Most if not all people would like to live in a world where there is equality, peace and prosperity. However, this can’t be achieved if the necessary mechanisms and processes are not put into place to make this effective and protected. This is where law and order comes in. The establishment of legal frameworks is imperative in ensuring that societies and the world live up to the standard of the rule of law and apply these to individual instances and global concerns.
In this regard, relationships between citizens and their governments, and relationships between governments can only be effective when there is a respect of governing laws and an honest desire of applying them in prevailing contexts and situations.
The constitutions of each country, being the paramount law, protects the legal rights of its citizens and sets each state’s sovereignty within the community of nations. Moreover, the statutes and precedents derived from this basic law lay the foundation of international law. As “international law is derived on from the principles, norms and procedures established in domestic law”.
In this respect, regional and international bodies play a crucial role in ensuring that international relations is preserved and the beautiful world created by the Almighty God will be enjoyed by all regardless of economic status, beliefs and race.
This is now the predicament that my country, the Philippines is facing in the international front. It wants to enforce its territorial sovereignty pursuant to international laws. The different international legal instruments relating to this, primarily the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) should be respected.
On other hand, in the domestic front, the Philippines has successfully passed the Bangsamoro Basic Law which governs the newly established Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Mindanao. This new region and its governing law is the response to a decades old conflict in Southern Philippines between Muslims and Christians.
The foregoing proves how legal frameworks protect and allows citizens and states to live their rights within the law. Although there are different legal systems in different jurisdictions, “still each of them plays the same role and possesses the same functions. All of these systems are effective in their place.” I have made an audio recording of the summary of the interplay of legal frameworks to stress this point.
As a conclusion, parliaments play a crucial role in ensuring the passage of relevant domestic laws that will be the basis of good and well established international laws. This hopefully will work towards the world being a better place to live in. How will I contribute to fulfilling this? To continually hone my skills as a Committee Secretary in the Congress of the Philippines, thereby providing legislators the needed technical support as they craft laws both in the domestic and international fronts.
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