David, Shanea Miles Q.

11-Lepton

Justice: The Philippines’ Missing Puzzle Piece

Good day, everyone.I am Shanea David and I am here today just to have a short talk
with you about justice. Justice, big word. I know all of us have already heard this word, right?
But do we really know what is the meaning of this? Do we really get the gist of this word? Do
we all have the same idea on what is this all about? Do we really know what does it represent? If
I ask you now one by one, “What is justice for you?,” you’d all have different opinions. Justice is
a very vast word. Although it seems like everyone knows the meaning of the word, many people
view justice differently. There are many words that you can associate with justice.
To some philosophers, justice is the legal or philosophical theory by which fairness is
administered, meaning you’ll get what you deserve, that’s being fair. This definition of justice
actually shows retributive justice which talks mainly about punishment. This holds that the only
way for justice to be satisfied is for a wrongdoer to suffer in proportion to the way he’s made
other suffer. This is basically what you call the “eye for an eye” system. This system starts when
King Hammurabi of Babylonia, centuries ago, understood that he needed one universal set of
laws for his kingdom to achieve justice and orderliness. He then established a code that tells “An
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” This shows that a person who has injured another person is to
be penalized to a similar degree. Some agree on this, some do not. Sure, being punished with the
same degree shows fairness but does this system show justice? Is it right to execute wrong
doings to make things right? Let’s say your classmate stole your wallet. You knew it was wrong,
but to take revenge, you also stole his wallet. Does that make you feel happy? Is it being fair?
Yes, because he got what he deserved. But is it being just? No, because justice is also equivalent
to being moral. You knew it was wrong, but you still did it just to take revenge and serve
punishment.
Now, let us talk about the Philippines. Over the years, the governance of the higher
ups haven’t had any significant change, not until Ferdinand E. Marcos’ reign. A lot of people see
him as a good president, a lot of people see him as not. The people of the Philippines denounced
his way of governing the country and all of the inhumane acts he did when he was still the
president. To achieve orderliness in his time, the rights of a lot of people have been degraded.
Yes, a lot has happened during his reign and the same event is happening today. President
Rodrigo Roa Duterte. The same nightmare of the past is circulating through a mouth-gunning,
insensitive person that we call president. His major campaign is the Oplan Tokhang which
exhibits extrajudicial killings. People who died in this campaign were said to be aggressive and
have tried to do harmful things, that’s why they were needed to be killed. That’s right, they were
killed without them knowing what was the reason. They were punished without them defending
themselves in the court. All of these just show that justice in the Philippines is missing. Now, let
me ask you a question, isn’t it a little ironic on how we are called to be a democratic country, but
the voices of the weak weren’t even heard, when they don’t even try to listen to them? Isn’t it sad
to think that everyone in the Philippines know this all too well but we cannot even make a step to
change the judiciary system that’s been killing us, that’s been deceiving us the whole time? And
I am telling you, just like what Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye will just make the
whole world blind.” We cannot make things right by doing the wrong thing again and again. If
we all want justice, we must all take a step, we must all do our role in this society, and we must
all start with ourselves. Before I end this talk, I would like to leave a message and a challenge for
everyone first. I challenge everyone to never settle for a developing country without love for the
people their governing on. Never just be the voiceless puppets of the government but instead, be
their fears, their number one nightmare. As you are one of the people with the wits, you must
stand your ground, believe on what is just and right. Let’s just forget about the “eye for an eye
system,” instead be an eye opener to everyone. Thank you.