Is peace a constitutional imperative? This is the main question asked in a video-documentary prepared by UP Diliman Political Science Professor Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, a peace scholar and advocate, for her UP Centennial Lecture held on July 2, 2008 at the Nismed Auditorium in UP Diliman.
The documentary, titled “Peace Ngayon, War Bukas, Pwede ba ‘Yon?” directed by Tootoots Leyesa of the Dakila Arts Group, sought a number of the drafters of the Philippine Constitution to answer such questions.
Featured in the documentary are interviews with former Constitutional Commission (Concom) members Florangel Rosario Braid, Edmundo G. Garcia, Jose Luis Martin C. Gascon, and Christian S. Monsod and the insights of Ferrer, who was narrator and interviewer.
Leyesa and Ferrer during the open forum
In the documentary, the constitutional imperative for peace is explored in the light of national government’s armed conflict with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Communist insurgents, the Abu Sayyaf, and the hawks within the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The peace imperative is also considered vis-à-vis President Arroyo’s joining the US-led coalition against Iraq in 2003. Is government violating its own Constitution in these instances?
The government has been involved in so many wars in recent years that, for Ferrer, war has become orthodoxy, and peace the militant and revolutionary alternative. “The high human, economic, and psycho-social costs of war require alternative solutions,” Ferrer contends. She argues that the responsibility for taking this alternative path lies with government, “given its resources and power.” However, it has been indecisive and shortsighted.
The persons interviewed agree that peace is a constitutional imperative. Ferrer even refers to the Constitution as a “peace constitution.” But they also all cite issues of interpretation and forces beyond the Constitution that are a stumbling block to peace.
Ferrer says that rebel groups reject the Charter and consider themselves outside its ambit, or have demands which the Constitution does not allow. On the other hand, rightist rebels have used the Constitution to justify their rebellious acts.
The documentary also shows a clash of frameworks for peace interpretation within the Constitution itself, particularly in the use of “peace” within the phrase “peace and order” in Article 2, Section 5. Ferrer notes that young men recruited into the military forces and civilian armed groups continue to shed blood in the pursuit of so called “peace and order.” Referring to transcripts of Concom deliberations, Ferrer cites Ambrosio B. Padilla who assured that the provision was written without prejudice to social justice and basic rights.
Pro-peace provisions
Ferrer and the former Concom members point to the aspiration for peace embodied in the Preamble and more straightforward provisions, such as Article 2, Section 2, or the provision on the renunciation of war and the adherence to “the policy of peace, equality, justice, freedom, cooperation, and amity with all nations.”
While the latter provision was written in the context of foreign relations, Gascon and Garcia understand it to be applicable domestically. “The Philippines must treat its own people according to international standards,” says Gascon.
Braid, Ferrer, Garcia, Gascon, and Monsod also identify provisions where the word “peace” may not appear but which are means for achieving peace. One such provision is the ban on nuclear arms and testing, which is a first in Philippine constitutional history. The other is giving the military its proper role in the nation by upholding civilian supremacy and insulating the military from partisan politics, aside from strengthening their professionalism, patriotism, nationalist consciousness, and respect for people’s rights.
In the new constitution, the prime duty of government was changed from the defense of the state to the service and protection of the people. Article 13 spells out social justice and its elements: labor, agrarian reform, urban land reform and housing, health, women, people’s organizations, and human rights. For many of the commissioners, social justice provisions are a foundation for the peace vision of the Constitution. According to Ferrer, the quest for social justice was precisely what gave rise to many insurgencies.
Monsod says that the Concom tried to solve the religious separatist issue through the provision of an autonomous region and the Communist insurgency issue through the provisions on social justice and the party-list system. Braid supported provisions on people participation, dialogue, information, and communication to promote an environment more attuned to peace-making.
The 1987 Constitution is also unique for having the word “love” in the Preamble. Ferrer argues that the word can be used to “back up efforts to adopt laws and policies for active non-violence, peaceful settlement of disputes, and a regime of truth, justice, and freedom through peaceful means.”
Constitutional accommodation
Ferrer says that armed groups must understand that government is constrained to act within the confines of the Constitution. But she also argues for constitutional accommodation on the part of the government that can be achieved through “meaningful constitutional dialogue.”
For example, “Instead of an Islamic state, why not an Islamic system within the system? Such can be founded on the constitutionally-established right to religious freedom and the internationally-accepted principle of the right to self-determination? Similarly, the superior claim of the state to national sovereignty can and should be upheld by equally superior values of democracy, social justice, and people’s rights. Mutual accommodations can be found in these interstices,” she says. Ferrer argues that the Constitution also provides armed groups with tools to defend themselves and to exact their just claims.
The documentary concludes with Braid making a call for legislators to give more flesh to the mandates of the Constitution, Garcia opining that the Constitution is only as good as the people and their leaders allow, Monsod pointing out that the ultimate peaceful alternative is real elections, and Gascon reiterating a call for democratic accountability, which “we don’t have right now.”
The UP Centennial Lecture Series is beamed live to constituent campuses. The documentary was likewise beamed live. Introduced by Prof. Maria Serena I. Diokno of the UP Diliman Department of History, the film was followed by an open forum featuring Ferrer, Leyesa, Braid, and former Concom member Wilfrido Villacorta.
Ferrer served as director of the UP Third World Studies Center and convenor of the UP Center for Integrated and Development Studies Program on Peace, Conflict Resolution, and Democratization. She has been active in the peace process in Mindanao and with the National Democratic Front and co-founded a Philippine initiative against landmines. In 2005, she was among 27 Filipino women endorsed for a Nobel Peace Prize.
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