Philippine Constitution - Lecture Notes

I. PRELIMINARIES

A. CONSTITUTION

1. Definition:

The body of rules and maxims in accordance with which

the powers of sovereignty are habitually exercised.

2. Purpose:

a. To prescribe the permanent framework of a system of

government;
b. To assign to the several departments their respective
power and duties;
c. To establish certain first principles on which the
government is founded.

3. Effect if an act is not in accordance with the

constitution

 An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights;

it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no
office; it is inoperative as if it had not been passed at all.
(See Art 7 Civil Code)

B. STATE

1. Definition:

A community of persons, more or less numerous,

permanently occupying a definite portion of the territory,
independent of external control, and possessing a
government to which a great body of inhabitants render
habitual obedience.

2. Distinguished from nation:

State is a legal or juristic concept, while nation is an

ethnic or racial concept.

3. Distinguished from Government:

 Government is merely an instrumentality of the State

through which the will of the State is implemented and
realized.

4. Elements of a State

a. People

A community of persons sufficient in number and

capable of maintaining the continued existence of the
community and held together by a common bond of law.

b. Territory

Components: Terrestrial; Fluvial; Maritime; Aerial

domains

c. Government

The agency or instrumentality through which the will of

the State is formulated, expressed, and realized.

 Government of the Philippines is the corporate

governmental entity through which the functions of the
government are exercised throughout the Philippines,
including, save as the contrary appears from the context,
the various arms through which political authority is
made effective in the Philippines, whether pertaining to
the autonomous regions, the provincial, city, municipal,
or barangay subdivisions or other form of local
government. (Sec 2(1), Administrative Code)

d. Sovereignty

The supreme and uncontrollable power inherent in a

State by which the State is governed.

5. Principal Forms of Government

a. As to number of persons exercising sovereign powers

1. Monarchy

One in which the supreme and final authority is in the

hands of a single person without regard to the source of
his election or the nature or duration of his tenure.

2. Aristocracy

One in which political power is exercised by a few

privileged class.

3. Democracy

One in which political power is exercised by a majority

of the people.

b. As to extent of powers exercised by the central or

national government

1. Unitary Government

One in which the control of national and local affairs is

exercised by the central or national government.

2. Federal Government

 One in which powers of government are divided

between two set of argans, one for national affairs and
the other for local affairs, each organ being supreme in its
own sphere.

c. As to relationship between the executive and the

legislative branches of government

1. Parliamentary Government

Essential Characteristics:

a. The members of the government or cabinet or

executive arm are, as a rule, simultaneously members of
the legislature;

b. The government or cabinet, consisting of political

leaders of the majority party or of a coalition who are also
members of the legislature, is in effect a committee of
legislature;

c. The government or cabinet has a pyramidal structure

at apex of which is the Prime Minister or his equivalent;

d. The government or cabinet remains in power only for

as long as it enjoys the support of the majority of the
legislature;

e. Both government and legislature are possessed of

control devices with which each can demand of the other
immediate political responsibility. In the hands of the
legislature is the vote of non-confidence (censure)
whereby a government may be ousted. In the hands of
the government is the power to dissolve the legislature
and call for new elections.

2. Presidential Government

Its principal identifying feature is separation of powers.

Legislative power is given to the Legislature; Executive
power is given to a separate Executive; Judicial power is
held by an independent Judiciary.

The system is founded on the belief that by establishing

equilibrium among the three power holders, harmony will
result, power will not be concentrated, and thus tyranny
will be avoided.

 Designated as such because of the prominent position

which the system gives to the president as Chief
Executive.

Philippine government is a presidential government.

C. Other Basic Concepts

1. Presidential vs. Parliamentary Government

The principal distinction is that in a presidential

government, there is separation of executive and
legislative powers; while in parliamentary government,
there is fusion of both executive and legislative powers in
Parliament, although the actual exercise of the executive
powers is vested in a Prime Minister who is chosen by,
and accountable to, Parliament.

2. Basic principles and concepts under a presidential form

of government

a. Separation of Powers

 Purpose: To prevent concentration of authority in one

person or group of persons that might lead to an
irreversible error or abuse in its exercise to the detriment
of republican institutions; To secure action, to forestall
overaction, to prevent despotism, and to obtain efficiency.

b. Principle of Blending of Powers

Instances when powers are not confined exclusively

within one department but are assigned to or shared by
several departments, e.g., enactment of general
appropriations law.

c. Principle of Checks and Balances

This allows one department to resist encroachment

upon its prerogatives or to rectify mistakes or excesses
committed by the other departments, e.g., veto power of
the President as check on improvident legislation.

3. State is a corporate entity; government is the

institution through which the state exercises power;
administration consists of the set of people currently

running the institution.

The transitions from the 1935 Constitution to the 1973

Constitution to the 1987 Constitution involved changes of
government but not of state. The transition from
President Estrada to President Arroyo did not involve a
change of government but only of administration.

II. THE 1987 PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION

Effectivity: February 2, 1987, the date of the plebiscite

when the people ratified the Constitution.

A. PREAMBLE

1. Function of the Preamble in the Constitution

The Preamble is not a source of rights or of obligations.

However, because it sets down the origin, scope, and
purpose of the Constitution, it is useful as an aid in the
construction (interpretation) of the Constitution.

2. Origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution as set

out in the Preamble

Its origin, or authorship, is the will of the sovereign

Filipino people.

Its scope and purpose is to build a just and humane

society and establish a government that shall embody
our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good,
conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to
ourselves and our posterity the blessings of
independence and democracy under the rule of law and a
regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality and
peace.

B. ARTICLE I- THE NATIONAL TERRITORY

1. Binding effect in international law of the definition of

national territory in the constitution

A constitution is a municipal law. As such, it binds only

the nation promulgating it. A definition of national
territory in the constitution will bind internationally only if
it is supported by proof that can stand in international
law. Unilateral assertions in a constitution which is
municipal law, by themselves do not establish an

international right to a territory.

2. The Philippine Archipelago

That body of water studded with islands which is

delineated in the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898, as
modified by the treaty of Washington of November 7,
1900, and the Treaty with Great Britain of January 2,
1930. These are the same treaties which delineated
Philippine territory in the 1935 Constitution.

3. Straight Baseline Method

The method used to delineate the territorial sea.

Imaginary straight lines are drawn joining the outermost

points of the outermost islands of the archipelago without
departing to any appreciable extent from the general
configuration of the archipelago. The waters within the
baselines shall be considered internal waters; while the
breadth of the territorial sea shall then be measured from
the baselines.

12 miles from the baseline is the territorial sea.

4. Archipelagic Doctrine

The waters around, between, and connecting the

islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth and
dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the
Philippines. This is based on the principle that an
archipelago, which consists of a number of islands
separated by bodies of water, should be treated as one
integral unit.

5. Contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for a

contiguous zone of 12 miles from the end of the territorial
sea and exclusive economic zone of 200 miles from the
baseline.

Although the contiguous zone and most of the exclusive

economic zone may not, technically, be part of the
territory of the State, nonetheless, the coastal State
enjoys preferential rights over the marine resources
found within these zones.

6. Significance of the national territory in criminal law

As a rule, penal laws of the Philippines are enforceable

only within its territory.

Exception: Article 2 of the Revised Penal Code

Penal laws of the Philippines can also be enforced outside

its territory against those who:

a. Should commit an offense while on a Philippine ship or

airship

b. Should forge or counterfeit any coin or currency note of

the Philippine Islands or obligations and securities issued
by the Government of the Philippine Islands;

c. Should be liable for acts connected with the

introduction into these islands of the obligations and
securities mentioned in the preceding number;

d. While being public officers or employees, should

commit an offense in the exercise of their functions; or

e. Should commit any of the crimes against national

security and the law of nations, defined in Title One of
Book Two of the Revised Penal Code.

C. ARTICLE II- DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE

POLICIES

1. Meaning and significance:

It is a statement of the basic ideological principles and

policies that underlie the Constitution. As such, the
provisions shed light on the meaning of the other
provisions of the Constitution and they are guide for all
departments of the government in the implementation of
the Constitution.

2. Basic concepts

Under Section 1

a. Republican State

 One wherein all government authority emanates from

the people and is exercised by representatives chosen by
the people.

b. The Philippines is not only a representative or

republican state but also shares some aspects of direct
democracy such as initiative and referendum.

Under Section 2

a. The kind of war renounced is aggressive, not, defensive

war.

b. Relate to Section 23, Article VI

While the Constitution gives to the legislature the power

to declare the existence of war and to enact all measures
to support the war, the actual power to make war is
lodged in the executive power. The executive power,
when necessary, may make war even in the absence of a
declaration of war.

War being a question of actualities, the President was

bound to meet it in the shape it presented itself, without

waiting for Congress to baptize it with a name; and no
name given to it by him or them could change the fact.

c. As applied in most countries, the doctrine of

incorporation dictates that rules of international law are
given equal standing with, and are not superior to,
national legislative enactments.

d. Some principles of international law acknowledged by

the Court as part of the law of the land:

1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights

It would be a violation of said international law to detain

an alien for an unreasonable length of time since no
vessel from his country is willing to take him. (Mejoff v
Director of Prisons, 90 Phil 70)

2. The right of a country to establish military commissions

to try war criminals. (Kuroda v Jalandoni, 83 Phil 171)

3. Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals

 Involves the use of early warning devices.

4. Duty to protect the premises of embassies and

legations.

Under Section 3

a. The principle of civilian supremacy is institutionalized

by the provision which makes the President, a civilian and
precisely a civilian, commander-in-chief of the armed
forces. (See Section 18, Article 7)

But this does not mean that civilian officials are superior
to military officials. Civilian officials are superior to
military officials only when a law makes them so.

Under Section 4

Take note of the prime duty of the government.

Under Section 6

 To be discussed under the Bill of Rights (Article III, Sec

5)

Under Section 10

a. Meaning of Social Justice

The equalization of economic, political, and social

opportunities with special emphasis on the duty of the
state to tilt the balance of social forces by favoring the
disadvantaged in life.

How promotion of social justice carried out in all phases

of national development See Article XIII

Under Section 12

a. Legal meaning and purpose of the protection that is

guaranteed for the unborn

This is not an assertion that the life of the unborn is

placed exactly on the level of the life of the mother. When

necessary to save the life of the mother, the life of the

unborn may be sacrificed; but not when the purpose is
merely to save the mother from emotional suffering, for
which other remedies must be sought, or to spare the
child from a life of poverty, which can be attended to by
welfare institutions.

Under Section 14

a. This provision is so worded as not to automatically

dislocate the Civil Code and the civil law jurisprudence on
the subject. What it does is to give impetus to the
removal, through statutes, of existing inequalities. The
general idea is for the law to ignore sex where sex is not
a relevant factor in determining rights and duties. Nor is
the provision meant to ignore customs and traditions.

Under Section 15 and 16

a. The right of the people to a balanced and healthful

ecology is an enforceable right.

Under Section 17

a. This does not mean that the government is not free to

balance the demands of education against other
competing and urgent demands

Under Section 18

a. Labor as a primary social economic force means that

human factor has primacy over non-human factors in
production.

Rights of workers See Art XIII

Under Section 26

a. The purpose of this provision is to give substance to

the desire for equalization of political opportunities.
However, the definition of political dynasty is left to the
legislature.

Under Section 28