The Filipinos have spoken – “the voice of the people is the voice of God!”
With 98 percent of the total votes cast, the Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.-Sara Duterte tandem proclamation is now inevitable and one can say with definite conclusion they must now be considered as president and vice president-elect.
We are all as happy as the 31 million who voted for Marcos Jr. into the highest office of the land. This election has really divided the country, polarized relationships, and now it is time to offer a “branch of the olive tree,” a symbol of peace, a gesture of conciliation or goodwill.
Time to move forward and even in the local scene, where I fell flat on my face, with my choice for head honcho.
If we want to move forward, we necessarily must accept the results. So, there, congratulations!
As long as there was no hanky-panky, sport-sport lang tayo and we can live with it for the next three years. Democracy at work – choices, free trade and expression of ideas, good or bad opinions must be given respect. No one has a monopoly of bright ideas and none of us are right all the time.
Of course, we thank our families, friends, and supporters who worked hard for the national tandem’s win and affirm that it was pure help with no expectations of return.
Our unsolicited call to the newly-elected officials of the land: You will not go wrong if you base your governance on an old, time-honored principle of salus populi est suprema lex espoused by American Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
“Salus populi est suprema lex” or “The welfare of the people is the supreme law,” our Supreme Court in the case of Calalang vs. William ruled and I feel it as an appropriate reminder to all that social justice is “neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy,” but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated.
Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the government of measures calculated to ensure economic stability of all the competent elements of society, through the maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures legally justifiable, or extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments.
Social justice, therefore, must be founded on the recognition of the necessity of interdependence among diverse units of a society and of the protection that should be equally and evenly extended to all groups as a combined force in our social and economic life, consistent with the fundamental and paramount objective of the State of promoting the health, comfort, and quiet of all persons, and of bringing about “the greatest good to the greatest number.”
The incoming breed of public servants should make this highest principle as their “bible” in the service of our people. It recognizes that the Constitution, our laws and norms derive their value from how well they serve their purpose of protecting and promoting the public good.
Hence, when discussing issues of legality, the question of what will truly benefit the people is not merely always relevant, but, in fact, deserves the highest consideration.
If the official follows the doctrine, then he is aware that in his hands the future of his people is at stake and there is the opportunity for change it gives us.
Indeed, the greatest good to the greatest number. Then we can say that the true winner in the electoral exercise is the Filipino.
Sigh.
April 25, 2024
