HOW POLITICAL SCIENCE SUPPLIED MY POLITICAL AWARENESS

The need to be aware and keep abreast for our nation’s political issues and concepts has to be inoculated into the minds of each Filipino individual. I think it should be or else many people will be hungered for the truth and be blinded for the obscured things the entire government system is running. Just as we know, there are a lot of laws formed for our benefit but what are exactly the conditions and sanctions embodied to each of it? We keep on complaining about almost everything and poke the government to do something but the problem is we never dare to go deeper into the situation or even tried to check that our government really pushes their limits for the sake of serving the Filipino people. This and all of the political problems we have in this country are just fractions into studying the science of Politics, it is in the name of Polsci itself.

From the definition itself being a systematic study of the state and government, political science deals with the basic questions about power, authority, social values, and political manipulation. These are the ways that societies determine their collective priorities and attempt to bring them into being. In such a short span of time, spending and dealing with this important subject, Political Science has taught me a couple of things about the society and the way our dear  government run things according to its laws and constitutions established into this country.  It was one way or another the clamor for social awareness aroused once again as we got deeper into the subject and learned that each constitution has its own background and purpose why such enacted and who will benefit the provisions. Over all, it fueled my dry ideologies and it shed me light that we have the authority and power over the ones we appointed to rule our land and hear our cries. The subject awakened my political consciousness and encourages us that we should take part in the government so to say.

Being an introductory part and coined as the ‘prologue’ of the constitution, the preamble serves as an aid of interpretation which has an objective to establish a justice system and government to maintain order and peace. The different citizenship values contained in the preamble of the Philippine constitution include freedom, love, truth, justice, equality and peace.

Furthermore, since the Philippines is a democratic and a republican state, the bill of rights, the observance of the rule of majority, presence of election through popular will and the like are manifested and are exercised by the people nowadays as a privilege given by the government. Suffrage as conferred by the constitutional provision, is not a natural right of the citizens, but a political right intended to enable them to participate in the process of government to assure it derives its powers from the consent of the governed. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country and has the right of equal access to public service in his country. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government as this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. The civilian authority is supreme over the military because this authority comes from the people voting while the military authority on the other hand, is not in an electoral category. Given that we, as citizens of the Philippine republic have the right to revolt if only a certain constitution is sufficiently provoked by oppression or abuses.

Also, political science intrigues me in a sense that the separation of the church and the state shall be inviolable. It answered my question why can’t the church interfere with the government’s decision of enforcing laws (like RH Bill) when in fact the church strongly disagreed to it and several attempts were made just to halt the President’s approval of it. And that is because the church is purely on ecclesiastical affairs which involve the relationship between the churches while the state is purely on secular matters.

As a Filipino citizen, I got interested about the bill of rights enumerated by the constitution and as I scrutinized every single detail about it, most them are giving us the freedom to do something for the benefit of humanity like the freedom of speech with emphasizes our right to speak and be heard what the masses should know.

          

Again in such a short period of time, I was able to look through everything about our government. I was able to take a grasp of what could have been my lost if I didn’t take the subject seriously or if I taken this for granted. The schedule of our class doesn’t matter because as long as you listen to our dear instructor attentively, you will get what you deserve and that would be the insights that can be applied in today’s run of government. 

In today’s time, every Filipino citizen should be involved in any political matters. Let everyone be aware that we have the power and authority to express and let our voices be heard for the improvement of our government and be receptive towards the changes that will come over time. I know political science doesn’t limit to politics and government but it has its mission to create a good citizenship and build credible democratic values to the people being concerned to this. Thus, the study of Political Science has special importance in all countries. Its study helps us to understand the mechanism and constitutional systems of modern government.