate school, the earthly presence of these God-sent exceptional people and
yet absent and deprived from public service always made me wonder. They
all moved on to successful endeavors fathoming different but acceptable
destinies from what they had dreamt and from what I expected.
I have a very humble and honest friend who was so brilliant that
he was no. 3 in the Bar Exams. He is from Tacloban City, Leyte.
When I visited him in Tacloban as I was attending the National Students’
League (NSL) national conference to receive the “National Student Leader of the Year” Award, I
predicted that he would someday be running Leyte to benefit its citizens.
The rise of the Romualdez dynasty prevented that from happening.
Instead, he rose through the corporate ladder becoming the Corporate Counsel
of one of the largest corporations in the Philippines.
Some of the smartest and most dedicated people I know hail from
Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and La union. They would have been great for
their respective provinces. With the political dynasties well entrenched
there, these people will never stand a chance. Many of them have decided
to leave the country and made other countries receive the benefits of their
brains and skills.
I have friends in Muslim Mindanao. One of them even
became a powerful leader of a rebel group. Educated, smart, dedicated,
and obviously brave and daring, he could have served his Muslim brothers well.
Another brilliant Muslim leader decided to move to the U.S.A. to earn in
dollars. Given a choice, he would have preferred to stay and serve his
people promoting Muslim-Christian peaceful co-existence. Political
dynasties in their areas will never give them a chance.
I can cite many more as I reminisce my life-long journey.
For now, I call them the AFSers; Enriquez/Balcruz/Ledesma San Beda boys;
Manglapus CSMers and YCSP boys and girls; Fr. Blanco Sea Haus reformers; MFP
Freedom Fighters; Student Rebels in the ‘70s; and People Power revolutionaries.
The vision, mission, and ambition of these people never turned
into an obsession. While for some, it ended in frustration; it was not
considered a failure but what my father would call, “suspended success.”
There is always the Constitution to rely upon, and the next
generation to fight for. The prohibition of political dynasty and
an enabling legislation that would cure the political ills of a reviving
democracy give us hope.
Through People’s Initiative and Referendum, we are actually using
what former Supreme Court Justice Art Panganiban defines as,
“Ultimate weapon[s] of the people
to negate government malfeasance and misfeasance.”
“The right of initiative belonged
to the people, not to the government and its minions... Thus, the proposed
change — the right reason — must originate from the will of the people themselves.
Furthermore, the exercise of initiative must be at the appropriate or right
time.”
After more than 25 years gone
without Congressional action, the enabling law must now be passed through the
exercise of initiative. It is the appropriate or right time.
Reiterating what Justice
Panganiban opined, “I believe in democracy — in our people’s natural right to
determine our own destiny.
“I believe in the process of
initiative as a democratic method of enabling our people to express their will
and chart their history. Initiative is an alternative to bloody revolution,
internal chaos and civil strife. It is an inherent right of the people — as
basic as the right to elect, the right to self-determination and the right to
individual liberties. I believe that Filipinos have the ability and the
capacity to rise above themselves, to use this right of initiative wisely and
maturely, and to choose what is best for themselves and their posterity.”
The Filipino people should be the ENABLERS themselves!
Equal access to opportunities for public service is a vision, mission,
and ambition that every right-thinking Filipino should pursue.
The Constitution and the State guarantee it. Let us fight
for it!
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