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member, Human Development and Harmony Cluster, Pamayanang SanibLakas ng Pilipinas
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1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism 2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine 3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission 5. Civics and Democratic Governance 6. Culture as Community Creativity 7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education 8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony 9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice 10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development 11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations 12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology 13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships 14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace 15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart' . |
Restorative Justice of our Ancestors By Ed Aurelio C. Reyes Lead Founder and National Spokesman, Kamalaysayan This is excerpted from "Will to Inherit a Dozen Distinct Endowments," first published in the 7th issue of LightShare, which was based on the same author's article in Filipino titled "Mayaman Ka! (Hindi Nga Lamang Halata!)" that was first published in Tambuli ng Dakilang Lahi. FORMAL History is supposed to be limited to written History, according to the western system of scholarship which also treats periods with no written historical accounts as “pre-history,” and relegates all non-written evidences of past events and cultural patterns only to the coverage of Archeology. It’s good that the word kasaysayan is not a mere translation of the term history! Kasaysayan covers the interconnected oral and written narrations (salaysay) of events and social behavior patterns that members of a community or of a set of communities deem significant (mayroong saysay) to them. Our sense of history, or whatever little of it remains in our hearts and minds, will serve us well if it can develop within our self-image a sense of pride that we collectively deserve to have. Living according to our heroic heritage will surely improve our lives and allow us to discern a collective sense of purpose for our nation and for the world. For thousands of years, even preceding the time of Christ, we, the peoples in the archipelago now called the Philippines, had our own system of writing which, in the account of Andres Bonifacio, entire community populations knew how to use. This is now known as “baybayin” or “pantigan” (also known by the foreign-based coined word “alibata” ). But almost all the pieces of writing that existed at the beginning of Spanish colonization and the artifacts of indigenous religions were destroyed on orders of the Spanish clergy who branded the whole lot as “works of the devil.” For this reason, entire libraries of written historical accounts vanished in giant pyres and this accounts to a large extent for our collective amnesia. Over the centuries, even oral history suffered its own disconnections and all elders who possessed unpassed knowledge had to bring all the information with them to their graves. We have scarce information on our traits and our lives over those millennia, but we have enough information concerning at least a dozen things that we should all cherish as treasured truths. They form part of a great inheritance from our forebears.
Obviously, they did not write out a will for us to have this inheritance, but we are the ones who can have the will to really live and preserve this rich legacy! A Dozen Distinct Endowments There are a dozen items in a list we have have constructed of distinct moral, ethical, and spiritual endowments we have inherited from our ancestors’ culture and behavior that had stretched over all of a few thousand years starting with the last millennia of the “Old Testament” period (but they got gradually removed from our culture since we got colonized about half a millennium ago). Labeled with Tagalog words that all started with the syllable “Ba, ” the following items make up the list, which was first published by this same author’s article in Filipino, titled “Mayaman Ka! – (Hindi Nga Lamang Halata)”: 1. “BATHALANG KALOOBAN” (Divine Spark at the Innermost Core or “Loob”) 2. “BAHAY NA BUHÁY”(Living Quarters Within Nature’s Bounty) 3. “BAYANIHAN” (Teamwork in Producing; Loving Care in the Sharing) 4. “BANGK SA BANG”(Boat Figurine on a Burial Jar) 5. “BAYAD-SUKLIANG MATAPAT” (Honorable, Sustainable Partnerships) 6. “BABAYLAN” (Doctors for Holistic Health) 7. “BALANGHAYAN NG MGA TAGBALAY” (Genuine Community Spirit) 8. “BAHAGHARI NG PAGLIKHA” (Abundance in Creativity) 9. “BALIK-LOOB SA UNAWAAN” (Justice: Compassionate Healing) 10. “BANIG NG PAGNINIIG” (Synergetic Interweaving) 11. “BAYBAYIN” (Universal Literacy) 12. “BANAWE” (Farming the Mountains) System of Justice: Compassionate Healing
By way of example, let us focus our attention on the system of justice that prevailed in the communities of our ancestors. It affords us a fresh look at the word “Katarungan” which is way different from the sense of word “Justicia” or “Hustisya.” Whenever a community member commits an offense against another or others of the same community, the latter’s primary concern is for the genuine healing of the wounds inflicted. These were wounds of the aggrieved and even the spiritual and social wounds of the offender. The community considered itself as the biggest victim of the offense since the binding fabric of mutual trust, ultimately, is the one put in serious jeopardy. With the aim to fully and deeply understand but not condone the offensive act, the community’s leaders and mediators work carefully to decide proper and constructive ways of restitution as part of the healing for it, and the community eventually emerges even more unified than before. |
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Critique of criminal justice systems that focus on penalizing
perpetrators;
