Jose Diokno’s Concept

of Justice
 Filipino Concept of Justice
• Justice in Filipino is Katarungan—from the Visayan word “tarong” which
means straight, upright, appropriate, correct.
• Justice for the Filipinos, then, means “rectitude, the morally upright act.” It
also connotes equity.
• Related to justice is the concept right, Karapatan in Filipino, from the root
word “dapat” which means fitting, appropriate, correct.
• Justice and right are therefore intimately related.
• Law in Filipino is “batas” whose root word means command, order, decree.
• Batas and Katarungan, then, are disparate concepts among Filipinos.
• Laws, for the Filipinos, are not always just.
• Power and authority are not the same
• Authority in Filipino is kapangyarihan. It is not the same as power.
• Power is from Spanish word poder which means lakas.
• It’s not also the same as Privilege which, in Filipino, is pribilehiyo, a Spanish
word.
• Power and privilege are not native concepts.
• Fairness is the fundamental element of Filipino Concept of justice; and
naked power (poder) and privilege (pribilehiyo) are alien to the Filipino mind.
• Justice means fairness.
• Fairness is the act of “treating equals equally and unequals unequally but in
proportion to their relevant differences.” (Aristotle)
• It’s doing the right thing in the right way.
 But that’s a formal concept of justice.
• Filipino justice must be substantiated by Filipino vision of the universe.
• “Every system of justice will finally depend on values other than the value of
justice. In effect, we shall not condemn or reform in the name of justice but
in the name of a vision of the universe.”
 Filipino Concept of a Just Society
• An independent and sovereign society
• A society that respects human freedom and equality
• A society that “protects workers and tenants, opposes oppression,
exploitation and abuse, and seeks to eliminate poverty.”
• A self-reliant society united in brotherhood
• In short, a moral society
• “What set of principles or standards can translate this Filipino Concept of a
just society into a Filipino model of social justice?”
• “How is social injustice committed?
 Social Injustices are committed
• “By not having a system of law at all”
• “By not enforcing law fairly”
• “By enacting law that does not pursue the social values that constitute the
Filipino vision of a just society, or that adopts means which subvert those
values”
 To remedy # 1
• The lawmaking authority must be legitimate and should not exceed its
authority
• Laws must be clear and not contradictory in meaning
• Laws must not be changed so often
• Laws must be promulgated
 To remedy # 2
• Reduce if if not completely eliminate aleatory (based on toss coin),
pusillanimous (based on fear), venal (based on bribes), and asinine (product
of an ass)judgments.
• Infuse courage, competence, and integrity into lawyers, and competence,
industry and respect for the rights of suspects into policemen.
 By what standards should we judge the content of laws,
policies and institutions that seek justice in the Philippines?

• Laws, policies, and intuitions must promote and respect individual and
collective rights
• Individual rights are enshrined in the bill of rights and UN Declaration
• Collective rights: right to survive, right to sovereignty, right to development
 From which rights flow the ff
• Freedom from aggression and foreign intervention
• Territorial integrity, political independence, sovereign equality, social justice
• Right to determine their economic, political, social and cultural systems
• Sovereignty over national wealth, natural resources, and economic activities
• Right and duty to end colonialism, neocolonialism and all forms of
oppression and domination
• “Every law, policy and institution must be scrutinized to determine if it
impairs or violates any of the rights of the people. To reject this standard is
to reject Filipino aspirations to sovereignty, independence and self-reliance.”
 The problem of poverty and inequality
• “In addition to the denial of human rights and of the people’s rights, our
society today is characterized by a third malady: poverty and inequality.”
 The individual cannot be solely blamed
• “In a mixed but capitalist-biased economy such as we have, a person’s
income is the result of four factors: the amount of income-producing
property he owns, his skills, his productivity, and market value of his skills.”
• “A person’s skills and productivity, therefore, depend on the wealth and
income of his parents.” “So, too, is the income-producing property he
acquires.”
• “As a rule, the poor are poor and unequal because they are born poor and
unequal. And this poverty and inequality spawn oppression, exploitation and
abuse.”
 Laws, policies, and institutions should
• Eradicate poverty
• Achieve self-directed, self-generated, and self-sufficient economy
• Change social structures that perpetuate inequality unless inequality is
necessary to improve the lot of the least
 Two Principles
• Principle of reparation
• Principle of change
• The point is not to abolish all forms of inequality or achieve mathematical
identity.
• Nature causes differences.
• “Whatever inequalities remains in our society are not caused by our relations
with each other…”
• “Our goal is not, and never should be, to narrow the people’s choices, but to
expand them, to increase man’s needs, not merely to satisfy them.”
• “Finally, neither principle seeks to do away with government or law. On the
contrary, it is through honest government enforcing just laws that the
principles would be translated into justice.”
 Source
Diokno, Jose W. (1988). A Nation for our Children: Human Rights,
Nationalism, Sovereignty. Quezon City: Claretian Publication.
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