THE LEGAL FRONT

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word “crisis.” One brush stroke stands for danger, the other for opportunity.  This usage suggests a double-sided view of a crisis: the danger that every crisis carries, and the opportunity that the response to danger opens up.  Our nation and leaders should never forget these perspectives in responding to challenges. In Part I of this topic, I outlined the problems that our nation potentially faces.  Danger indeed lurks ahead for us, but our careful and appropriate response can likewise benefit us. Hence, we need not fear even if the challenges look formidable. We have been there before and we have learned how to win. We ought to consider in the first place that today’s world situation may not yet be ripe for immediate decisive action.  We can use time, though it is limited, to see what future developments hold. Meanwhile, we can also scan the horizon for possibilities open to us for opportunities. Our President already took the “opportunity” track when he called for “unity in diversity” in his EDCA celebration speech and in many other messages to the nation.  Unity and cohesion are traits we need at all times, good and bad.  They can best serve us if our people fully know the dangers lying ahead, and feel as “one” nation in our approaches and solutions.  History is replete with examples we can take lessons from – nations that overcame grave dangers due largely to their people’s unity, understanding, and resolute attitude. One outstanding example took place in early World War II after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, when England and its European allies were reeling from defeat after defeat. Poland, Holland, France, and Belgium were all falling or had fallen. The English army stood cornered in Dunkirk with its back to the sea and with the Nazi forces just waiting to deliver the final blow. To its everlasting credit, England improvised an unusual rescue effort – a flotilla of small private boats – and succeeded in bringing back the bulk of its forces home, thus preserving its army to fight another day. The Dunkirk experience was followed by the Battle of Britain – an attack from the air - as a prelude to an invasion by sea; the planned invasion did not materialize as Britain bested the Luftwaffe in the air war and denied Germany the needed air support for a sea invasion. Through all these, the British people suffered, but bravely fought on, alone, as their European allies had all fallen or were falling.  Churchill explained his reason for continuing to fight in these words: Nations who go down fighting rise again, but those who choose to tamely surrender are finished. These are words that our nation and leaders can easily remember as we also fought on and did not tamely give up in Bataan and Corregidor. The dangers confronting us today, in terms of loss of territory and direct involvement in a foreign war, are golden opportunities to get our people to stand together, as one nation in thought and action.  In fact, with problems of this magnitude, we are given little choice: we stand together as one or fall separately, as one old saying teaches. An implication we should fully appreciate is the opportunity given us now, through a united stand, to forgive one another for the painful issues that divided us in the past, without however forgetting the lessons we learned. Our nation has undeniably moved on from its past; even the leading participants are now all gone. It only remains for us – the survivors and heirs – to forgive one another. Let us seize the opportunity for forgiveness that the current crisis gives us. Another opportunity open to us is soul searching.  In formulating our responses to the crisis, let us also examine ourselves on a broader and deeper plane to identify the direction we want to take as a nation and, if possible, the steps we ought to take together, the alignments and calibration we need, the time we have, and the tools we must now prepare. If we have not done these before, let us do them now. Education, for example, is a must for every nation that wishes to line up with dignity and respect in the parade of nations.  It is a basic tool for progress that we can imaginatively use to cope with the conflicts that arise as our country interacts with others. Have we really taken a purposive view to find out the education we need beyond our usual narrow aim to fill identified needs in the overseas labor market services? Is our education geared to adapt to the world’s developing technologies?  Does it teach enough history to awaken nationalism in everyone? These and many other questions must be asked and answered if we are to coherently and effectively respond to the challenges we face now and in the future. In the context of this discussion, the crises we now face, may define and identify for us the opportunities open for us as a nation.  Let us face our challenges as one people and ensure we do not pass up the opportunities that come our way.  ([[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])) *(The author was a former Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court and of the Court of Appeals.  In the Executive Branch, he served as undersecretary and later, secretary, of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).  For a time, he was Foreign Affairs undersecretary; chancellor of the Philippine Judicial Academy (Philja), and a partner at the Siguion Reyna, Montecillo & Ongsiako Law Offices.  He taught law at the Ateneo de Manila University, the University of Asia and the Pacific, and was dean of the San Sebastian College of Law.  He still teaches law at the San Pablo Colleges in San Pablo City where he currently resides. )*