OTHER CONCERNS

by the Cathedral Clergy

Building the foundation

It’s inspiring to see how we Filipinos have such a high regard for the Constitution and the rule of law. In the current national debate on Erap’s case, no one advocates a solution outside the Constitution. (Resignation, by the way, is also constitutional.) No one is above the law, we proudly proclaim. Let the law apply, no matter what, no matter who. Dura lex, sed lex. The law may be harsh but it’s the law.

So why is it that the Philippines seems to be a lawless country? Hundreds of crimes are committed everyday by ordinary people as well as high-ranking officials and the law seems powerless to send the lawbreakers to jail.

One reason could be that while we have good laws, no one obeys them. Another could be that the authorities do not enforce them. But why not?

This tells us that it is not enough to have good laws, or to have them enforces, or even that we be committed to the rule of law. We need the motive, in the sense of a moving or driving force, which will make us want to fulfill the law or to live in accordance with the law.

That moving force is moral character – strong, solid moral character. It includes the sharp sense of right and wrong, of decency, propriety, honor, integrity, honesty, and self-respect. Also, a sense of shame and a sense of honor, delicadeza. All this precedes the law and grounds the law. On all this, our laws, including the Constitution, stand as their foundation. Take away a strong sense of morality on the part of the people, and the whole legal construct will crumble.

Somehow, we have come to think that if we could only have good laws and serious law enforcers, everything would be all right. We have learned to rely too much on the legal to solve our problems, having recourse to the moral only as an afterthought.

The well being of a society does not depend so much on the number, not even on the quality, of its laws as on the moral fiber of the people. As long as people do not set a high value on moral integrity, they will always find a way to go around the law. They will use the law for ends that ultimately defeat the purpose of the law.

Laws are like the fences we build around our homes to keep thieves away. There would be no need for fences if there were no people who give in to the temptation to steal. The solution is not to build more and higher fences. The solution is to build a people who will spontaneously recoil from the mere thought of stealing. A people who will avoid what is wrong even if there were no law against it. Or will do what is right even if there were no law that commands it. That is a people with a strong moral responsibility.

The Ten Commandments should be enough among people who are morally sensitive. They are of little use among people who add an eleventh commandment that says, “ Thou shall not get caught.”

This brings us back to the Erap case. It is good that people demand that everything be done according to the Constitution. But it would be even better if they would say that even more than the Constitution, the moral law should triumph.

In a truly civilized society, a high-ranking public official in the shoes of President Estrada would have long ago done the nation honor by resigning. Not because the law has found him guilty. But because he is moved by a higher and heavier imperative than the law – the moral imperative. And he would possess such a strong moral sensitivity because he is the child of a people with equally sensitive moral antennae.

On the other hand, where people are enamored only with the legal, but have no sensitivity to the moral, a president who has lost the moral ascendancy to govern will insist on his constitutional right to hang on to his office. And the people will find nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, they will congratulate themselves for being faithful adherents of the law.

This does not mean that the law should not be made to prevail. It only means that the law will ultimately not prevail in a nation that leans more on the legal than on the moral to prop it up.

Morality is the foundation of all laws, constitutional or otherwise. A people who do not have a strong sense of morality will always be accursed with officials who use the law in ways that in the long run defeat the purpose of the law.

The urgent task that faces us Filipinos today is not so much to make more and better laws or to enforce them. The more urgent task is to build the foundation of civilized living. The foundation is a strong moral character.

Building the moral character of our people. This should be the core of the platform of any candidate in the coming elections who sincerely wants to serve the people. And he/she should start the ball rolling by daring to risk losing rather than weaken the moral fiber of the people by buying their votes. Daring to lose an election in order to help build the moral foundation of a nation is a much better and noble form of public service than building roads and bridges.