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LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 27 January 2008 Issue

The congressional proceedings on the cheaper medicine bill are in the final stages. The deliberations on the measure have been controversial, if not emotional, among the stakeholders since last year. The primary objective of the proposed law is to address the popular clamor for a more affordable health care by bringing down the exorbitant costs or the overpricing of medicines in the market.

Understandably, every time government is confronted with a pressing public demand the usual response is to come up with a law to respond or as a political reaction to the issue. Fortunately for the government, the cacophony would subside momentarily. But unfortunately to the public, the predicament almost always remains unresolved. Ironically, the law in many situations consequently aggravates the issue or becomes the source of a much bigger concern.

One of the promises of the proponents of the Generics Act of 1988 was to accomplish almost the same purpose as the cheaper medicine bill. Two decades after this law, the Filipino people are still suffering from same much higher prices of medicines.

Ten years ago, Congress passed the Downstream Oil Deregulation Act of 1998. The promise is to ensure a truly competitive market under a regime of fair prices, adequate and continuous supply of environmentally-clean and high-quality petroleum products.  Price control of fuel products, which have been blamed by some quarters for higher prices, became deregulated. But still, fuel prices are unreasonably high and worse, oil companies are accused of predatory pricing under a monopolistic arrangements disguising as deregulation.

Overseas Filipino worker Flor R. Contemplacion was executed in Singapore for the murder of another Filipino domestic helper. In response to the weeks of consistent public protests over the issue and the plight of Filipino workers abroad, former President Fidel V. Ramos pushed for the passage of the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995. The promise was to reform the overseas employment industry, provide better protection to the overseas workers, and pursue a state policy of deregulation. Twelve years after, another law was passed setting aside the deregulation policy and still the victims of illegal recruitment and exploitation continue to grow in number.

In 1989, the Magna Carta for Countryside and Barangay Business Enterprises (Kalakalan 20) was passed by Congress. In 2002, an almost similar law was also enacted called the Barangay Micro Business Enterprises Act. The promise of both statutes is to promote entrepreneurship outside of urban centers by providing a package of tax and credit incentives, simplifying business regulations, and hopefully, to ease poverty and unemployment. Judging from the almost a million Filipinos seeking employment abroad in last couple of years, it is doubtful whether these programs even got off the ground.

Time and time again, government professes that foreign investments are needed to spur economic growth. But even all the packages of government incentives accorded by various laws to foreign investors did not seem to really attract them. Otherwise, this country would not be talking now about poor economic conditions and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would not be breaking her back campaigning to foreign businessmen that the Philippines is an ideal haven for their investments.

Twenty years ago, landless farmers and farm workers were promised a more equitable distribution and ownership of lands through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988. With the law about to expire in June 30 and Congress talking about its extension, farmers remain poor and locked in a tug-of-war with landowners.

Labor’s demand for higher wages and the turtle pace legislative reaction brought about the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989. But the nagging issue on minimum wage fixing and implementation before the enactment of said law remains.

Other countries should envy the Philippines for having one of the best Government Procurement Reform Act, Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in the world. But corruption in government is a never-ending story.

And the list of these “false hope statutes” could be never ending.

As in most regimes, government’s stance to public issues is always reactive. Good, if the reaction provides the appropriate and lasting solution. What is worse is if the reaction simply offers a false hope.  

Sometimes it is a source of wonder why government still exists.

PUBLISHED: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) – 21 January 2007 Issue

Who will not agree that there is no such thing as a perfect law?

It is not uncommon to see laws being used as a convenient tool for oppression.

It is understandable if governments use law to legitimately restrict individual liberties when they conflict with the general welfare. This assumes that it is permissible for the state to use its coercive powers presumably to promote the common good. But the same justification is also held by many autocrats who pretend to do it in the name of the people. And to complete the validity of state action, common good in many jurisdictions has assumed a new dimension, that is – the preference of economic interests over the worth of human dignity and freedom.

Laws are meant to be the harbinger of justice, in the same vein that it becomes the root of injustices. 

Racial discrimination for instance is abhorred by civilized societies. But even the United States which is known for being the bastion of democracy and freedom of the world justified racial prejudice for centuries through its racial segregation statutes. If not for the triumphant protests of civil rights movement in the early sixties, the inequalities would have been valid until today simply because the law allows it.

Some laws are good but they become meaningless because society takes them for granted.

In this country, who takes traffic laws or even the recent ‘Seat Belt Law’ (RA 8750) seriously? Despite the ‘Clean Air Act of 1999’ (RA 8749), there appears to be no significant improvement in the levels of pollution in Metro Manila before and after the passage of the law. The simplest explanation perhaps why they are taken for granted is inconvenience, both personal and economic.

Laws are always susceptible to various interpretations that jeopardize the consistency of their application.

The recent initiative of the House of Representatives to push charter amendments on its own is indicative of how the wordings of the law can be twisted to suit one’s interest. This predicament is obviously brought about by poor statutory craftsmanship. And this leads to a situation where favored individuals escaping from the majesty of the law while those who are not easily fall prey to it. But the more laws are put on the table of the courts for judicial determination speaks badly of the kind of lawmakers this country has.

Many laws are too complicated and complex for the understanding of the common man.

Yet, it is axiomatic that “Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith”.  Just look at how complicated the country’s tax laws and yet every Filipino is expected to pay the correct taxes. This is the reason perhaps why law has always been, and will continue to be, a thriving profession, especially in these times where almost every human activity is within the ambit of the law.

Some laws are well-meant but in the process may also encourage lawlessness.

Take for instance the ‘Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006’ (RA 9344). Law practitioner Plaridel J. Bohol II pointed out that while the law laudably seeks to promote and protect the well-being of the youth, criminal elements of society may take advantage of the exemption from criminal responsibility accorded to children above 15 but below 18 years old who acted without discernment and those 15 years of age and below. He hopes that these children do not end up as runners for peddling of illegal drugs, as hit men of terrorist groups, or as a pack of thieves and robbers of crime syndicates.

The biggest pitfall of all perhaps is what Lao Tzu observed centuries ago: “The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people will be. The more laws are promulgated, the more thieves and bandits there will be.”