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If the phrase “sui generis” sounds Greek to you, do not despair. Only lawyers, law students and a handful of the populace are presumed to know what it means. It is a Latin phrase for a class or category by itself. Filipinos, with our own distinct peculiarities, may be labeled as sui generis. “Ibang iba ang Pinoy,” as a song by Orange and Lemons goes.
The traditional politicians are sui generis because they defy classification. They have an undisguised penchant for putting their faces on television and tarps, and their names immortalized on billboards and bridges as sponsors of public-funded projects. While they do exhibit sporadic bursts of uncharacteristic pro-environment stance, they can also be predictably predictable in discarding legal and environmental considerations, especially if political longevity is at stake. The name of their game is, after all, survival – at all cost.
Take the case of House Speaker Prospero Nograles. He is where he is ensconced right now, dethroning the once-thought-of-as-unbeatable-and-mighty predecessor, Joe de Venecia, largely due to the support of the Arroyo camp. Nograles now admits that congressional appropriation is required by the Constitution for the fuel subsidy program of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, yet he nonchalantly quips, “Legal issues can be addressed later on.” (Inquirer, June 18). I can just imagine constitutionalist Joaquin Bernas wince at this remark.
Perpetuating further the “dole-out mentality” culture, the Arroyo administration again poured in billions of pesos of money from the treasury for the outrageous fuel subsidies without any modicum of transparency, accountability and, worse, without any appropriation under the 2008 budget, as accurately pointed out by Leonor Briones, a former national treasurer and a professor at the University of the Philippines’ National College of Public Administration and Governance. We do not need doles because they keep our people in perpetual state of dependency and poverty.
It is very clear that under Article VI, Section 29 (1) of the Constitution: “no money shall be paid out of the treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law.” Claimants against the government need to go through a rigorous process and file a court case and formal claim with the Commission on Audit to get what is due them. What is the lesson that our youth will learn from this controversy – that if one is the President, the law does not apply? In exasperation, a cab driver blurted that the Philippines is a country “for the politicians, by the politicians and of the politicians.” A succinct observation. Agree?
Where is the Rule of Law, indeed, when our officials act as if they are not accountable to the Constitution and our laws? Have they forgotten their oath “to support and defend the Constitution, obey the laws of the land…?” Is there no longer any meaning to this oath? Is it then right and valid to make laws to rectify and give retroactive effect to the abominable lapses and shield a president from possible culpability, so as to wipe out a constitutional transgression by the highest officer of the land?
Nograles filed House Resolution No. 18 to authorize subsidies not just on power but expanding it further to diesel and gas, funding the same from the expected P18-billion windfall from the value-added tax on oil imports. This atrocious House resolution must never be allowed to become a law. Instead, we should start drafting a climate security bill, like the one the United Kingdom is in the process of crafting, and put a cap on carbon emissions, among others.
Let us follow the example of Sweden, which aims to be the first oil-free State. Like other countries, it has imposed a carbon tax on carbon-emitting substances or activities, to curb the negative greenhouse-gas-emitting behavior of humans, to have ecologically sustainable lifestyles, and to help minimize the life-threatening consequences of global warming. How lucky the constituents are to have leaders who clearly understand what climate change is and its impact on their lives and the future and, most importantly, are talking with the stakeholders on adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Pinoy politicians salivate to do the reverse. Not content with going into ecologically-destructive activities, like mining and oil exploration, and without public participation at that, they now desire to subsidize the consumption of pollutants that are causing global warming! To think that we are part of the developing countries that expected to become the hapless climate change victims, as the country was in fact declared to be the worst climate victim in 2006. We don’t learn, do we? Ah, Pinoy!
Nograles’ House Resolution No. 18 reinforces the 21st century oil-addiction habit, despite the negative effects of the use of fossil fuels and their direct contribution to climate change. Do we continue to pretend that the fuel price increase is temporary when experts are saying that it will take decades before the fuel prices will stabilize (by then, renewable energy will be mainstreamed, hopefully). HR 18 is all about being in a perpetual state of denial about the real state of the vanishing resources called fossil fuels and the continuing grave threats these pose to this planet’s existence. HR 18 reveals our policymakers’ gross ignorance of the destructive impact of climate change on the people and the archipelago, when most cities and inhabitants are in low-lying coastal areas, waiting to be reclaimed again by the sea.
If there is indeed a P16-billion windfall from the value-added tax on oil imports, why not use the money for any or all of the following purpose?
(1) Enhance a positive climate for full utilization of renewable and clean energy technologies, as the law creating the Department of Energy has mandated it to do since 1992. The country would have been the leader in renewable energy technology had we faithfully complied with the mandate of the said law.
(2) Implement the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) and revive the dying agricultural sector. Why are we now the biggest importer of rice in the world when we used to export it?
(3) Establish bike, hiking and wide pedestrian lanes to wean us from oil dependency and for people to appreciate once more our beautiful islands and what are left of our vanishing species.
(4) Use the money to buy air quality monitoring equipment so the people will know if they are not breathing toxic air, thereby implementing the Clean Air Act.
(5) Genuine and massive reforestation and resources conservation efforts and delineate the forest line, our country being branded as the “hottest of the hot spots” in habitat loss and destruction.
(6) Install sewerages and septic tanks nationwide. We are in the lowest rung of the ladder as one of the few remaining countries without interconnected sewerage system.
(7) Build more school houses and invest in the quality education of our children, focusing on values and human rights.
(8) Educate parents to bring up children whom they nurture as human beings deserving of a decent life.
(9) Enhance the much-neglected research and development capability of the nation.
The list is actually kilometer-long, but the bottom line is using this P16-billion windfall to implement our laws. A no-nonsense enforcement of our laws is the leaders’ gift to the people and posterity. We need more of them with a very strong political will to do so.
I dream of the era when politicians’ or their family dynasty’s continuing recycled election victories to public office, despite a lackluster performance in public service, will no longer be a reality. Meanwhile, reality bites – ahay, Pinoy! Sui generis? Definitely – without an iota of a doubt.
