Role of Civil Society Artemio

Panganiban
1. Civil society can initiate the judicial
process by prosecuting and defending
cases and causes that bear upon
economic development.
2. Civil society should push legal
empowerment or the use of the law by
the poor to exercise more control over
their lives.
3. Civil society can advocate collective
cooperation in solving poverty.

Distinguishing Marks of True

Leadership Jovito Salonga
1. Vision the capacity to see through
the surface of things and perceive
what must be done in a given
situation.

(usually an infraction of a rule or

command).
Both penalties and punishments are
authoritative deprivations for failures,
but apart from these common
features, penalties have a
miscellaneous character, whereas
punishments have an important
additional characteristic in common.
Punishment has a certain expressive
function. Punishment is a conventional
device for the expression of attitudes
of resentment and indignation, and of
judgments of disapproval and
reprobation, either on the part of the
punishing authority or those in whose
name the punishment is inflicted.
Punishment has a symbolic
significance largely missing from other
kinds of penalties.

4. Moral Sense- the sense of right and

wrong, and a capacity for selfdiscipline

1. Punishment as Condemnation the

unpleasant treatment expresses the
condemnation, and that this
expressive aspect of his incarceration
is precisely the element by reason of
which it is properly characterized as
punishment and not mere penalty.
Punishment expresses more than
judgments of disapproval; it is also a
symbolic way of getting back at the
criminal, or expressing a kind of
vindictive resentment.

5. Service- readiness to give of

ourselves in serving others.

2. Some Derivative Symbolic Functions

of Punishment

What is Legal Punishment? The

Expressive function of Punishment
Feinberg and Coleman

Authoritative disavowal Failure to

punish a wrongdoer tells the world
that the authority does not consider
him to be at fault. That in turn is to
claim responsibility for the act, which
in effect labels the act as an

2. Competence The fitness and

capacity to handle a particular task.
3. Hard work and perseverance Our
vision and our fondest dream may
vanish unless we act, work hard and
persevere.

Punishment the infliction of hard

treatment by an authority or person
for his prior failing in some respect

instrument of deliberate national

policy.
2. Symbolic non- acquiescence:
Speaking in the name of the people.
In criminal cases, the government
represent the People. Symbolic nonacquiescence to the crime, seem
virtually to require punishment. All
citizens share the responsibility for
political atrocities. The root notion
here is the kind of power of attorney
a government has for its citizens.
3. Vindication of law A statute
honored begins to lose its character as
law, unless it is vindicated, and the
way to do this is to punish those who
violate it.
4. Absolution of others When
something scandalous has occurred
and it is clear that the wrongdoer must
be one of small number of suspects,
then the state, by punishing one of
these parties, relieves the others of
suspicion, and informally absolves
them of blame.
Constitutional problem of defining
legal punishment
All criminal statutes are punitive, but
not all statutes specifying sanctions
are considered by the courts as
criminal. Regulative or Punitive.
Elaborate constitutional safeguards for
persons faced with prospects of
punishment; but these do not, or need
not apply when the threatened hard
treatment merely regulates an
activity.
Problem of Strict Criminal Liability

Strict liability offenses/ Public welfare

offenses offenses for the conviction
of which there need not be a showing
of fault or culpability. If it can be
shown that he committed an act
proscribed by statute, then he is guilty
irrespective of whether he had
justification for what he did. Ex. Traffic
laws
2 things are morally wrong.
1. to condemn a faultless man while
inflicting pain or deprivation on him
however slight (unjust punishment)
2. inflict unnecessary and severe
suffering on a faultless man even in
the absence of condemnation(unjust
civil penalty)
Justifying legal punishment; Letting
the punishment fit the crime the
condemnatory aspect of the
punishment suit the crime, that the
crime be of a kind that is truly worthy
of reprobation. More serious crimes
should receive stronger disapproval
than the less serious ones, the
seriousness of the crime be
determined by the amount of harm it
generally causes and the degree to
which the people are disposed to
commit it.
ALTERNATIVES TO and OPTIONS IN
PLACE OF DEATH PENALY Rene V.
Sarmiento
The abolition of death penalty
contributes to the enhancement of
human dignity and to the progressive
development to human rights.
UNCHR

RA 7659 restored death penalty.

Deterrence argument = death
penalty deters crime. But rape cases
have not stopped after the execution
of Leo Echagaray.

the roots of violence, lawlessness and

criminality.

Death penalty perpetuates a culture of

violence.

Erap v. GMA

Alternatives, whose realization will call

for the interplay of constitutional and
legislative initiatives, executive action,
and church/civil society participation.
1. Adoption of a constitutional
amendment that will provide for the
unqualified adoption of death penalty
and for the reduction of death penalty
already imposed to reclusion perpetua
without parole. Reclusion perpetua will
be reasonable vindication of rights of
the victims and kin, and give ample
opportunity for the offenders within
the confines of prison to repent and
reform.
2. Enactment of bold legislative
measures, coupled with decisive
executive orders that will address the
shortcomings in the law- enforcement
system, the flaws in criminal
prosecution, and the weaknesses in
judicial administration.
3. A firm resolve in the part of the
government, church and civil society
to undertake and intensify human
rights education at all school levels
and among various sectors of society,
in order to underscore the
preciousness of every individual.
4. A holistic process of reflection,
analysis and action by government
and non-government sector to address

The impact of people power in our

legal system Raul Pangalangan

unlike Cory who candidly declared

the revolutionary and extraconstitutional character of her
assumption into power, GMA assumed
officer under the present Constitution.
The legitimacy of her government thus
derived from the Constitution, which
required for the Vice- President to
succeed into the Presidency, in
resignation of Erap.
Danger of possible excesses flowing
from People Power- about the opening
of the floodgates of raw power of the
people, while acutely aware of the
imperatives of democratic
governance. The majority opinion
cautioned that rights in a democracy
should not be hostage to the impatient
vehement of the majority.
Javellana v. Executive Secretary
The Marcos Constitution was ratified
by a mere show of hands. But the
Supreme Court concluded that there is
no further judicial obstacle to the new
Constitution being considered in full
force and effect.
Political question doctrine a decision
made by the sovereign people
themselves cannot be reviewed by the
courts.
Freedom Constitution cases
The people having accepted the Cory
government, and being in effective

control of the entire country, its

legitimacy was not a justiciable matter
but belongs to the realm of politics
where the people are the judge.
In Javellana, Marcos won. In the
Freedom Const. cases, Cory won. But
in both, the court relied in the political
question doctrine.
EDSA 1- revolution to overthrow a
whole govt.
EDSA 2 merely the exercise of the
freedom of speech and assembly.
PIRMA Cases

In this case, the court knew the

sinister political agenda behind the socalled peoples initiative. The Court
must not allow itself to be used as a
legitimizing tool by those who wish to
perpetuate themselves in power, and
who disguise their demands as that of
the people.
The real legacy of these great cases
is that they have taught us to ignore
the Constitution at our own peril, that
we need patience with general
principles, and for our Republic to
flourish, we must rely on those wise
restraints that make us free