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Speech delivered by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno during the “Laban ng Kababaihan, Laban ng Bayan: A Forum in Defense of Women, Ethical Governance, and Sovereignty” on March 7, 2018 at the Kuniberta Hall, St. Scholastica’s College, Manila
Mga kaibigan, magsi-upo po tayo. Mga mahal kong kababaihan, maganda
po ba ang umaga ninyo? (Crowd responds, “maganda po”) Okay, buhay na
buhay po ba ang mga kababaihan? (Crowd responds, “Yes!”) Gaano ka-buhay?
Buhay na buhay? (Crowd responds, “Buhay na buhay!”) Magandang balita iyan
sa ating lahat. (Friends, please take your seats. To all the women here, how’s
your morning, is it good? (Crowd responds, “It was good.”) Okay, are you all in
high spirits? (Crowd responds, “Yes!.”) How much? (Crowd responds, “Very
much!”) That is very good news to hear for all of us.)
Now I’d like to of course thank my dear friend Dean [of the School of
Arts and Sciences, Saint Scholastica’s College] Maria Asuncion Azcuna, who
has been with me in many causes, thank you very much for that very exact
(Chief Justice Sereno looks at Dean Azcuna and laughs) introduction. And I’d
like to also acknowledge of course the former members of the Cabinet here,
that’s [Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)] Secretary
Judy Taguiwalo, and I acknowledge all your signal achievements when you
were at the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and more than
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ever I really empathize and sympathize with the conditions that you went
through and I admire you enormously for what you went through and how
you stood. Of course former [Commission on Audit (COA)] Chairperson Maria
Gracia Pulido Tan, my dear friend of the Commission on Audit, who, like any
woman with a strong mind and the brains to go with it launched an
unprecedented investigation that has led to what we may call as equivalent to
the investigations of the Senate when the Senate was in its glory during many,
many decades ago. And of course we have Sr. Mary Frances Dizon, OSB,
President of the Saint Scholastica’s College; Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB,
Vice-President for External Affairs of Saint Scholastica’s College and Executive
Director Institute of Women's Studies; Scholasticans and the Benedictine
community, ladies and gentlemen, good morning! (Crowd responds, “Good
morning!”) It is my pleasure to join you in this Forum marking two auspicious
occasions: the 30th or Pearl Anniversary of the establishment of the Institute
of Women’s Studies as an affiliate of Saint Scholastica’s College and
tomorrow’s celebration, the celebration of International Women’s Day.
Both occasions demonstrate to all of us that aspiration and achievement
intersect. In many occasions these intersections are occasioned by great
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efforts of women. For example, The Institute of Women’s Studies envisions,
just imagine:
A just and free society where
• patriarchal values have been transcended and [oppressive]
structures overcome;
• women and men have equal rights and status;
• people participate and determine their own development;
• everyone respects and protects the environment; and
• opportunities for growth are accessible to all,
in which context, the people’s aspiration for the full flowering of
the human spirit and creativity can be actualized.i
Can you just imagine that? Very very ambitious goals of Scholasticans.
March 8 or Women’s Day, on the other hand, celebrates the
achievements of women “without regard to divisions, whether national,
ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.” It also serves as a “rallying
point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and
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economic arena.”ii So in an audience composed — would I say 90% of women
— both occasions underscore our role in society and why we must never lose
faith in capacities as human beings.
And what strikes me as the common denominator of the two occasions
is how both today’s and tomorrow’s celebrations call us to work against the
exclusion of women and build on what binds, rather than what divides us.
Unfortunately, these appear to be one thing in the present climate.
The current state of the nation is one where perceived enemies of the
dominant order are considered fair game for harassment, intimidation, and
persecution; where shortcuts are preferred over adherence to constitutional
guarantees of human rights, including the denial of due process; where fake
news and propaganda abound to deceive and manipulate, rather than
enlighten and educate; and where coarseness, including the denigration of
women, rather than civility, mark the language of the podium. (Crowd
applauds)
Do you agree with me Scholasticans? (Crowd responds, “Yes!”)
Is it a whole-hearted agreement? (Crowd responds, “Yes!”)
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What can then be done?
First, let us be thoroughly convinced that we can do something to
change the situation as citizens of this country. We must not be passive
spectators to what is happening, thinking that it is but a game of thrones
among political forces with little connection to the lives of majority of the
Filipinos. To the contrary, every erosion of the Bill of Rights hits the poor and
the unknowing hardest. It is they who will be victimized the most.
And to give you the structural basis and the philosophical basis for this
adherence to high ideals, allow me to quote the Preamble of the Constitution
to emphasize where the country must head towards. And allow me to quote,
“We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God”— by
this we recognize that we need the help of God in order to bring our country
forward, a core belief of Scholasticans, am I right? (Crowd responds, “yes!”) —
“in order to build a just and humane society”— I quote again, so if you think
about it, the nation’s goal is set, is put forward in the Constitution, as the
building of a just and humane society, “just and humane society,” that is not
drawn from thin air my friends, it is what the Constitution requires of us as a
nation, so that anything that diminishes society’s humanity and justness is
anti-Constitution and anti-Filipino, and to what order — “and to establish” I
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will again start quoting, “a Government that shall embody our ideals and
aspirations”— in other words, government has the positive duty, the positive
duty to embody the highest level of nobility, good, wisdom, righteousness in
the Filipino, and this qualitative standard for governance is the norm, nothing
else will do — allow me again to quote from the Constitution, “that shall
embody and promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony,
and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and
democracy” — which means inclusiveness not exclusion of critics; democracy
not authoritarianism — allow me again to quote, “under the rule of law and a
regime of truth,” — katotohanan is enshrined as a constitutional value; it is
not a tool, it is not to be dispensed with as a matter of expediency, it is not to
be twisted but it is an independent value that must be pursued under the
Constitutional design; “justice” or katarungan, and you are witnesses to the
injustices that are happening around us; “freedom,” kalayaan in all its
flowering, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression;
“love,” pagmamahal, not hatred, not divisiveness; “equality,” pagkapantay-
pantay ng lahat — [a nod to gender equality]; “and peace,” not strife,
kapayapaan, and I quote again, we thus “do ordain and promulgate this
Constitution.”iii After starting with those very clear goals of us as a nation, we
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then go to the question of how these goals can be operationalized and allow
me to just speak from my small corner of the world.
And as head of the judiciary, safeguarding the Rule of Law and ensuring
transparency and accountability is considered within our province. It is within
our province, but not exclusively ours. And I will describe to you how our
Constitution designs how we are to operationalize transparency and
accountability. I do this — describing the Constitution’s operations
framework within a certain part of the Constitution out of respect and as a
tribute to my co-laborer in the vineyard of accountability, Chairperson Grace
Pulido Tan.
Now, the judiciary — and this is an oft neglected part when the
Constitution is taught in law schools, especially also in public for a such as in
the media — we have to know that the judiciary is part of a group of fiscally
autonomous agencies of government, and these agencies form themselves into
the Constitutional Fiscal Autonomy Group (CFAG). And this constitutes the
judiciary, headed by the Supreme Court in turn headed by the Chief Justice;
the Civil Service Commission (CSC), its Chairperson and Commissioners; the
Commission on Elections (COMELEC), its Chairperson and Commissioners; the
Commission on Audit (COA) formerly headed by Grace Tan and its
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Commissioners; the Office of the Ombudsman; and the Commission on Human
Rights (CHR). I take pains to show you that actually the Constitution, if you
had just been paying serious attention to it works, would have worked in the
past, and can still work in the future.
The CFAG comprises the institutions that are ordained to exact
transparency and accountability from government officials, thus: the CSC in
the matter of government appointments, the COMELEC in the matter of
elections, the COA in the matter of government expenditures, the Ombudsman
in the matter of graft and corruption, and the CHR in the matter of promotion
of human rights. The judiciary for its part under Article VIII, Sec. 1 of the
Constitution exercises the judicial power, which “includes the duty of the
courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights which are
legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there
has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of
jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government.”
If the CFAG agencies are fully functional we have actually a blueprint for
a major part of a working democracy. The Constitution in a sense is quite
substantial in the matter of transparency and accountability in this area and
actually we do not have to re-invent the wheel, at least in this area. As I have
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previously said what should occupy much of our people’s time is not politics
but how we can build our nation brick by brick by ensuring that as
constitutionally designed, the important watchdogs and checks and balances
that are designed to work, indeed work. It is here where the CFAG is supposed
to be the champions of accountability, the CFAG heads, their co-justices or co-
commissioners and the individual employees of their institutions must move
towards the Constitutional design of exacting accountability even from the
political and executive sectors of government.
The CFAG is intended to be a very strong dynamic group, peopled by
individuals completely devoted to ensure that constitutionalism and the Rule
of Law are upheld in every facet of public life. It is never intended to be a
group of silent commissions or agencies that will do political bidding. The
CFAG agencies are constitutionally designed to stay above the fray and look at
the future on a long term structured basis. Thus I have been calling on our
people to support them in their efforts to be independent and fiscally
autonomous.
The time will come when our people will realize that impromptu,
extemporized, unprepared, unthought out plans of action that run contrary to
the structured way the Constitution designed accountability harms our
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nation’s long term future. Ilalagay ko po sa ating wika — wika nating mga
nakakaintindi ng katotohanan sa kalye, sa pang araw araw — hindi po
maaaring padagos dagos ang galaw, hindi po puwedeng ang mga aksyon ay
panay bira lamang, pagkat ang konstitusyon ay nagsasabi sa atin na palakasin
ang mga institusyon ng demokrasya. Ang mga institution ng transparency and
accountability, huwag pahinain ito. May istruktura at pamamaraan kung
papaano ipapamalakad ang transparency at accountability, gawin ito ng tama.
(I will talk in the vernacular — in the language where an average man will
understand the truth — we cannot rush things, we cannot just mindlessly take
action, for the Constitution says that we should strengthen these democratic
institutions. We should not weaken the institutions of transparency and
accountability. There exists a structure on how to run these institutions of
transparency and accountability, let us follow it and do it right.)
Eventually as our people get exposed to understanding the Constitution,
and it is here, my dear young Scholasticans, where I ask you to be co-builders
of our nation in explaining to them the beautiful structure that the
Constitution has designed to exact accountability and transparency. It is our
common hope that they will internalize the paintaking steps that must be
taken to truly build a nation — I’m sorry painstaking. Beyond the CFAG
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agencies, every public servant from the highest to the lowest must internalize
the concepts of stewardship and public servanthood and in turn, you young
people must demand genuine public service in the concept of stewardship and
servanthood. For us to build a genuinely democratic and prosperous nation,
all public institutions must be populated with people of integrity, competence,
skills, and the management know-how to make the institutions run well. My
second proposition to you is that we must collectively bring our voices to say
that only the best people, only our best efforts using the best means and
methods must be employed in the service of our people. We cannot content
ourselves with second rate, half [-hearted] effort, and less than the best and
most responsive methods. We cannot be content with anything less than the
best because the future of our nation is at stake.iv
Thus I cannot end my talk without giving tribute to a woman who not
only embodies the best of and in the Filipino and Filipina without mentioning
a woman whose life was practically dedicated to the defense of the Rule of
Law, justice, and human rights; and who is a heroine in my eyes. She also
embodies to the utmost the can do spirit in reference to my first proposition
that all of us must be actively involved in nation-building. She has been called
“a woman exemplar for all seasons,” who graduated valedictorian from her
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high school class of 1931 here at Saint Scholastica. She is no other than the
late Supreme Court Associate Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, (crowd applauds)
who by her sheer hard work and excellence of qualities broke many glass
ceilings for women as the country’s first woman fiscal, first woman judge of
the Court of First Instance, and first woman justice of the Supreme Court. And
yet — and this is the most significant aspect of her public life — in some of the
darkest days of our nation’s history, similar to the situation that I described a
few days ago when hope seems at its dimmest, she was at her bravest. And I
call upon all of you to be at your bravest when hope seems at its dimmest.
(crowd applauds) Her light shone, for all of us, it shone the brightest as she
courageously dissented in several Martial Law cases that to her undermine
the Rule of Law. It was at peril to her own safety that she did it. She did not
earn the approval of her peers: instead she had to trek the lonely road by
voicing her dissent against authoritarianism. Even after her retirement from
the Court, she continued to speak up fearlessly against the excesses of the
Martial Law regime. And I would run out of time and pages and pages of paper
just to retell you her most significant written work and passages from them.
But allow me to just encapsulate her thoughts in a few simple phrases. And
this is was delivered nearly 40 years ago, and she made this call when she
delivered a homily entitled “What Are Our Options Today?” and it was
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delivered during the Liturgical celebration in commemoration of the 31st
anniversary of the UN (United Nations) Declaration of Human Rights in
December 1979, still perilous times. And I will quote: “On this particular day,
let us then rededicate ourselves to the cause of justice and human rights, more
particularly here in our troubled country. Be not silent, nor afraid nor
compromising in attitude.”v
May these words resonate in our souls today, may we take up her call,
may our aspirations one day be matched by reality. Thank you very much.
i St. Scholastica’s College Outreach and Advocacies. Institute of Women’s Studies. N.d. http://ssc.edu.ph/outreach-and-advocacies/institute-of-womens-studies/, accessed March 6, 2018. ii United Nations. “International Women’s Day” 8 March. http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/history.shtml, accessed March 6, 2018. iii Speech delivered by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno during the 25th Year Anniversary of Constitutional Fiscal Autonomy Group (CFAG): Katapatan, Karapatan, at Katarungan on November 29, 2017 at the Blue Leaf Filipinas, Parañaque City. Bracketed portion added.
iv Speech delivered by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno during the Constitutional Fiscal Autonomy Group (CFAG) Retirement and Testimonial Dinner on January 30, 2015 at the Manila Hotel.
v Cecilia V. Muñoz Palma. “What Are Our Options Today?” Homily delivered during the Liturgical celebration in commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights under the auspices of the Kilusan para sa Katarungan at Kapayapaan (Ecumencial Movement for Justice and Peace), December 10, 1979, 3:00 p.m., Christ the King Seminary Chapel, Quezon City in The Mirror of My Soul: selected decisions, opinions, speeches, and writings of Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, First Woman Justice, Supreme Court of the Philippines. 2001, pp. 358-370, 370. The Supreme Court Printing Services. Padre Faura, Manila.