BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – Various government units, agencies, and instrumentalities have started complying with the memorandum of Malacañang to sing and recite the “Bagong Pilipinas (A New Philippines)” hymn and pledge in weekly flag ceremonies.
The Presidential Communications Office announced on Saturday, June 8, the order of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to recite the hymn and pledge to “instill the principles of Bagong Pilipinas among government workers.”
“For this purpose, the heads of all national government agencies and instrumentalities shall ensure that the Bagong Pilipinas Hymn and Pledge, which are annexed to this Circular, are properly disseminated within their respective institutions and offices,” read the memorandum circular of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin dated June 4.
Employees of the Iloilo provincial government started reciting the hymn and pledge during their flag ceremony yesterday.
The Iloilo City Hall will abide by the President’s directive, Mayor Jerry Treñas confirmed yesterday.
“Of course, why shouldn’t we follow? He is our president, isn’t he?” the mayor stressed.
When further pressed to comment on the views of some Martial law victims that the “Bagong Pilipinas” is similar to the “Bagong Lipunan” which they say brings back the nightmares of the martial law years, the mayor replied, “We follow until it is declared illegal. All directives from lawful authorities, laws, and ordinances are valid until declared unconstitutional.”
The “Bagong Lipunan” (literally translated as “New Society”) slogan was used by the administration of the President’s late dictator-father Ferdinand E. Marcos during the Martial Law regime from 1965 until his ouster in 1986.
But lawyer and broadcast journalist Dean Mel Sta. Maria said Memo Circular 52 violates Republic Act No.8491, or the Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines.
“Nowhere in the said law is it provided, expressly or impliedly, that the Office of the President has the authority to officially create a new hymn and pledge or add anything to the flag ceremony and direct that such concoction should be recited,” Sta. Maria said on his Facebook page.
He stressed that each section of the Republic Act No. 8491 only refers to the flag, the ceremony about the flag, and, at least one section, to the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance which has a statutory formula.
“The recital of such invented hymn and pledge provided by the memorandum during the flag ceremony is an undue, ultra vires, and abhorrent addition not allowed by law. The Office of the President just transgressed a law which it claims it is implementing,” said Sta. Maria.
The former dean of Far Eastern University (FEU) College of Law also considered Malacañang’s memo “coercive”.
“This is because Republic Act No. 8491 which the Office of the President claims to implement through the memo provides in Section 48 that ‘refusal to observe the provisions of this Act; and any violation of the corresponding rules and regulations issued by the Office of the President, shall after proper notice and hearing, shall be penalized by public censure which shall be published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation,’” said Sta. Maria.
The law also provides “Any person or juridical entity which violates any of the provisions of this Act shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than five thousand pesos (P5,000) nor more than Twenty thousand pesos (P20,000), or by imprisonment for not more than one (1) year, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court.”
In the memo circular, Malacañang said that Bagong Pilipinas is “characterized by a principled, accountable, and dependable government, reinforced by unified institutions of society.”
The slogan became popular during Marcos’ presidential campaign particularly when rapper Andrew E performed as part of the campaign jingle.
“It envisions empowering Filipinos to support and participate in all government efforts in an all-inclusive plan towards deep and fundamental social and economic transformation in all sectors of society and government,” the memo added./PN
