The Encarta Dictionary simply defines the word as “supreme authority especially over a state”. Without this authority, the state has no reason for its being.

The 1987 Philippine Constitution declared that “sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanate from them.” The Filipinos are supreme over their government, and yes, even the state known as Philippines. The people, as the repository of all powers within the state can even choose to rename the state, change the government, impeach high official, and recall elected officials. The 1987 Constitution even has a special provision on initiative and referendum, a political process which recognizes people’s power to directly legislate laws.

In a republican state, the people do not directly exercise government powers. Otherwise, chaos will ensue. The authority is delegated through the governmental bodies, such as the executive, legislative, and judiciary.

There is however a chasm between the ideal and the actual, between theory and praxis, to borrow the language of dialectics.

The apparatuses of the state are mostly concentrated in one office, that is, in the Office of the President. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the Commander-in-Chief over the armed forces. She therefore wields the sword, so to speak.

The purse is supposedly in the hands of Congress too. But the power to appropriate is more fiction than reality. While the Congress approves the budget, the President can veto budgetary provisions. If the budget indeed is approved, still the actually disbursement of funds could be released only by the President through her alter-ego, the Department of Budget and Management. That is why legislators in the opposing camp end up fat in budget but hungry in actual cash. They have to line up for ration in the Department of Budget And Management.

In the scheme of things, impeachment of the president is a long shot, except when the people, and not the tongressmen err congressmen, wash the corridors of power with the avalanche of protests, as what happened to Erap Estrada.

The final arbiter of constitutional issues, and the proper exercise of delegated sovereign powers reside in the Supreme Court.

Recent history reveals that the Supreme Court has not been consistent in upholding the majesty of the law. During the martial law regime, then Chief Justice Enrique Fernando, despite the literary flourish of his decisions, but not necessarily the substance, gave imprimatur to the edicts issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos. He even stooped to his lowest low when he used to carry umbrella for Imelda Marcos.

There were shining exemplars though of what is it to be truly a magistrate, just like the blind-folded goddess of justice. There was Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos who penned landmark decisions which have been the guide in the adjudication of rights. There was Chief Justice Claudio who had a direct, brief style of penning decisions, but what he lacked in literary flourish, he compensated it with what truly matters, substance, that is, fearless and proper interpretation of government powers and their limitations, despite the spectre of a prison cell or worse, a firing squad in a martial law regime.

But a truly independent judiciary cannot depend on the sterling character, or the lack of it, of the magistrates. The system must create for an independent judiciary. At present, the Judicial and Bar Council nominates at least three applicants and submit the list to the President, who in turn can choose any of the three nominees. Here lies the clincher. The President can easily play Mephistopheles and the new appointee, Faust. With the present Supreme Court set-up, the majority has been appointees of GMA, and God knows, how many of them made the Faustian pact already.

The sovereign will of the people can easily be muted, when the three estates – the executive, legislative, and judiciary – conspire, either by active participation or acquiescence, specially, when the pockets are full. In this case, the people’s sovereign voice can only be articulated through the media – the fourth estate.

At all cost, the freedom of expression must be respected. When this right is restrained, all other rights become empty rhetoric. It is the media that crystallize the issues. Remember that, each citizen is a particle of sovereignty. It is easy for one voice to say that he is the voice of God; and still another voice, that of Allah. But the discourse in the marketplace of ideas will filter the dross from the gold, and the true consensus of the many particles of sovereignty take form, and later on, translate into action, either by impeachment, recall election, or even, revolution.

Last year, when the recall election of Governor Eddie Panlilio was initiated, the fourth estate became the only outlet by which the sovereign voices could articulate their disgust at the hands of power that were behind the move to oust a truly dedicated and incorruptible official, a diamond in the political pit. To parry the surging protests, the Comelec, by a stroke of pen, salvaged the situation by declaring that all recall elections are suspended due to budgetary constraints. When the Panlilio brouhaha simmered down, the suspension of the recall election was lifted.

Indeed, the recall process should not be suspended, not even due to budgetary constraints. There is no price tag for sovereignty. The life and health of the state depend on the proper exercise of sovereignty.

Otherwise, we may have to redefine sovereignty.