JUSTICE BY RALPH SEMINO GALAN – (ILIGAN, MINDANAO)

STUDY AND APPRECIATION OF LITERARY TEXTS FROM THE DIFFERENT REGIONS WRITTEN IN DIFFERENT GENRES

THE JUSTICE SYSTEM – POETRY: JUSTICE BY RALPH SEMINO GALAN – (ILIGAN, MINDANAO)

NELSON G. VERSOZA, T2

MNHS, SAN MANUEL, ISABELA

•       MANILA, Philippines - He was one of the nation’s top lawyers, capping his career with an appointment as chief justice, but fell ignominiously, becoming the first chief magistrate to be removed by impeachment.

•       Renato Corona died early yesterday due to cardiac arrest. He was 67.

•       His son Francis announced the death at 1:48 a.m. in The Medical City in Pasig.

•       He died with the cases against him for graft and tax evasion still not resolved.

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Ralph Semino Galán

•        He teaches literature, humanities and writing subjects at the Faculty of Arts and Letters, University of Santo Tomas. He graduated magna cum laude with an AB English (major in Literature) degree from the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology.

•       He was a fellow to all the national writers’ workshops (Silliman [1995], U.P. [1996] and Iligan[1997]), as well as to the 2nd ASEAN Writers’ Workshop/ Conference on Poetry. His poems in English and Filipino have won prizes from the Philippine Panorama (1993) and Home Life Magazine (1998) poetry contests. Ralph has an M.A. in English Studies (major in Creative Writing) from the UP-Diliman.

•        1997-2002 member of the admin staff of the UP National Writers’ Workshop

•       1999 to 2002- as the Workshop Coordinator

•       writes book reviews for the Lifestyle Section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

•       His first chapbook of poetry The Southern Cross and Other Poems was launched last December 2005 by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts as part of its UBOD New Authors Series. 

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE (IMPEACHMENT OF CJ CORONA)

Ø  In December 2011

•       Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached by the Philippine Senate, with 16 senators voting to impeach him and 3 senators voting for acquittal.

He did not declare 183 million pesos in his SALN, a public document required for all government employees especially officials, and this was considered as ill-gotten wealth.

JUSTICE

BY RALPH SEMINO GALAN'

1.     These are the accoutrements of her office:

2.     The blindfold symbolizing impartiality;

3.     A golden pair of scales measuring the validity

4.     Of evidence given, both pro and con;

5.     The double-edged sword that pierces through

6.     The thick fabric of lies; Thoth’s feather

7.     Of truth which ultimately determines whether

8.     The defendant’s life is worth saving.

9.     In J. Elizalde Navarro’s oil painting titled

10.Is this Philippine Justice? The figure

11.Of the Roman goddess Justitia slowly fades

12.Into thin air, swallowed by pigments

13.Cloudy as doubts. In my uncertain country

14.Where right and wrong are cards

15.That can be shuffled like a pile of money bills,

16.Even the land’s Chief Magistrate

17.Is not immune from culpability; found guilty

18. He has to face the music of derision.

VOCABULARY

1. Accoutrements – accessories, paraphernalia
2. Thoth – the Egyptian Moon deity with the head of an ibis; god of wisdom
3. Justitia – the woman in the Philippine Justice System symbol
4. Chief Magistrate – chief judge
5. Derision - the act of deriding or treating with contempt or mock, ridicule
6. Simile - A figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as').
7. Metaphor - A figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity.
8. Symbolism - A system of symbols and symbolic representations
9. Culpability -  a state of guilt

Group Activity:

A>   Give the meaning of the symbols.

1.    BLINDFOLD
2.    GOLDEN PAIR OF SCALES
3.    DOUBLE-EDGE SWORD
4.    THOTH’S FEATHER OF TRUTH
5.    …FACE THE MUSIC OF DERISION

B>    Answer the Guide Questions (Maximum 15 minutes)

1.    Why are symbols important in a poem?

2.    Why are symbols important in the life of a nation?

3.    Why does the poem describe the Philippines as “my uncertain country”?

4.    What does the simile, “right and wrong can be shuffled like cards” mean when it comes to politics, politicians, the police, and the justice system?

5.    What does line 10-11-12 mean?

6.    Of all the objects that Justice owns, which one do you think is the most important, why?

7.    Why is money mentioned in the poem?

8.    Why was it important for the Chief Justice to be impeached? What is its message to the Filipino government officials?

(Individual Activity) (maximum 15 minutes)

1. Answer the APPLICATION & EVALUATIVE Questions below

1. Based on your life’s experience, what is justice?

2. What can you say about the Justice system here in the Philippines?