Ang Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas -- The Graphic Novel

Macmillan has published The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation, written by Jonathan Hennessey and illustrated by Aaron McConnell. Listening to Hennessey plug the work at Rachel Maddow's radio show (via free podcast at the iTunes store) set me off thinking whether a similar venture could be pulled off using the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

It would be an interesting challenge to set the Philippine Constitution in graphic form. The possible approaches would depend on the intended audience reach and sophistication level. Our Constitution is a quite unique document. Indubitably well-intentioned but verbose and declarative to excess, perhaps the only Constitution in the world to contain the word "love". Its provisions are very progressive on its face, yet they are cast in such a manner that leaves doubt whether the framers intended to set each and every provision as the source of an operative right or obligation. As a result, the courts have tended to construe the text quite conservatively, amenable too often to declare that particular high-minded provisions were actually inoperative unless Congress passed a complementary law. And how do you graphically adapt an empty promise?

It would probably be impossible to utilize the approach of Mr. Hennessey to the Philippine Constitution. He took advantage of the 221-year history of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the mythology that has grown out of that document and its authors, to frame a convenient chronological narrative for his adaptation. Our own Constitution is only 21 years old, and many of its framers are still alive and active in public life -- too little time has passed and too many memories remain fresh to deprive our Constitution and its authors of the sheen of mythology. Any graphic adaptation of the 1987 Constitution will have to be more down-to-earth.

If the goal were to digest the Constitution and its principles for mass consumption (ala Gospel Komiks for the Bible), a literal approach would be most convenient, where each provision is transliterated into a peppy graphic or two. This was actually done many years ago over several volumes of Mr. & Ms Magazine, as part of a public education effort during the campaign before the plebiscite that ratified the Constitution. I'll not quibble with that approach, but I do tire of the notion that in the Philippines, the only way to popularize high-minded ideals such as law and democracy is through komiks form, radio soap operas or street theater.

(sidebar: in 1985, i was in grade 4, and our classroom had a corner shelf stacked with reading material. among such materials was a lengthy komiks about the birth-to-death of ninoy aquino which gripped with drama and dripped with gore. mind you, this was when mr. marcos was in power and where possession of that comic could have led to bartolina time. also, in grade 3 (1984), our teachers conned us into performing onstage before a school assembly plus parents an adaptation of some katipunan-era poem that climaxed with the shooting of the ninoy-figure and ended with our camisa-chino clad selves posed with fists raised and clenched as the strains of bayan ko accompanied the curtain drop. if mr. marcos ever found out, our 8-year old selves might have been shot on the spot.)

I'd be more interested in an adaptation that transcends a literal depiction of constitutional provisions and ties in constitutional principles with the human condition. (Think of Kieslowski's Dekalog and how it interacts with the Ten Commandments) In essence, the Constitution is a national mission statement that embodies what we aspire to be as a society. Many of the principles therein, particularly in the Bill of Rights, represent quantum leaps in human enlightenment when political systems evolved to accommodate human dignity and individual freedoms. The tension between high-minded constitutional democratic idealism and the more craven impulses of human nature remain a largely untapped wellspring for creativity, one which could very well be explored in the graphic novel format.