(CHAPTER SDXTEEN ‘The Filipino and Freedom Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, and Andres Bonifacio fare household names, So are those of other Filipino heroes. Nationwide we celebrate Rizal Day and the Fall of Bataan, now Aro ng Kagitingan. And that is how it should be. We should not, cannot just let our heroes fade away, They are the embodiment of man the warrior, man jn war and peace, but more relevant to us as a people, man as lover of frexdom. Inherent in every hero is the love for freedom. The following article of Dolores A. Reyes analyzes freedom as it is perceived by our national heroes and its meaning to our present way of life. . FREEDOM - A POLITICO HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION Dolores A. Reyes? Freedom and Our Filiyino Thinkers Influenced by the Liberalism of the eighteenth and. nineteenth centuries, our Filipino heroes, Jose Rizal, Emilio Jacinto, and. Apolinario Mabini had definite ideas about freedom or liberty. To simplify matters, we are ‘equating freedom and liberty based on Webster’ definition of the term "ree" as having liberty or not held in bondage. Our Filipino thinkers formulated the idea which emphasized the full development of the Filipino free from the restraints of the Spanish government, sec nay Chip te rp of al ey dng Site ae ny, Pcl sce, naa Sh Sci) A rede iota hatte Base h Rojeei \ 188 In an appeal to the goverment to grant more freedom, Rizal wrote ".. The misery of a people who are without liberty must be blamed on the tulers and not on the people. For a man to be responsible, itis necessary that he be the master of his actions - and the Filipinos are neither the masters of thelr actions nor those of thelr thoughts” Did Rizal only hold the Spaniards responsible forthe toss of freatom?” He did not. In anctber aay, he explained, =~ The Flipino. people, not being master of Bry ot epee er fe mone os twoesle say thi, tis tne but we alo havea large part ‘in the continuation of such a clisorder." tall Here Rizal is saying that the Flipinos could not be held accountable for the ills of the country for they were rot allowed freedom nor granted moral responsiblity However, they are partly to be blamed for allowing the ‘Spaniards to terrorize them, for their loss of freedom, and lastly for not doing anything -about thelr miserable condition. Freedom and Responsibility When is man responsible for his action? FH. Bradley fn Ethical Studies laid down four main conditions ‘a Selfsameness, There must be ‘continuity of personal identity. b, The deed must issue from the will of the agent. ¢, The doer must be supposed tobe intelligent. 4. Thedoer must bea moral agent. In making the Filipinos responsible for their loss of freedom, Rizal probably could not believe that the actions fof our ancestors were truly unavoidable. He probably thought that the Filipinos with their innate intelligence could not possibly be suffering from a defect of reason of 189 ‘such a kind that they did not know shat they were doing was wrong. Freedom and Social Control, From birth to death, people live within a complex web ff social control. Social control is the process by wich border is established and maintained in society. We are not ftware of this control because of our training in childhood fand youth, The members of the group act in the expected wway by habit. The practices and customs of the group have became habits, Such habits are the basis of socal control Living in the group as socialized human beings Some conformity to Like values and norms. Our parural drives must be restrained. We must observe the Tanners of cur group. We must respect the rights of thers and assume ouF rightful duties as members of our Soclety. Since others act the same way we assume our Socially controlled living as natural and normal. To put it Simply, social constraints deter us from doing what we ‘want and as we please. Does this mean we are not free? No one in society is ever that free. In other words, oir freedom is limited. Our freedom is limited by the freedems of our neighbors. It is limited by our customs, tradition and laws. Mabini realized this, limitation to freedom when he defined liberty as: “True liberty is only for what Is good and never for what is evil, itis always in Consonance with. reason and the upright and honest CSsclence of the individiwal. The thief is not free when he ‘Steals for he allows himself to be led by evil and becomes & Slave to his passions; when he is, punished, itis precisely because he dit not use true liberty." We must be orderly if we are to live together, The ‘world would be in trouble if we could do just as we please nd have all the freedom we wanted. As an early Philosopher said, "A man's troubles start when he Is free fo do as he pleases” We do not merely occupy adjacent190 space but that our lives and destinies are intermingled. What we understand of ourselves is affected by how we stand in relation to one another. Jacinto had this fear that in our wish for freedom, we may infringe on the rights of others. Tp quote him: "Liberty is the attribute of man from the moment he is born; thanks to it, he thinks and does as tne pleases, provided he does na harm to another” Fersonal roubles icremse when people decide the can live ouside their word of socal control. Many ature away soon finds that such from means coping, with hanger disse and sometimes violence. Freatom and Government Laws are enacted to protect our society and to preserve ‘our system of morality. It is the task of government to legislate these laws ancl to implement them. Governments have so encroached upon human freedom that itis easy to draw the conclusion that there is fan irreconcilable conflict between governmental activity and individual liberty. The truth iS that freedom for us who wish to live in an organized society and to enjoy the benefits of civilization is vitally dependent upon government activity. Actually a good constitution attempts to reconcile government authority and personal liberty by delimiting the areas of each, Abe Fortas, a Justice of the US Federal Supreme Court, explains this idea clearly in the following decision on the case involving Dr. Martin Luther King, We are a goverment and a poopie under law. I is not merely governmant that must ive undor law.” Each fof us must lve under law. Just as our form of Ie epends' upon the indivouais Subservience 10 the laws ‘uly prescrbed, Both ofthese are essenia, ‘Just as we expect the government to be bound by 191 ‘all laws, 80 each ndhdal is bourd by al the laws under the. Constiuion, He cannot pick ard choose. He Cannot substivie ‘Hs “own judgement “or passion, however noble, for the rules of law...a ctizen cannot omand of his government or of ihe people obedience fo the law, and atthe came tae claim aright n hime to break it By lawless conduct, free of punishment of pera. Actually the freedoms we enjoy are enhanced by the fundamental law of the land ~ the Constitution. According. to Jacobsen and Lipman, a liberty is a less. specific immunity from restriction and is presupposed to exist unless curtailed by law; it involves no corresponding obligation on the part of the state. Wien this immunity is expressed in the Constitution or laws of a state, it becomes _acivil right which i enforceable inthe court (Our Constitution embodies a Bill of Rights designed to protect individual liberties and to put a limitation upon the power of the State. To give a detailed explanation of these rights would entail the writing of another essay. A brief enumeration of the essential civil liberties we suppose will suffice. These liberties ae: 1. The Right to Freedom This ight means we cannot enslave other individuals. Former President Jose P. Laurel once said that a a free people, we should think and act as free men - not fas freed men, and as a free people, we should confidently fand courageously depend upon ourselves ~ not upon others’ ‘2 The Right to Equality ‘The right of every individual in a democratic society is to enjoy equality not in talent of beauty but equality under Jaw and opportunity,ae 3. Freedom of Abode and Movement ‘This guarantees the right of a person to have his home in whatever place he chooses and also to travel. within his country apa abroad. 4. Froedom of Expression The right of all persons to express themselves freely is essential t0 a democratic society." This freedom assumes that every individual has a right to a free flow of information and ideas. 5. Freedom of Conscience ‘We like to believe that no man is really free unless his freedom includes the right to make his decisions ‘concerning the existence of a god and the nature of the human soul. 6. Citizenship and Suffrage ‘The right to the status of citizen is axiomatic in a republic, for citizenship is our badge of full membership in ‘our country. Each citizen must be free to exercise sutlrage (the right to vote) subject omly to reasonable restrictions such as age, mental incapacity, and moral turpitide, 7. The Right to Criminal Justice A system of criminal procedure that guarantees justice to every person accused of wrong doing is indispensable in democratic society. Limits on the power of govemment are not always clear just because they are written into the constitution. If fever rights are tramplad_upon by other individuals oF organizations or by the officers of the government, its our uty to secure the enforcement of our rights through the courts. This idea is supported by Mabini when he wrote 198 that "Conscience obliges us to obey the mandates of the authority which we have recognized and to whom we have promised obedience... Nevertheless, we have to be fever watchful as to the justice ofthe laws, for if this is not one, then we fall defending our soit! The judges are also morally obliged to give relief to the people ‘who, upon discovery that their freedom is being curbed, turn to them for help No society could ever have enough referees ancl police to do the. job of control, Most social control must be achieved by making people selicontolied. Frewdom and Free Will “There are some people in any‘bciety who refuse to act tn accordance. with those customs which. the "sciety considers fiting anc proper. There are always some who do not obey the laws, A glance at newspaper on any fiven day wil almost always furnish examples of crime Shd dissent What is dissent? Strictly defined, dissent refers to disagreement in speech and writing. Today, the word has come to inckide a wide range of activities in which Students, minorities, politicians, urban poor, farmers and even ordinary people give voice to protest.. This dissent fakes the form of picketing, hunger-strkes, sit-ins, pray-in, land so on. These dissenters are mostly individuals with Strong convictions and are often willing to take the long. hard road to correct what they consider to be unjust or discriminatory. Sometimes, they are involved in court ‘ases because they deliberately violate some laws. Herbert Marcuse, an advocate of the "Great Refusal,” maintains that men to be truly liberated must resist and oppose the repressive apparatus of the Establishment. Crimes are committed everyday by ordinary indivi194 duals and by organized criminal groups. Organized crime is a society in itself that socks t0 operate outside the control of the people and their governments. It involves Iundreds or even thousands of criminals working within structures as complex as those of any large corporation, Why do we have dissent and crimes? Because we hhave the gift of free will. In 1767, Cesare di Beccaria, Published "On Crime and Punishment. In this book, he argued that since individuals have Free Will they deserve to be punished if they commit a crime, For Beccaria, Free Will means the freedom to choose to do right or wrong. Plato calls the use of free will an exercise of subjective freedom. Hegel maintains that individual conscience proceeds from the subjectivity -of free wil We act ‘according to the dictates of our conscience. If we negate the presence of freewill in men we have to picture men as Puppets at the mercy of forces which they cannot control. It is doubtful whether men would want to be called Puppets. Ordo we? ores: Cor Mat, The Petal nd Cin Han of te Phpie (Gare Ci UR re SN i e ? pa ppmaan 3 EM Brey, hal Sucen” The Pp of aid Tiegh, §. a an Peon No Yank ail hp oa, 4 onan Sm pe, 6 Abe Fonas, Covering Dine wu Chl Distalime New Yor: Manan Rosia, Wats Pasa Co BOR, pS 7 Jom. aa, Bat nt Frade: 19510 Coe a8 3 195 Reflection 16 “Are we a freedom. loving people? Can you cite spect ‘examples to support your answer?. ‘What do you think of Rizal's opinion on our loss of freedom during the Spanish regime? What doyou think of today’ Fipins using (or mises Ing the eedom?