How fair is social justice

The first formulation on social justice was put to print more than seventy years ago. Justice Laurel gave its comprehensive definition in the case called Calalang versus Williams and the more serious students of law, for academic purposes, do not fail to commit it to memory. In a country like ours where poverty is still a major concern, the ramifications of that concept continue to evolve up to present times.

Take the case of Cebu City. Only last week our daily newspapers reported the idea of the provincial government finally trying to come to a resolution to address the problem of the thousands of families residing on the land located within the boundaries of the city but owned by the province. These are the settlers covered by Ordinance No 93-1. This ordinance was approved in the administration of then Governor Vicente de la Serna. In the year 1993, Cebu Province enacted it to allow the occupants of its city lots to acquire their home lots at reasonable and affordable prices. A time frame was provided for such acquisition. The idea, no doubt, was founded on the social justice formulation of equalizing the social and economic forces so that those who have less in life must have more in law.

Then Gov. de la Serna thought that the settlers would do their part of the socialistic equation by paying for their home lots. For a major part, the former governor was wrong. Only a handful took the bait and paid what was required of them. A great majority allowed the period provided in the ordinance to pass without lifting a finger to comply with its provision. They refused to pay and yet continued to occupy the land that did not belong to them.

Faced with the huge problem of non-compliance with its ordinance, the succeeding occupants of the capitol in Governors Pablo Garcia, and Gwendolyn F. Garcia worked on the amendments of the ordinance extending the time for the settlers to pay. None seemed to work. The settlers would like to have their cake and eat it too.

As reported last week, two heads of local government units may work together to find a reasonable conclusion to this humongous problem. They have allegedly committed before their terms end, they will have untied this Gordian knot. His honor, the incumbent Governor Hilario Davide III, has in mind of donating (did I get the news right?) the lots to the city government for it to handle the process of eventually having these parcels titled to the occupants.

Somewhere in the news, an amount was mentioned. The honorable city mayor is thinking aloud of allocating five hundred million pesos. A part of it, I understand, will be given to the province as some kind of consideration. I do not know how they call it because if the province plans to donate the lots to the city, there is no need of any payment.

If social justice is the equalization of laws and the humanization of the social and economic forces, the allocation of P500m to help the settlers falls squarely into the concept. That is assuming, of course, that the settlers have less in life. When a local law is passed providing them that huge sum of money in some kind of assistance, that in effect is giving more in law.

This is where I feel a little bit uneasy. Many times, I covered these areas where these settlers are found. I talked to many of them. For sure, the majority of their number does not fall within the category of "those who have less". With stable jobs, or engaged in some income generating activities or pursuing certain professions, they have certainly have more in life.

Yet, for their support the city is contemplating of allocating half a billion pesos. It forgets that there are thousands of residents, who while owning small parcels of their home lots, earn less and so unquestionably they have less in life. These are the citizens who share the burden of running the government by paying taxes but, because the benchmark is ownership of residential land the social justice concept is not for them to enjoy.

In this context then, I urge that the mayor to revisit Calalang versus Williams and find out if his plan of providing P500m for the settlers is fair to all residents.

***

Email: [email protected]