literary representations

‘WE WANTEDJUSTICE AND GOT THE RULE OFLA W?

LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS OF THE STATE, THE RULEOF L A W AND U R B A N SQUATTING

Roderick Guemm Galam’

There is a scene in the Iloko novel Gzl-ayab ti Daga by Jose A Bragado‘ where the two mam male characters, Boiu and Lando, leaders of thelr squatter community’s struggle to protect thelr land from being taken away from them by 3 rich busmessman, express then utter and bitter disappomtment over a judge who ruled in favor of the capitahst Namnamaenda a mangsalaknib kadakuada a marigrigat tl ket husgado tl nanggbus iti amin a darepdepda a maaddaanda iti daga wenno panangtagkuada iti nagtakderan dagiti balayda.

/ H e whom fhg, had hoped would protect them who are poor, r t was the jxdxe who ended all their dreams of’oivntng land or acqtlinng the larid where their hoirse~stood.] What is the source of Lando and Boni’s, and by extension, the squatter conmunity’s f e e h g of being abandoned and betrayed even by a person who, at least in the novel, represents for the poor, the marginahzed, the downtrodden and the oppressed (‘he whom thy bad hoped wouldprotect them who are poor? the single institution that they had expected and hoped would protect them from thelr oppressor and deliver them from their oppression? Why did Boni and Lando even expect the court

‘Assistant Professor, Integated School, University of the Philippines, lecturer, Collcgc oC I’;duc.itii)ii, University nf the I’hilippines, B.A. mugnu cum hu&, U.P., 1995, M A ,UP, 2002. Hi.; mastc.r’s O ~ C S I S .o u t of which this essay p e w , won the Atfy.Lnurdes Idntok-Cnq Mo,il Owfstanding T1x.ri.r Awurd from the UP (:cntcr for Womcn’s Studies. The author wishes to thank Ms. Abigail Hope T. Serrano and Ah. Ik~melR. l i a q a r e s for the help they extended to thc author in the preparation of this work. ’ GZI-uyub ti Dugu (literally Lrmd’r Fhme) was serialized from 1985 to 1986 in the Ilokano wcckly inc I3unnuwq (Dawn). Jose A. Bragado is a prolific writer who has written more than a dotcn n o d s for thc h n n u y ~where he s e n d as literary and associate editor. He is the present president o f the (;UAfII, I~ilip~nas (Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano), an association of Ilokano writers with chapters in thc hliddlc l i n s t . I I n w a i ~ ,California, Guam, Greece, and Italy. For purposes of convenience, whenever the novel is citcd 111 tlus papcr, thc citation shall refer to t h s note. This essay integrates in its discussion portions of an earlier papcr by t l i ~;uthor, llc/endinA u l’hce in t h e Nution: Gender, Spuce und Sfute 0pprer.iion in GiI-Ayuh ri Ilugu ]o.it A Ihqodi,, w h c h appeared in 2 PIHIL. I-IUMAN. 1WV. 69-105 (2001).

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to operate and function in their favor? What is the function of legal courts, and how must legal courts function in a nation where more than percent (70Yo)of the people arc poor and where wealth and power are concentrated among only a handful of the e n t i r e populatlon of a democratic country? Did Boni and Lando express i n their disappointment a view of legal courts as a refuge for those who have nothtng else as protector?

What underlies BOA and Lando’s statement is a notion that justice and the rule of law are not simply two dlfferent thmgs but that more importantly there is a confict between the two concepts. This article examines representations of the State., of the concepts of social justice and of the rule of law as they are played out in the problem of urban squatting. Among many literary works which deal with the‘lives and experiences of the urban poor, I have chosen Bragado’s Gil-qab ti Daga because it offers a rich (il-legul/extru-legu~site for the examination of such legal-yet-also-social issues as urban squatting, and concepts a s j , , t i , and mk O f h w . Furthermore, the novel provides an opportunity for the examination of the danger, and perhaps mpossibhty, of truly spealung for others.

I.

JUSTICE AND THE ‘RULEOF LAW’

“We wanted justice and got the rule of law.”2 Barbel Bohley, East German civd rights activist, made thls statement in the early 1990s after the coltapse of the German Democratic Republic to express what she thought about the search for justice for those who suffered under the rule of Honnecker in the former GDR, and the efforts to make accountable the people responsible for the suffering of these thousands of people. Bohley’s statement, which captured the sentiments of many former GDR citizens dlsdusioned and dlsenchanted with the outcome of the trials, was an explosive one, becoming a household expression and meriting opinion and interpretation from several commentators, includmg German professors of law such as Gerhard Robbers3 and Ingo von Munch.4 The most sustained and enlightening commentary on the implications of Bohley’s statement was by Ingo von Munch who said in his essay “Rule of Law Versus Justice” that what Bohley said was “explosive . . . both in the horizontal and vertical direction; horizontally, its dimensions include history, pohtics, psychology; vertically, it goes to the roots of legal phdosophy and legal thinking.”5 I borrowed Bohley’s statement because, if re-stated as von Munch

,&ofcd in Ingo von Munch, Ku& $LAW Vcrrur]usfid in T H E RULE OF LAW: A RI:AI>EII , 186 (joscf ’lhcning, rd.,l‘i07) quoting Barbel Bohley. 3 Ckrhard Kobbers, Thr RWL U/LLlwand Ifs E f h dFoundufions,in ‘WE RULE 01:LAW:A R ~ i n t : ~ 24,,

30 (loscph *l‘hcsing, ed., 1997)

von Munch, rupru note 2, at 186.

Id., at 189.

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did (‘We hoped for justice and merely got the rule of law”; What we had hoped for was not the rule of law but justice”?, it expresses essentiulb the same disappointment

felt by Boni, Lando, and the squatter community. Yet, as I will also show, the source of their disappointments is quite dfferent; the squatter community’s f e e h g of betrayal therefore needs to be seen and understood in a different context.

\\%at is the rule of law? losef Thesing (1997) says that the rule of law is “one of the principles that u n d e r p i the democratic State”7 and that “in its practical configuration, is based on t n u principles, the prmacy of the law and the ethcal concept of justice”’. Thesings’s tictliiiuoii or characterization of the concept of the rule of law inextricably bounds it u p \ v d i the State and the idea of jusuce. The association of the concept of rule of la\v w t h the State specially and specifically in the German context is not at all suiprising for the German equivalent of ‘mle Ofluw’is‘Rechtsstuat’(ncht/fuw,.rtuut/.rtate) ‘‘2 democratic State under the rule of law.”’ As Klaus Stern says: “Under the rule ( ~ law, t the state exercises its power o n the basis of laws adopted in a constitutional pLocrdure so as to safeguard freedom, justice, and the certainty of the law.”” Jusuce ilocs not only figure prominently in the concept of the rule of law because, more importantly; it is “generally accepted as that principle whlch both embodies and almsjbr jusuce and the inviolabhty of the law.” (emphasis supplied) ~

’’

\miat are the specific elements and principles that characterize ‘rule of law’ emerged and developed in the liberal democratic tradition(s) of the West? Two unportant and related things have to be mentioned first. Robbers explains that the rule of law, specifically the bourgeois rule of law, w h c h became really s i p f i c a n t in tlic 1 9 t h century, “was based on the concept of c h a n n e h g and controlhng the power o f the State w h c h , theoretically at least was unlirmted in an absolute monarchy, while :it the same tune confronting it with a representation of the people.”” The rule of law therefore is not merely about the maintenance and safeguardmg of a le a1 order but also about “ h t [ i n g ] the exercise of absolute power by the executive.”’ Related to this is the importance the rule of law gves to indwidual freedom. A s Thesing

as

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Munch, “pro note 2,at 189. loscph Thesing, Ibh ! / h w ond Dcmnmu~y-An In/mdurlion, in ’I’tlE RULEOF LAW:A I I Ici.4 II\t REI‘Cm’lS O N (;ORRCPllON ( S h d a Coronrl, rd., 2o(K)) 46 Ilobbrrs, r q m note 3, at 36.

BETFASAW: OF THE PUBLIC TRUSI:

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A. LAW AS AGENTOF SOCIAL REPRODUCTION It 1s in this context that law as an agent of social reproduction is viewed. I draw heavily from Nicholas Blomley who argues that “law is an important agent of social reproduction for the state”47 in that it represents “a conjoint expression of state ideology and i n ~ t r u m e n t a l i t y ”Blomley .~~ says:49 law has a distinctive i d e o l o g d dimension in that it summons up a mass of associations of naturalistic morality, democracy, and determinacy. Law is, however, not just ideology; It aims to do something.

The r e ? - instrumentality of law lies, in part, in its ideologcd nature (for example, its claims to common morahq-) which encourages comphance gwen the social costs of deviancy. It is this assumption \vhicli underpins the concept of the ‘‘rule of law”. However, the effecuvcness of law also lies in its perceived determinancy R S a test. The ;issumption is that kin- represents a bod;- of determinate testual commands mhich, by their r-en. nature, ensure that some goal is :ichieved.” (citation omitted)

I f the law operates primarily for the state, how exactly does it sen-e the state? Three processes represent the functloning of law for the state: one? formulation of law by the legislature; two, application of law by enforcement xgencies, nnd three, interpretation by courts.5” Blomley provides the following ideal account of liow “law is applied within the state”: Law is forlnwiuted by the Iegslature (derived from common concepuons of morality), and then upphd by a myriad of xgencies, to ‘.v!iom responsibility is both delegated and monitored b y the ccnrrd st:!tct. Some autonomy is accorded these agencies, it being recognized [!>.it tile practical details of often complex laws are best devolved to those expert in a specific field. ?lie assumption is, however, that such .!pplication will be unproblernatic, the text of a statute being related to .in!- gwen situatlon. -\ny problems as to the specific meamng of law that may emerge are resolved in the courts, which are represented as being beyond or above the state. The courts’ assumed function in this

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ideal type is to i n r e p e t law; to extend the original of those who drafted the stature to specific phenomena that were not extant at the time of codification and to do so in a manner that is “true” to the intrinsic meaning of the statute as a determinate text. Three finite legslauve tasks for the state apparatus are thus identified; that of law-making, law-enforcing, and law interpreting. Each of these tasks, in this idealized division of legal labor, is the dominant (or even sole) function of one agency; that of the legslature, enforcement agency, and court respectively. 51 Blomley asserts that in this ideal type, two conceptions are implicit: one, functional determinacy [“specific agencies have clearly defined, separable functions with little (if any) intra-apparatus interplay”); and two, statutory determinacy [“law has meaning in and of it~elf’1.5~ Blomley asserts further that functional and statutory determinacy are deceptive in that “the state as an apparatus cannot be divided so easily” and that “all agencies of the state are engaged in interpretive practices.”S3 The “openness” of law for interpretation by different and various agencies and persons reveals ultimately that “[llaw is not a higher form of rationality, nor is it, by its very nature, intrinsically determinate.”54 The interpretation of law, Blomley says, is contestual p e n the necessary socio-spatial rootedness of the interpreter.55It is this socio-spatial location of the people tasked to interpret and implement the law that law can easily be appropriated for the protection of the interests of the ruling class which has the resources to influence the interpretation and application of the lnu.. Even a t the stage of formulating or maktng laws, the influence of the dormnant class can already come into play to determine who the law wdl benefit the most. It is in this sense that law o r the concept of rule of law can come to maintain and reproduce a social order dominated by the r u h g class. Richard Abel, in t a h g about the mantenace of apartheid in South Africa, provides a good example of h s . He says that “despite its unquestionable value, however, legality had severe lunitatlons in the struggle against apartheid. Since the white legislature wrote the mhs, it was no surprise that tbe.sejzvored the re,gime.’’56 (emphasis supplied)This is certainly the case presented in the novel Gii-qub fz Dugu. This is the source of the disappointment of B o d , Lando, and the squatter’s community, the source of their f e e h g of betrayal.

51

Hlomley, wpru note 41, at 176-177. [d,at 177. 53 Id. 54 Id at 194. 52

55

Id.

56 I. intimidated because they had a president who is w h g to risk his life for the c ~ , m m u n i ~If~ .lie could buy Boni, then it would be easier for him to dril-e the rcsidents alvay.) K h d e morhng on Boni, h f r Lopez “deploys” the law through the court to l‘I5 The court promptly issues an order girmg

evict the residents from Filipinas Street

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the residents 15 days to vacate Filipinas Street.lo6 Lando believes that money had passed hands.’”’ The commumty, m keepmg with Born’s “legal” mode of fightmg M r Lopez, h m s a lawyer to try to get the judge to reconsider h s order ‘08 But the residents know that they must resort to other means m order to get the judge to reverse his ruhng 1‘)‘) “Intayo agrali iti sango ti pangukoman. Pikarentayo ti hues.” j ‘ b t us stage a rai5 in front oftbe court. Let usgoad thejudge. ’[i

Demonstrations, according to Ockey are the most provocative of mddle ground weapons of the urban weak.”” Though demonstrations are frequently effectwc for oppressed people to articulate their oppression and to draw pubhc attention to their oppression, the way demonstrations are used by the FiLpinas Street community is ‘tactical’. This is because much of what demonstrations are supposed to accomphsh or obtain for the residents depends on the opportunities that ma)’ arise from these demonstrations. Boni and Lando in fact h a g m e possible scenarios that can help them attract public attention to their struggle. That B o d and Lando are conjurmg potential scenarios and unintended outcomes they could capitahe on and transform into opportunities demonstrates their lack of (access to) institutional power such that violence, the extreme result of which is death, would be good for the cause - a welcome event and development in their struggle. Even their lawyer tells them to hold rakes and demonstrations in front of the court to get the judge to change 111srmnd.111 Demonstrations, however, are not always readdy avdable to the community. Even t h s “weapon” is sometimes demed them. The police always tried to stop them especially when the residents did not have a permit to hold a demonstration.112 The residents face all sorts of constraints even in merely demonstrating: would the police have allowed them to hold a demonstration in front of a court if the residents asked for permission? Worse, the men of Mr. Lopez attack them and the police take the side of Mr. Lopez and accuse the residents of lawlessness.’l 3

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From t h s time on, the confrontations between the community and the forces of hfr. Lopez become more direct and violent.”4 And the modes of resistance ~ employed by the community become more confrontational and violent, t 0 0 . I ~ The “underworld” residents also increasingly take a more central role and posiuon in the community’s defense of Fihpinas Street.1’6 This is clearly evident in their response to the most serious attack by the men of Mr. Lopez on FLLtpinas Street.Il7 The goons lxirii the house of Boni and Lando.’Ix Although the attack is primarily directed on Boni who rejected the offers of Mr. Lopez (even w M e he was also subjected to the worst form of mtimidation and coercion), it is intended to engulf the whole conmiunity in a conflagration, literall~.~Ig After the incident, the “underworld” residents, upon the initiative and instigation of Lando, keep vigd to protect the conmiurllt)..~2(’ They also did t h s in anticipation of the return of Mr. Lopez’s goons.I?l They !-all three of them when they came back to see if the whole “squatter’s are;^" had been eaten by fire.122Violence for violence, the crlrmnals led by Laiido drir-e the vehicle of hlr. Lopez’s men to an isolated place and burn it together w i t h the bodies of those they !-alled.123Std, Boni would not allow Lando to lull hlr. Lopez Not just yet, he says, since they s d have a petition being heard in court.’lj But the judge never heard the “case” as he gave a r u h g m favor of hlr Lopez without even first “hearing” the side (or “arguments”) of the community and without fEst examining the pieces of evidence that they were prepared to show The judge ruled that Mr Lopez’s land atle is authentx and that the community’s 1.mJ titles are fake even though he has not seen the ixtles held by the residents of Fhpinas Street ‘2’ Ever1 w i t h the judge’s r u h g against them, Boni, as leadcr of the community sucks to his two tactics (suU u i t l i n his preferred “legal” resistance).I28 First, in the

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face of the near exhausuon of thelr recourse to a legal, falr and just resoluuon to their problem, the people strengthen thelr sohdarity srnce it was becormng clear to them that jusuce has been bought by Mr Lopez 129 Thls sohdarity is demonstrated m \elera1 r a k e s and demonstrauons jorned by most residents of the commuruty, even b\ the old and the young l1‘I Nonetheless, the commumty files before the same court that ruled in favor of Mr Lopez a mouon for reconsiderauon 131 Also, they ask an appcllate court to issue a restrarning order 112 Thls is the second tacuc going through the legal process Even with a newfound sohdarity and a wdhngness among most of the residents to shed blood to protect Fhpinas Street, many of them are discouraged IIV the obvious rmscarriage of jusuce 113 The clrculatlon of money among Mr Lopez, the judge and even the lawyer of the community has only led to the concentrauon of “ju\tice” on hlr Lopez li-( r h e msery of the residents does not end with the judge and theE lawver getung bribed The court had not even looked mto then request for a restraming order unul the last Thus, they had to prepare agam for another dcmohuon This tune, because the evictton order came from a judge, the state’< police aiid soldiers had come to assist the private ariny of Mr Lopez 13s In fact, the pohcc aiid soldiers mouth the “official” hne that the residents are merely squattlng ,ind that theu land t d e s are fake They therefore had to be evicted and by foice t l i i \ time 14’ A violent confrontauon occurred between the demohuon team and the iesidenr5 K h e n the residents showed that they were prepared for a physical and vit-rlriit qtruggle, one of the men of Mr Lopez took h ~ gun s and shot at the crowd, ! d i n g two chddren and an old woman (who had a heart attack because of the li~llootlllg~ What the commumty did with the death of the three residents reveals further the ‘tactical' rather than ‘strategy’ characteristlc of the community’s


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resistance to and struggle against Mr. Lopez143 The community agreed to have the wake for the three victims of capitalist and state violence in front of the court that ruled in favor of Mr. Lopez. Capitalizing on the grief and misery of the situation, the community hoped to transform the judge’s indifference and apathy into sympathy.144 Prohibited by both police and the security guards of the court, the community doggedly persisted in drawing the attention of the judge to the injustice he had just 11cIpccl to deliver.’45 But it was not the judge that the community succeeded m n-iniimg but the court’s security guard.146 ‘Even the burial procession for the victims is transformed into a dramatization and depiction (in short, a “demonstration”) of the utter injusttce and incquahty that characterize the Fhpinas Street commuruty’s struggle against Mr. !,opez:’

4:

. . . h u n a ni Boni a nasaysayaat no ibaklay wenno bitbitenda dagtl lungon tapno maluta d a g u tao ti kmapanglaw dagm biktima d a g t i bahaknang. Pinaisaganana met dagti placard ken streamer tapno rnaipalutada :I m a p a protesta ti ar-aramidenda kontra iti inhustisia.

Ilmdn to accompany hi1n.I5~The community’s use of ‘estralegnl’ means co a resci1ut:oii of their pi-oblem is signaled. ;It this point, the struggle is becoming borli tacucal :md s t r a t e g c employing modes of resistance that range from the “evel-]; da!,” ro !lie “iniddle ground” to “open confrontation”. (The confrontational and xwlcnt (armed C T T I ~ ) mode of resistance was xlready employed in the r~nde.nvoridresidciic-s’ l;illing of three inen o f Mr. Lopez). \Vlien kando attempted to luU Mr. Lopez, he w x l i ( - > r ;~ctingon the express/expkit “instructions” o r “requests” or “wishes” of the c o r c m t i n i ~ . “ ”He ’ actcd on his owii; eve11 keeping his decision unknown to 130i-ii.!fil n i n n d o n w N e d by rhe men of hlr. Lopez \vho lllmself v . ~ s h t a l l r ! the coimnuiity u-ishecl iie succeeded in ldhig Mr. Lopez.!“’ \Ylicri the x ~ i c i e n r - ,lsarned that Lando attempted to kill hfr. Lopez to get rid of tliei~ soim!nL;nitfs enemy, they approprixtely ~ h o ~ thcir e d gratitude for l i s sacrifice b!3 rri‘nidiiig his funeral.l63Other criiiinal-friend. of I .axdo said that if the communiyw i!csired, they could fuiish off hfr. Lopezl64

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I he community, ndiicli had m i d l y wantcd to drive away t h r s c criminals, r o depend on thc capacity of these critniiials (in other words, o n their

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criminahty) to commit acts w h c h otherwise they themselves cannot d o if only to protect Fhpinas Street. The residents needed each other because if these “underworld” residents succeeded, then at least no one would pursue “their” land, “their” place as vigorously as Mr. Lopez. The ‘underworld’ residents would then be assured of a place where they can peacefully and securely live, far from the arms of the law. Though their modes of resistance were dictated and shaped more by theu lack of access to institutional power which made their resistance more ‘tactical’, they were able to employ a variety of ways w h c h successfully prevented Mr. Lopez and his men from easily evicting them, and w h c h helped to expose corruption in the courts and thus the collusion of the state and tlie dominant class, and w h c h helped them win the support of the wider public. Despite their exclusion from power, however, (or precisely because of their exclusion) the residents discovered, and forged, theu community with those who were even more under the oppression of, and subjection to, the state - tlie criminals. Their alhance, w h c h constituted the Fhpinas Street community, enabled them in crucial stages of their struggle against the ahance of hlr. Lopez and the state, to engage in ‘strategc’ resistance. Denied by the state theu power as a people, they asserted back such power precisely by resorung to the only lund of power available to them, and to a sense of justice that they believed was now their only hope. They welcomed the ‘criminal’ acts of their fellow community members, those a few had initially wanted diqhed, against the state that is committing criminal acts (through the courts, the police and the d t a r y ) agamst its citzens it considers too small and negligble. 111.

CONCLUSION: BETRAYINGTHE PEOPLE

Fhpinas Street 2s not just h piece of land squatters have ‘colonized’, or appropriated for themselves. It is not only tlie ten-hectare land “bordered” by China ;\venue and J a p a n Street that is being owned by the capitalist Mr. Lopez. Fhpinas Street, as the name unambiguously points to, is the Fhplno nation, and the people who have lived there for more than thirty years are the national community oppressed, dislocated and displaced by the capitalist class and tlie state that has betrayed the people when it colluded with Mr. Lopez. The formation of the Fhpinas St. Homeowners Association by the residents to protect their place from hfr. Lopez represents thelr formation into a nation-community. The victory of Mr. Lopez in driving the residents away from Fittpinas Street made possible by the courts and through Mr. Lopez’s use of h s “armed” forces, suggests the dominant capitalist class’s ‘forcible’, violent but legalfiyed) acqusition of the nation. It represents the people’s disenfranchsement and m a r p a h a t i o n , both in terms of land and power. The novel does not forsee the people talung back their land and therefore their

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rightful place in the nation for it does not only end with the people’s defeat. The novel ends with the people’s acceptance of (or resignation to) their defeat.16j W i d e the ending (the defeat of the squatters) correctly points to the oppressed class’s domination by the h g capitalist class and the state constituted as it is by elites and members of the r u h g class, the endmg I argue is also premised on 2 nmrecogmtion. When the author ends his novel with the squatters’ resignation to 2nd acceptance of their defeat, he refuses to contend with the power that squatters and other urban poor possess because of their oppression, a power generated by their solidarity. As Jeremy Seabrook says of the squatters in Commonwealth, Quezon City:’SS The people of the Commonwealth settlement, as indeed those of most slums, are perceived ;IS a threat to order; this is no longer because they are going to overthrow socieq, or are prey to destabilizing lcftist beliefs, but because their capacity for autonomy. self-reliance and independence suggests that they hold the key to ;I different way of doing things, that they represent the embryo of an alternative social order that is more egalltanan and solidaristic - the reverse of that ideology of extreme mdividualism preached by the powerful. Concentrations of poor people have a formidable a b d q to orgamze[.] (200-201) The author’s ending of his novel does not recognize t h s and it is ironic because he sees the potential. This refusal on the part of the author obtains from his posiitlon vis-i-vis squatting. For all the author’s attempts to write about squatters, he is against squatting (who is for squatting any way) and uses the dlscoursc of legality to justie his position. But t h s discourse of legality - of operating w i h the bounds < ~ rhe f law - simply means operating and acting w i h the state that creates and “~ipliolds”the law. Following this legal/state logc, the novel(% author) f i d s and declares the people of Filipinas Street unlawful occupants and justifies this by the powerful doctrine of the rule of law. In capitahzing on this logc, the author becomes an advocate of the State. It must be noted that the novel was serialized from 1985 to the early pnrts of 1086 xhich mdicates that the novel must have been written as early as 1353 (or a - e n carher). It must be noted also that it was serialized in a magazine that has contributed to EIie glorification of Marcos and of the dictatorshtp. Given the conjugal dictatorship’s complex to beautify the City of Man to the point of building plywood

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walls to lude squatters from being seen by foreign visitors, the author mouths this logic, this Authority and even does a better job of clearing the metropolis of urban ‘human waste.’ Rather than a speaker for the oppressed class of squatters, the author is a judge who inficts h s bias o n these squatters.16’ From the point of view of the ‘rule of law’, the author-judge has denied the oppressed substantive due processs,iGx or perhaps, was too lazy to research o n legal procedures that pertain to h s subject before he wrote h s novel and before ‘authoring’ and authorizing the verdict in favor of Mr. Lopez. If Fillpinas Street is the nation, then the people’s struggle for it against Mr. Lopez and the state is a national struggle for political and social justice. It is the people’s assertion of their fundamental right to the nation that is being usurped and m o n o p o k e d by Mr. Lopez with legal b a c h g from the courts. It is in this context that the distinction between the ‘rule of law’ and ‘rules of law’ must be made. Sir Arthur Watts (1997) explains:

. . . a rule of law is a statement of what the law prescribes on some particular matter; and collectively, the rules . f h w connote the body of particular rules comprising a legal system as a whole. In contrast to such general body of rules of law, the concept of the rule of law signifies the regulation of the community in accordance with considerations of law and justice; it ‘connotes a climate of legality and of legal order’. It relates more to the underlying characteristics of the community’s legal system as a whole than to the content of the rules themselves. While the particular rules of law may be, and often are, changes from time to time, the rule of law involves fundamental principles which may be regarded as characteristic of a legally ordered community. W l e these characteristics, too, may change over time, they do so relatively slowly; they thus provide the long-term framework within which such particular rules of law which may be shortlived - operate. The rule of law thus has a status which may in some cases be expressly constitutional, and which in others is a t least quasi-constitutitonal.

Hragado, s u p note I . ]:or a detailed discussion of the proper legal procedure authorities are supposed to follow in eviction and o f some of the statutes that afford protection to squatters, see J U A N CLIMACO EL.AG0, 7% 1b.h ./ l ~ wC,‘oimrnmcrr/.r i in /he Iiic/inn und Dcmobion clscs of Urlmn Poor Ib.rideni.r, 113, 117, in STATE-CIVIL SOCh?T’\’ REL.\lIONS Ih’ POL.ICY-MAKING (Marlon A Wui and Glenda S. Lopez, eds., 1997). Alas, as in the novel, these statutory protections, it s e e m , are more honored in the breach than in the observance of their provisions. 16’

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LITER4RY REPRESENT;ITIONS

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This distmctlon between the rules of law and the rule of law often blurred IJJT those who, in respondng to some internauonal mcident by calhig for the rule of law to be upheld, are in reahty often doing no more than callmg for comphance w t h internauonal law Complran'e with the h w , ulihough desirable, is not the same as iomplrance with the rule oJlaw Ih7 (emphasis rmne) IS

The court's verdict r e c o p z i n g Mr. Lopez's ownershp of Fhpinas Street cannot be accepted beyond reasonable doubt and reproach. It is a warped compliance with the law because it was made in violation of other rules or l a ~ s . 1 ~It' ' IS illegal and therefore, unjust. The rule of law has been blatantly violated afid conipromsed and thoroughly undermined. Moreover, Mr. Lopez's winning his case n - x s made only possible by a justice system and by legal courts whose most accurate representation in the novel is Judge Liput (Traitor/Betrayal), the judge whose help h l r Lopez enhsted for his 'usurpation' of Fhpinas Street. Lando and Boni's, and b y estension the squatter community's, feehig that they have been betrayed by the court ("He whom they had hoped to pmtect them who are poor, it was the judge who ended therr dream ofownzng land.. . "171) is justified and accurate. Their f e e h g of betrayal does not really spring from desperation and a false expectation of how legal courts ought to €unction. Instead, and more rightly so, it obtains from that idealwhere there is mle of law, from that idea! of nile of law, where the rule of law does not only protect individual freedom but guarantees social justice in the face of tremendous State power even as it must also ensure that the State guarantee social justice.