Not all laws are just, or moral. Civil disobedience is not passive; it is an active resistance to a law, based on moral or political grounds. In this case, it is an active resistance to Arroyo's unjust and immoral imposition of her will on the Filipino people. One of the basic components of civil disobedience is non-violence. Pilipino does not seek Arroyo's ouster through violent means; that is a short-cut that neither educates nor involves the people. As we have said, it is time to assert our rights as citizens; it is time for us to speak up. It is time for us to call Arroyo and her cohorts the liars that they are. There are many ways of making ourselves heard; there are many ways of showing that we do not recognize Arroyo as our president.

Watch this space for more specific, creative acts of bringing down Arroyo through non-violent means.

For starters, fly the Philippine flag at half-mast - in your school, your office, or your town. Remember to take pictures of the flag flying at half-mast (the pictures must be dated, of course) and send it to us; we'll post it here. Better yet, have pictures of you and your friends taken as you hoist down the flag.

To the local authorities: look the other way when people hoist down the flag to fly it at half-mast. If someone comes and points out it's at half-mast, express surprise (OH MY GOD!!!), promptly take it down, call for an investigation, vow to bring the perpetrators to justice, and RELAX. You don't have to finish your investigation until Garci tells the truth. If Arroyo and her cohorts push you to take action, say sorry, promise to win back the people's trust, and DO look sorry while you apologize. (Tip: Use kohl on your eyelids and look straight into the camera while you say sorry. If they refuse to be convinced, say you've done as much as Arroyo has. What more can they ask for?)

If you can't fly a flag at half-mast, do the next best thing: wear a shirt with a flag flying at half-mast, or a button. Print out a sticker of a flag at half-mast and put it on your car, your gate, your bag. If somebody were to ask you what it means, explain the concept of civil disobedience, and say you're part of a move to change this country for the better.

Technically, this is civil disobedience; the Philippine Flag law specifies when the flag may be flown in half-mast to signify mourning. However, the flag law penalizes only acts of disrespect to the flag, and there are no penalties mentioned for flying it at half-mast.

The Arroyo government has called on the public to help them look for Capt. Faeldon. Do what he says - help Arroyo and those who obey her look for Faeldon - and tire them out looking for him. Call Malacanang trunk line 735-6201 and tell them you've seen Capt. Faeldon, give a specific time, date and place and details of what he's doing. Tell them you saw him meeting with military officers, with local government officials, with common people - lead Arroyo's boys on a wild goose chase. Confuse them so they won't know which tip to believe. Make sure you do this on a public phone far from your home, though. You may be arrested for misleading the police.

Or, you can wear a shirt telling people: I SAW CAPT. FAELDON BUT DID NOT TURN HIM IN. Hindi ako bayaran. This is not "coddling" him; you only saw him, you did not know where he came from and where he's going. Be prepared to be invited by the authorities and "questioned" on the details. Have your picture taken at the police station, so we can post it on the website: here is another brave and defiant Pilipino. (Let's take the stigma out of being arrested. To paraphrase Thoreau: When those in power imprison unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison.) Then tell the police the truth: YOU SAW CAPT. FAELDON ON TV.

The following acts do not violate any law, but these will tell the world, and Arroyo, that we do not recognize her as president.

BOYCOTT ARROYO. There have been calls for a boycott on products of companies who help Arroyo. That is correct, but let's focus on Arroyo first. When she comes in on television, or on radio, switch channels. Say out loud: I will not listen to lies. This tells yourself and everyone within hearing distance that you have the power to reject Arroyo and her lies. When a newspaper banners her picture, or yet another of her lies, don't buy that paper, buy something else. Do the same for her cohorts and others who speak for her and peddle her lies.

This is simply exercising your freedom of choice, yet at the same time it empowers you as a person, as a citizen. And more than anything else, this civil disobedience campaign is about empowering the ordinary people.

Join our Oust Arroyo slogan contest. Come up with the best anti-Arroyo slogan and see your words reprinted and repeated all over the country. Submit your entries to Capt. Faeldon's email address.

Join our Oust Arroyo t-shirt design contest. You may use your own slogan, pick your own t-shirt style, colors, etc. The only criterion is, does it look good enough for people to want to wear it? See your design copied in t-shirts all over the country. (Hey, it will look good in any aspiring fashion designer's resume). Send pictures of your design to Capt. Faeldon's email address.

If you have a website, post Capt. Faeldon's latest pictures on your website, as well as the messages on civil disobedience. This will help us in case we are hacked; remember, the most important thing is to let others know what we are all doing. Provide a link from your website to our homepage. This is not civil disobedience; this is exercising your freedom of expression.

Reprint the calendars and postcards on this website, and give them to your friends and colleagues. Turn the pictures into stickers. This is not abetting Capt. Faeldon, since he has already gone inside the Western Command headquarters; all you are doing is letting others know that he could go in and out of a military camp at will. If questioned, you can always say you're just exercising your freedom of expression.

Send Capt. Faeldon's pictures as mms to your friends, especially to those in the province. If you're abroad, download the picture and send them as mms to your family, friends and relatives in the Philippines. Tell them to reprint the stickers and post it on their house gates, cars, or school bags. When someone asks, they can explain with pride that even if their parent/sibling/relative is abroad, he/she is working for social change here in the Philippines. Print out the postcards here and send them to your friends. Let the whole world know what the Filipinos are doing to reclaim their dignity.

Make your own anti-Arroyo shirt and wear it proudly: have pictures of you taken wearing it in front of Malacanang, or at the gates of Crame, Aguinaldo, or your local town hall or police headquarters. Get a policeman or soldier to pose with you and your friends, and send the picture to us, so we can post it here. Wear it just as proudly even if you're abroad. Let's see who can come up with the best poses, and best picture.

REMEMBER: Civil disobedience is a non-violent way to effect social change; in this case, to bring down Arroyo. You cannot be charged with rebellion or sedition, for both involve the use of force. You can only be charged - and punished - for violating specific laws.

If you bring down the flag in front of Malacanang and the police stop you, you may be arrested for resisting arrest, if you resist arrest. Or for disturbing the peace, if you were noisy. But there are no penalties for flying the flag at half-mast, so the most they can do is harass you and "invite" you for questioning, and eventually release you. If you were to puke in front of Malacanang to literally say, "Nakakasuka si Arroyo," you could be arrested and fined for littering, but that would be it.

The list of things to do to commit civil disobedience does not end here. We Filipinos are a creative people; your suggestions are most welcome. Send them to us and we will post it here. Let's see who can come up with the most creative way to express our disgust at Arroyo and her insistence on staying in Malacanang.

As we said early on: this is your fight; this is your organization. The list is incomplete because we want you, the Filipino people, to complete it.

The practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? ...in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation on conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents on injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for the law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others ?as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders ?serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as the rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few ?as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men ?serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.

The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made.

Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform.

If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see to it that you are never cheated again. Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divided States and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine. Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men, generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth ?certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.