Tuesday, May 29, 2012

On the Word "Justice" in the Philippines

For the larger part of my life, I have dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Unlike many people, I did not want to become a lawyer because of the title. I wanted to be a lawyer because I wanted to contribute to the justice system. As young as I was, I hated injustice but I also hated pretensions of justice. Justice for the sake of punishing someone for a crime, is not real justice. 

Shortly before graduating from college, my dream slowly disappeared. I was disillusioned. Being able to clearly see how "students" of the law bastardizes the very foundation that they stand on based on their whims made me believe that "Justice" is just a word that politicians throw around to get sympathy from voters. I was sick of seeing powerful politicians hiding behind the law to escape their accountability. 

In recent years, I was able to see that not only are the "poor" people victims of injustice but also those who come from rich and powerful backgrounds. People like our Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is now a victim of politics in the justice system. Dirty politicians make calculative decisions based on the public opinion, especially when the National Elections is just around the corner. 

I do not want to put the blame on the politicians for the death of my dream, but I would like to point my finger at the very politicians that use the word justice to bastardize our Constitution and make idiots out of the masses who placed their beliefs in them. Solons are supposed to be law makers, not law breakers. 

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