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The Supreme Court Is Not Ultimately Supreme and Any Other Institutions of Government Under A Republican State, The People Is The One Supreme!
The Philippines, a Republican State, Article II, Section 1, states – The Philippines is a democratic and republican State, sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them (1987 Philippine Constitution).
The above declaration is a re-statement of the democratic character of our government.
A Republican government simply means a government by representatives chosen by the people at large. The essence, therefore of republican state is indirect rule, but still power resides from them and so with supremacy.
The people have established the government to govern themselves. Its officers from Barangay Captain to the level of the President, Congress and the Supreme Court are servants of the people and not their masters. Such officers can only exercise the powers delegated to them by the people who remain as the ultimate source of political power and authority. The Supreme Court, paraphrasing President Abraham Lincoln spoke of a republican state as one with “a government of the people, by the people and poor the people, a representative government wherein the powers and duties of sovereignty are exercised and discharged for the common good and general welfare.” (Metran vs. Paredes 79 Phil. 819)
Sovereignty of the People
Sovereignty implies the Supreme Authority to govern. As the State in whom sovereignty resides, the Filipino people have the right to constitute their own government, to change it and to define its jurisdiction and powers:
1. Power is exercised indirectly through public officials including the President, the Supreme Court, who as public servants, are accountable to the people (Art XIII, Section 1). Such acts of government officials, if within the scope of their delegated powers, are in effect the acts of the people; and
2. Power is exercised through the electoral process. The popular will is best expressed when electoral processes are free, clean, and honest, on the basis of universal suffrage and through secret vote. Since we are a representative democracy, the free and true expression of the people’s sovereignty is of great importance. And to sabotage elections and undermine its sanctity and play blind is the ultimate crime of all to the superlative degree against the People whom ultimate power resides.
Right of the People to Rebel against Institutions of Government
The above declaration recognizes that the people, as the ultimate judge of their destiny, can resort to revolution as a matter of right, to oust a President, to recall Government officials and perhaps to oust any member of the established highest court of the land precisely because the “Power of the People is the Supreme Law.” And in the event that their inherent power is undermined, it is the duty of the military to protect their power. As the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos (later on was ousted via this declaration) puts it: “Of all the established forms of government, democracy is the only one which recognizes the inherent right of the people ‘to cast out their rulers and public servants, change their policy or effect radical reforms, in their system of government or institutions by force or general uprising, when the legal and constitutional methods of making such changes have proved inadequate and inutile or so obstructed by institutions or anyone, of its availability.’ The right to rebel is an elemental human right just as the right to repress rebellion is an elemental public right.” (Today’s Revolution: Democracy, Ferdinand E. Marcos, page 1).
In the Event that such power of the people is suppressed, it is the moral duty of the military to protect and defend such inherent right of the People – “Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto” ("Let the good of the people be the supreme law" or "The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law") is found in Cicero's De Legibus (book III, part III, sub. VIII), as Ollis salus populi suprema lex esto.
Research:
Delmar Nur Faramarz Ferdowsi Salah Ad-Din Tomasa Gomez de Molina Costa Sanchez de Cassa Fajardo Lopez Roldan Martinez Simarro Mondejar del Castillo Balera Chumilla Portal Ynarejos Ramos de Losa del Pozo Africa Bautista Rubio-Escrivano Bucad Calaycay Alcaraz “RAPASAKDALSAKAY” Topinio Taclibon
Reference:
1973 Philippine Constitution, Hector S. De Leon, LL.B., University of the Philippines, 1982 Edition, Rex Book Store Publication, Copyright 1973, 1976, 1980, 1982, pp. 59-61.
Member: Integrated bar of the Philippines
Former Associate professor, Far Eastern University
1973 Philippine Constitution, Emilio E. Lugue, Jr., LL.B., University of the Philippines, 1982 Edition, Rex Book Store Pub., Copyright 1973, 1976, 1980, 1982, pp. 59-61.
Member: Integrated Bar of the Philippines
Former Assistant Professor, Far Eastern University
Philippine Constitutional (1987 Constitution) Law, Ruperto G. Martin, LL.B., LL.M., Premium Printing Press, Copyright, 1988, pp. 45-46.
Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines
Former Dean, College of Law, University of the East
Author of almost 15 Law Books
