Whereas the governed has the power to consent, it also has the power to annull

Fresh from a whole week of campus presswork and conferences that momentarily isolated me from the blogosphere I returned to see a really unprecedented move initiated by the citizenry. Perhaps I am among the last ones to learn that some responsible members of the blogging community led by The Daily Dose's Manolo Quezon III filed a complaint-in-intervention on the Bangsamoro fiasco in addition to an earlier impeachment complaint lodged by Rep. Jose De Venecia III. The group realized it is now time for the common Filipinos from all levels of the society to assert their right to decide on their government, especially when such government is tainted by corruption and ineptness.

The President's apparent attempt to use the Bangsamoro crisis to convert the government to federalism and therefore serve her own interest (that of maintaining herself in office) is not the only reason why we must insist for change. The records of the past years made it clear, and we should not just sit back and watch, nor should we just merely stand and shout (we should realize that all of these are not enough), but rather, before times go crucial we need to act, and we must act now. The flowers of the Republic are blooming but under the gray shades of the clouded sky; unfortunately we do not need the flowers without the sunlight. We have achieved various glories, been recognized and praised (though sometimes mistakenly) by nations, but these glories only serve as a heavy panoply that encumbers us.Beneath the pompous armor is a hungry Filipino emaciated to the bones amid a rich land cultivated by him but consumed by others. How far can he go?

Our countrymen, converted into skeptics by the vain becomings of EDSA II, might have refused any actions they thought would again compromise our economy just as the past two revolutions dragged the financial system back then. This became traumatic to them. And being confronted by a similar dilemma today we cannot expect their immediate participation, for even if we lay down dozens of reasons, what they will consider is the unhoped for outcome. The Filipino will deem it better to suffer in the next two years fearing any revolution will make them suffer ten years more.

But what constitutes a new revolution? Is it an armed or unarmed one? A reformation by judicial process or by people power? The former is considered snail-paced while the latter is now shunned for reasons I have already mentioned. Nevertheless what appears is that it is the natural tendency of a person who values his welfare to assert his right to decide again and again even though this runs in cycles, for this is the process to perfect the government by deterring tyranny and corruption until they are diminished. To suffer the same after a revolution means we should do the same over again until we arrive into a nearly-ideal government duly instituted under a moral leader. He who is tired of this does not deserve being a Filipino, because this is not just his right but his utmost responsibility!

It is true that we are the most conscious people in the world when it comes to our democratic rights. But it is a mislabel to call us Filipinos a people of discontent and anarchy. Nay, we are a people who truly uphold the Law. Others are run by the dictatorship of the head-of-state, making them disciplined citizens; we are run by the dictatorship of the Laws of God and Man, making us free people but with reasonable strictures. In this we are different because we know whenever a president trespasses the moral and political foundations of the society, and corruption, just like tyranny, is a crime of the first magnitude that demands correction and if necessary, penalty for the sake of justice. We must practice rationality and hinged on morality and equality, that is, an equal law for all regardless of the status, may he be a common man or a president.

Thus before the political aspect of our country obscures human integrity it must be our protocol to stop it before it grows to enslave our people. For, where does tyranny start but from the embryo of corruption and the desire to conceal it? For four years since her anomalous ascent to office I had been one of the patient many who gave the president time to prove she could absolve herself through governance. Like others I put myself in a spectator's position, only to find it even worse. The whole nation is treated as a large specimen (the Bangsamoro issue is an experimental specimen for attempting charter change), and I am left with nothing to do but to support all motions for her ouster. The time is ripe. Let us use our power as a free people bound by the Laws that consist of Liberty and Reason (though loopholed), and destroy anything which impedes Progress. Given the right to choose our leader we also have the power to retract the corrupt or the tyrant; let us not forget that our leaders rule by the consent of the governed, one of the cornerstone principles of democracy.

Complaisance, on this time, does not mean peacefulness, temperance, patience nor discipline, but evasion and ignorance. It is an ignorance to the suffering of the voiceless, of the underrepresented, and of the uneducated who say, "We are mute and lame, please hold our hands and take us there!"