Brusco, Bossko, Brightko

In the primitive times, rulership was assumed by men who were physically strong. Brute strength, almost always, was the main criterion as to who would lead the community although in rare instances where the top honchos were also mentally alert, intelligence, was only a far second determinant of ascendancy. The strongest person in, say, the balangay, became its chieftain. He ruled with impunity. In most cases, his leadership was more feared than respected. His words became the law and whoever violated his fiat would be punished with the more ruthless rulers ordering the violator’s decapitation. For purposes of this article let me call that feared leader of primitive times Brusco.

As years rolled by, societies became more civilized. Significantly, their form of governance improved as the selection process of their leaders got refined by blood, sweat, and tears. Physical strength, while still a factor, was not anymore dominant. Skill and, to a large extent, intelligence, became the gauge in recognizing who would lead their expanding nations. Skilled and mentally-sharp warriors, while perhaps, less stronger that Brusco, went up the leadership ladder. For this column today, I call him Bossko.

History over the last two to three centuries records a tremendous stride of nations all over the world in terms choosing a leader. Intellect was getting to be premium, perceptively more than just muscle power. The European Renaissance and the American Civil War remarkably produced outstanding leaders of profound intellectual depth. People realized that a germ of a good idea could prove stronger than a mule. We, as a race, kept pace, in the last hundred years, with other nations. In our country, we banked on democratic principles by brilliant men like Manuel Roxas, Jose Laurel, and Diosdado Macapagal, to power on their commitment to the Rule of Law (I exclude Ferdinand Marcos, for personal bias). We became enraptured by the thought that “no man is so high that he is above the law” because ours became a government of laws and not of men. I label those distinguished and learned pillars as Brightko.

I am saddened that we might be sliding back to the days of Brusco. President Rodrigo Duterte, who, if people’s adulation were to be reckoned with, might be an exemplar of Brightko, scored twice. He first ordered the arrest of people using e-cigarettes. To me, this gadget is a modern luxury and I’m not aware of any law that makes it criminal to use it. I can be wrong in not remembering the enactment of any statute making it criminal to e-smoke. What I remember is that “nullum crimen sine poena lege”. That “no crime is committed unless there is a law that penalizes” it is still the heart of our justice system. Since, as in primitive times, the word of the Brusco was law, the order of Duterte, an otherwise modern Brightko, appears to be a legal order such that our policemen have declared to implement it.

The second Brusco-like pronouncement of Duterte was his recent directive to nullify the Rice Tariffication Law and disallow the importation of rice. Let’s not forget it was Duterte, who signed this law making it easy for almost everyone, to buy rice from abroad. Is he arrogating unto himself the power to repeal this law? I thought that in our legal paradigm, the power to make (also, repeal) laws belongs to Congress? Well, in primitive times, Brusco, could do that as the Brightko Duterte is doing just that. And we all seem to bow to his rule.