Social justice

I was at a conference where the first speaker was Father Joel Tabora. I first met Father Joel when I was conferred a doctorate degree honoris causa when he was president of Ateneo de Naga. I immediately resonated with his passion for the environment and his love of country. His uprightness and forthrightness continues to touch my heart. I similarly love his sister Cristina Tabora who helped me raise funds for ABS-CBN International when she was still living in New York. When I meet individuals like that I always think, “Wow! They must have had really good parents.”

In the morning of the conference, I met Father Joel at the lobby. I asked him if he slept well and he said he had stayed up late working on his talk. With a twinkle in his eye he said, “This morning I am going to do something different.”

The conference opened with a beautiful song which had me and Dr. Lina Regis (an environmental scientist) in tears. The words I remember are “Humble yourself, humble yourself… Lord, heal our land...” Something about the energy of the song filled me. I felt like the meditation space I was in that morning had extended to the conference. At the end of my morning meditation, I had offered the conference to the Divine. I pleaded with the heavens to bring light to our country. It was as if the energy of the song was a response to my aspiration. I could feel everyone’s heart in the room — wanting something better for our country. Then I felt a response: an energy landing in the room! Pervasive blessings from above.

It was in this energetic background that Father Joel gave his talk. I have always felt he was a noble soul. Ask anyone in Ateneo de Naga, they will tell you the same thing. But what I wasn’t aware of was how intellectual and philosophical he was. Father John Young, the president of Fr. Saturnino Urios University who had been a San Jose seminarian under him, whispered to me that even as his rector he would always discern and understand situations from a philosophical, intellectual frame of mind.

Let me share with you snippets of what he said mixed with my own reflections.

He talked about three kinds of justice:

1. Commutative justice. This is all about agreements among individuals. Contracts. Justice is present when these agreements are honored. Contractual justice is blind: it doesn’t see agreements in relation to different situations of people. Honoring agreements, no matter the cost to society, is commutative justice.

2. Distributive justice. This is when everyone gets his due share in the benefits and burdens of society.

3. Social justice. “Ahhhh,” Father Joel remarked. “Now, this is what we should get excited about. Social justice, which is all about the demand of the common good, should be the necessary and governing condition of commutative and distributive justice.”

If there is a contract that goes against social justice which will result in the suffering of many, and the devastation of our future, then Father Joel says it is an immoral contract, and therefore emphatically we are under no moral obligation to uphold an immoral contract! Just as we are under no moral obligation to uphold an unjust law.

Even if this means going to jail when society attempts to enforce unjust laws. In the US, when laws protected slavery, they were unjust laws. People fought them in righteous civil disobedience. Fighting unjust laws is an imperative of social conscience.

Wow, I felt. Right on! That is so cool. He is right. If corrupt parties make contracts under immoral laws that clearly will result in the suffering of many, social justice demands that the laws be changed. Social justice demands that people work for just laws, and that Congress enact just laws, and that Malacaang enforce just laws. Laws are there to promote the common good. Social justice has only one prime dictum: the common good.

This stand resonated with my inner soul. Something about it felt so right. And that Father Joel had the courage to say it with such passion caused tears to flow. The courage and fearlessness to stand for what is right: this is what will bring our country forward. As long as we cower and surrender to greed and selfishness, we sacrifice the well-being of our people.

He talked about Tampakan, a proposed open pit mine, 544 hectares large, 800 meters deep atop a fault line 12 kilometers away from Mt. Matutum, an active volcano. It’s a no-brainer. Say no! Why hasn’t the government yet said no? What does social justice say? Say no. Communities, farmlands, water systems — the future of thousands of families are at risk. Why is this still being discussed? What is there to discuss? Say no!

When the lives of communities are put at risk, when the future is put at risk, the dictum of social justice is simple. Always decide on the side of the common good.

I was talking to one of their consultants and he said, “Gina, that threat of Tampacan will always be there because at the core of that area is this precious metal which will always be a magnet. So if it’s going to be done one day, why not have it done by experts?”

Is it totally quixotic of me to hope that we will one day be able to say no to anything that endangers the well-being of our people, no matter how much money is involved? Is it quixotic to hope that one day we will be able to see clearly through the mirage of promises and possibilities, clear enough to see that putting our people’s well being at risk can never, ever be worth it?

If you feel God and the way God would want governance to be conducted, you must be sensitive to social justice. Just contracts are important. They must be enforced. But when they are unjust, the imperatives of social justice should have precedence.

Going for social justice means taking risks, and accepting the consequence of one’s position.

In my heart I feel that ruling with social justice as the main discerning factor is ruling the land not as an economist, or a legalist, but ruling in the way God would want his people ruled.

At the end of the day — simple as it may seem — it’s the best way to do things. It’s uncomplicated, and I am very, very sure it will yield much better results than any decision hinged just on intellectual or financial calculations.

It is ruling with light, with love; it is connecting our path to the path of the Divine. There can be no better way. Ruling via social justice is the way of the Lord. In this country we are a God-loving people. Let social justice be the spirit infused in all decisions that our leaders make, and let us choose the leaders who will abide by just that: the common good.