RULE OF LAW: THE LAMP THAT ILLUMINATES (Reaction Paper)
by Patricia Mae Cordero (03-27-2020)
“Law is a reasonable rule of action, just and obligatory, promulgated by competent authorities for common observance and benefit.” This is how Cahayon, the author of a book in Obligation and Contracts, defined the word “law”. It might be just a simple definition of word for me to memorize and study so that I could pass my Obligation and Contracts subject for the second year’s second semester before but this sentence made more sense to me now. It made more sense than just a mere requisite when I read the essay that our professor had given to us entitled, ”Rule of Law: The Lamp That Illuminates”.
When I first read the title of the essay, I thought about how could possibly the rule of law be portrayed as the lamp that illuminates when what I just knew is that it redirects people under the law for the common good. Could law be possibly use to enlighten just like a lamp?
As what I have observed, the author discussed each and every important part about rule of law which are national development, public administration, rule of law itself and how these things are connected and can complement each other.
Going back to what Cahayon said, law is promulgated by competent authorities. This competent authorities were named as public administrators by the author of the essay and defined as not just simple managers of a group but carrying an essential responsibility that involves respect and contribution to the dignity, the worth, and the potentialities of a citizen for the common observance and benefit.
On the other hand, common observance and benefit, in Cahayon’s term, are what the author called national development. National development was defined in different terms but to sum it up, it just simply means, having a capacity to innovate the resources we have, restore what had been destroyed, and acquire efficient benefits and sufficient competency to the country and in every individuals, equally. The role of the rule of law here is to be the power of the public administrator as a reasonable action to obtain national development.
When these things were digested in my mind, I finally realized how the author said that rule of law is like a lamp that illuminates. As what the author of the essay also said, “law must sheds light to the darkest hour of the night, delivering our country, finally, unto its renaissance.” It means that the role of the rule of law is clearing the path and removing what is blocking the people to obtain national development and turning its essence to be the reality for every citizen of this country with the help of public administrators. Law serves as the lamp, the public administration as the light, the reasonable action or the rule of the law is what will make our country, Philippines, to be delivered unto renaissance, which denotes as the national development. It may sounds easy but in reality, it is not.
I have realized that it is not enough that we know about the rule of the law because we are facing more than just an obstacle that words can define. This darkest hour of the night is not just the situation that we need to conquer but also, the people we need to deal with.
In the essay, it was also mentioned that the law itself is being used to own reasons and benefits by those people who are named having a privilege and disregarding the fact that law implies justice and equity for the common good. These people are setting aside, exempting themselves and hiding behind rule of law to gain selfish interests just like what is happening today in the case of COVID-19 in our country.
Many people who are having symptoms that need to be tested are losing their chance to know their real state because people from the government are using their prerogatives, playing their VIP card delusions, to set aside the protocols and imposing to be tested first. Those citizens who need to work for their families in spite of the situation of the country right now were forbidden to do it, will receive a punishment and will consider as criminals if they will not comply. But the idiocy of a senator who took a whole hospital at risk was called as compassion and doesn’t even get a right punishment, a clear example of legislative prerogative.
It is hard for the ordinary people to fight against them because what we are talking about here people who were also given a power to be a public administrators. These people whom supposed to be the light of the law are the people who chose to be the darkness we need to eliminate.
Yet, even though delivering our country unto renaissance is not easy because of these obstacles, I must say that this dream is not far from reality. As what the intro of this essay quoted by the author from Dr. Samuel Johnson, “The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.”
Enable for the rule of law to be like a lamp in spite of all the obstacles that want to stop it to illuminate, the one who has the duty to use it as a power to obtain development, must not just have knowledge but also an adherence to the rule of law. This adherence can be acquired by loving this country and letting the experiences that were personally faced be a lesson, and the tragedies that were seen be considered like his own scars that will always remind him the reasons why he is fighting. And when I said he, what I mean is not just the law student who wrote the essay, nor just the lawyers and government officials. But also, I, as an iskolar ng bayan, and all of the people who can live as the light of the law. Those people who will share their knowledge and work out justice and equity of the law for the development of our country.
We can all be humans who has wisdom to act upon experience for the benefit of the public. We can be public administrators, the light of the lamp that illuminates.
https://www.scribd.com/document/323607084/Essay-Winner-1st
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