In his column today published on the Inquirer, Artemio V. Panganiban goes at length to cite all sorts of quaint Philippine laws to arrive at this quaint conclusion…
Given these emphatic rulings, the government may not forcefully open gated subdivisions to public traffic without giving due respect to the villagers’ right to regulate passage therein.
Well, we must, pardon Panganiban as he is, after all, some sort of lawyer who can only frame his ideas within the context of existing laws.
Filipino voters and their representatives in Congress, on the other hand, are at liberty to frame their ideas within the context of what could be.
So just because the law says so does not mean it could say something different in the future.
“Debates” framed the wrong way because they are dominated by lawyers’ legalese chatter are at the heart of why the Philippines consistently fails to prosper and progress as a society. Filipinos are free to think outside the legal square. In fact it is, as participants in a democracy, their duty to do so. They should do this with the interests of the broader public in mind and not be imprisoned by the obsolete drivel of aging lawyers like Panganiban.
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