Farewell, My Lovely, July 26, l986

In Classic editorials on December 9, 2008 at 7:37 am

Constitution of the Philippines Preamble The Filipino people, imploring the aid of Divine Providence, in order to establish a government that shall embody their ideals, conserve and develop the patrimony of the nation, promote the general welfare, and secure to themselves and their posterity the blessings of independence under a regime of justice, liberty, and democracy, do ordain and promulgate this constitution. Farewell, My Lovely Does that not say all that the Preable of a Constitution should say? And more memorably than the preamble of any other constitution?Think of one more memorable. Anything coming close to it in resonance of phrase and grandeur of thought. It is like the ringing of great bells or the opening of the doors of a cathedral. But the Preamble of the l935 Constitution is part of a charter that required the approval of the American President for it to become the Supreme Law of the land. It is U.S. made, nationalists will say. It is not truly ours. Yet it has been most inspiring and useful to the Filipino people from its proclamation until the Japanese Occupation and after three years of that rule of force, from Liberation until the Marcos Occupation. Then constitutional authoritarianism took its place, complete with a constitution enacted by the most shameless collection of political protitutes in

the history of any nation, and approved in a fake referendum. Who among the decent and honorable did not mourn the passing of that U.S. made Constitution of l935? Filipinos fought and died for the restoration of the rights and liberties enshrined in that charter, only to have it abrogated by a Filipino and his creatures in that disgraceful convention. The l973 constitution is made in the Philippines, all right . By Filipinos to their everlasting shame and dishonor. They were not selected as the members of the Constitutional Commission now engaged in drafting a new charter were, but elected. Elected by a foolishly trusting people whom they betrayed with absolutely no qualm of conscience, having none. A Filipino handiwork, indeed Philippine-made, all right. But in what way waxs the l935 Constitution U.S. made? That it required the approval of the President of the United States before it could be in operation and effect did not make it any less the products of Filipino minds and hearts. Claro M. Recto presided over the body that drafted the charter, and he is hailed today as the nationalist par excellance. (Nationalist though he was, that did not stop him from collaborating with the Japanese invader as secretary of foreign affairs in the made-by-the-Japanese government. Thus, he must have thought, he and his fellowcollaborators would somehow serve as a kind of buffer between brute Japanese force and the Filipino people) Recto, and likeminded Filipinos, drafted the l935 Constitution, and when a Filipino would subvert it. Recot went after that Ilocano with all the passion and eloquence at his command. Yet, it was a U.S.made Constitution.