Constitutional Rights
This is one of the rights in democracy country besides Natural and Statutory Rights. Constitutional Rights are the rights inside our constitution, the Philippine Constitution. Here the rights are protected by the country. For example, freedom of speech is protected if anyone tries to stop someone from expressing his constitutional rights, then this is a potential violation, and the victim has the right to file a lawsuit against that person. Also here we can learn why people keep violating these rights and get away from it.
Constitutional Rights divided into 4 Parts
These are Political Rights, Socio-economic Rights, Civil Rights, and Rights of the accused.
Political Rights
There is a right that involves participation in the establishment or administration of a government and is usually held to entitle the adult citizen to exercise the franchise, the holding of public office, and other political activities. Even just voting wisely for any person on the election of the council is one of the Political Rights of the citizen.
Political rights are not just voting for the candidates, you also have a right to join the government to make the country better. You just need to fit in the requirement of the government to be able to join in politics. But helping the country to be better is one of the rights in politics.
The promotion of political rights guarantees public order. Without the public order, a community or section of a community finds itself exposed to organizing and committing murders, rapes, and other acts involving a violation of those fundamental rights necessary for the safety of the individual and the country.
Socio-economic Rights
These are Social and Economic Rights, it is a right to housing or a healthy environment (a social and economic right) that provides the basis from which advocates can argue for better services or against a policy or proposed development that might have adverse health impacts.
This makes children who need help to be able to study without paying tuition, makes people have a fair salary from their work and makes people have a healthy life like being able to check up every year. These are some rights that government can do for the people who live in their country.
Socio-economic rights protect the dignity, freedom, and well-being of individuals by guaranteeing state-supported entitlements to education, public health care, housing, a living wage, decent working conditions, and other social goods.
Civil Rights
Civil rights are very important for people in the country because it’s their right to live, eat, and study. It protects the people who live in one’s country against unfair treatment based on certain personal characteristics like race, gender, age, or disability. Governments make civil rights laws to protect people from discrimination in social functions such as education, employment, housing, and access to public accommodations.
Examples of civil rights include the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to government services, the right to public education, and the right to use public facilities. Civil rights are an essential component of democracy; when individuals are denied opportunities to participate in political society, they are denied their civil rights.
Rights of the accused
In law, the rights and privileges of a person accused of a crime, guarantee him a fair trial. All legal systems provide, at least on paper, guarantees that insure certain basic rights of the accused. These include the right to trial by jury, to representation by counsel, to present witnesses and evidence that will enable him to prove his innocence, and to confront his accusers, as well as freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures and freedom from double jeopardy.
An accused person must not be allowed to languish indefinitely in jail but must be given a speedy trial. This issue involves the right to reasonable bail and prohibitions against being detained for more than a specified time without bail.
The reason why many Filipinos are accused of a crime is because of a lack of security of government in law. Many rich people get away from their crimes while poor people need to pay for them because money is more powerful than the truth. And if the person who has crime has a higher position in the country they easily get away from their crimes and live freely like they didn’t do anything wrong or they even repeat their crimes again and again because the law did nothing to them.
Why do people violate these Four rights when we need them?
Even in these 4 rights people always violate the rights. The Philippines never runs out of new laws, orders, rules, regulations, and ordinances. But even in the simple law like “No Smoking, “No Parking” or “No Jaywalking”. People do that because they know that they will not get caught or if they are caught they knew they can get away with it because the law is not being implemented properly.
One reason for it is money, money is powerful because it can control one’s life. Money can buy anything, even the votes and the law money can buy it. That’s why these four rights are being ignored because of the money. In the court when the suspect is rich and the victim is poor they think they can pay the victim with the money because the victim needs it. So where are the rights of the people?
And another reason is that people who love to violate are hardheaded. Smoking in public places such as schools, workplaces, sidewalks, etc. is categorically prohibited by Executive Order №26, but still, there are a lot of men and even women who are puffing cigarettes in said places.
If those law violators will not change their ways, then our country is doomed to remain poor forever. For instance, if one is stuck in traffic, he loses his precious time and his car’s gasoline. If the garbage is not thrown properly, then the people in the community will get sick. And, of course, if people continue to smoke in public places, then the non-smokers in that area will acquire tobacco-related diseases.
Lack of discipline is the root cause of all those violations.
Filipinos need to be disciplined in their houses, their schools, and their workplace. This need to start with a simple and easy to learn, in their houses parents teach their child what is discipline, in school teachers add the knowledge of children in terms of discipline, and in the workplace where they can see what discipline teach them in their life. That discipline is important not for only one person but the whole country. Because if one person can learn it then why can’t other people can’t?
That’s why we need to step up first in simple steps to make our country better, we need to start in ourselves to be better to make it right, we need to stop doing what we think is right, and we need to learn to accept that we are not always right. To be able to feel these four rights again.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVn0ppDD8v0
https://www.britannica.com/topic/rights-of-accused
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRgPp-jiHxo
https://www.thoughtco.com/civil-rights-definition-4688614
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86JdtGfYFLI
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/social-and-economic-rights
https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/social-and-economic-rights-primer.pdf