The 1935 Constitution of the Philippines

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY : The 1935 Constitution of the Philippines served as the fundamental law of the
land from 1935 to 1972. It establishes the Commonwealth of the Philippines and provides that upon
withdrawal of American sovereignty in the country and the declaration of Philippine independence, said
commonwealth shall be known as the Republic of the Philippines. The Constitution enumerates the
composition, powers and duties of the three branches of government (the Executive, Legislative and
Judicial) and creates the General Auditing Office and lays down the framework in the establishment of
the civil service in the country. The Constitution vests the President with the veto power on legislative
bills and emergency powers in times of war and other national emergencies. Also, the Constitution
adopts the Regalian Doctrine or the Principle of State ownership for all its natural wealth and provides
for the proper utilization of such wealth by its citizens.

NOTES : The 1935 Constitution was amended in 1940 and in 1947. This version incorporates all the
amendments.

The draft of the 1935 Constitution, adopted by the Philippine Constitutional Convention on 8 February
1935, provides for a unicameral Legislature and a single six-year term for the President. The draft was
submitted to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 18 March 1935. He, in turn, certified that it conforms
with Public Act No. 127 which was passed by the U.S. Congress on 23 March 1935 and forwarded the
same to the Governor General of the Philippine Islands for ratification of the Filipino people. The
constitution was ratified on 14 May 1935.

On 11 April 1940, the [Philippine] Second National Assembly adopted Resolution No. 73 proposing
amendments to the Constitution. The amendments provide for the creation of a bicameral Congress and
the establishment of a Commission on Elections. It also limits the term of office of the President to four
years, but may continue to serve as such for a maximum of eight years.

On 11 March 1947, a plebiscite was held for the purpose of ratifying the proposed amendment granting
US Citizens the right to the disposition, exploitation, development and utilization of Philippine natural
resources (Ordinance Appended to the Constitution). The amendment passed.

Another Flashback: How Our 1973 and 1987 Charters Came to Be

AFTER THE CONSTITUTION of the Republic of the Philippines was ratified at the Barasoain Church in
Malolos, Bulacan, our country has had four more charters, five if we are to include the comprehensive
Philippine Law of 1902 passed by the legislature of the invasion and occupation force that flew the star
spangled banner.

We had the Constitution of 1935 which was drafted under the leadership of the late nationalist
statesman Claro Mayo Rectoand ratified on his birthday (February 8) of that year, the date of which
came then to be observed as "Constitution Day." Then came the 1973 Marcos Constitution, the 1986
"Freedom Constitution" and the present 1987 Constitution .

The Marcos Constitution of 1973

There was an ongoing Constitutional Convention elected in 1970 and convened in 1971 when then
President Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed martial rule in September 1972. He shifted from using the
bribery approach (as in the payola scandal exposed by Delegate Eduardo Quintero) to using the
"persuasive" effects of his martial law powers (the antiMarcos delegates were simply jailed) controlling
that convention in its homestretch work, and presto! The hitherto anti-Marcos (as in "Ban Marcos")
draft charter became an all-Marcos Constitution.

Its ratification was done by the raising of hands in hakot meetings, and its enforcement was based on a
legal vicious cycle of legalese, backed up by the sheer force of arms ofthe AFP, that went this way:
Proclamation No 1102 (declaring that handraisings amounted to a 99 percent vote of the e]ectorate in
favor of ratification) caused the Constitution to be in force, and that document (specifically its Transitory
Provisions), in turn, validated all his proclamations (including 1102, of course!) and decrees as part of
the law of the land.

Therefore, Marcos' third term, which was to be banned by the 1935 Constitution, was a technically
explainable setup formally called martial law, euphemistically labeled "constitutional authoritarianism"
or "revolution from the center," which lasted more than a full decade after the 1935 Constitution's 1973
deadline for Marcos to step down.

Cory's Constitution of 1987

President Aquino had the "Freedom Constitution" which was promulgated on the basis of the 1986
"People Power Revolution" and which vested in her revolutionary, even dictatorial powers. But she did
not use these powers to start thorough-going social reforms that would have fulfilled her promise and
would have validated her claim to be the opposite of her predecessor.

Instead of deve]oping the momentum already achieved by the people's cause-oriented movement
which provided the "people-power" defense of the prematurely-discovered Enlile-Ramos coup, and
riding upon that momentum to initiate and institutionalize real changes, Aquino gradually moved closer
and closer to the defense-military circle that was virtually holding her hostage. With every attempted
coup defeated, Cory gave more and more concessions to the defense-military establishment that
confused citizens as to whether the coup plots really failed.

President Aquino set in motion a short-cut process of drafting a new Constitution for the country. She
was so much in a hurry to attain a normalized government under her administration that she decided to
dispense with the "luxury" of allowing the people to elect delegates to a constitutional convention, and
even imposed a 90-day time limit for an appointive body to complete its job.
 In the summer of 1986, the President declared ''nationalism, integrity, independence and probity." But
even as thousands of nominees had to go through the meticulous and computerized process of
screening towards final selection, a group of erstwhile Marcos henchmen was given five seats (but one
of the appointees demurred), and a seat was reserved for a consistently pro-Marcos religious
denomination (which also refused involvement). By this move which was widely viewed as a political
maneuver, Aquino clearly threw the matter of criteria out of the window.

The month of January in 1987 witnessed a frenzied campaign for the ratification of the draft charter,
and the people were moving in a winding and twisting road to its eventual approval. It began with lack
of information. The texts ot the draft in English and especially in the vernacular languages were not
immediately available to the majority of the rural folk. But the prevailing mood was to ratify for Cory's
sake. For all the shortcomings of her administration, and even the errors of judgment in hewing closely
to the US-designed programs implemented by the previous regime, the people perceived the Aquino
government a "hands-down" choice against the proponents of returning to open terrorist rule.

But there was a sudden shift shortly after midmonth. On January 19 exploded the Mendiola Massacre.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chairman Jaime Tadeo had asked that the Marcos vintage barbed wire
barricades be lifted from the Mendiola Bridge to allow the peasant marchers through, and to his
surprise the barbed wire was simply replaced with a veritable battalion of firing squads. Pressing their
agrarian reform demands too hard for the government's comfort, or overconfident that no Marcos-type
massacres would come from Aquino's troops at least in Manila, the 20,000-strong red-flag-waving
columns suddenly found the troops opening fire on them.

Public indignation and disillusionment were strongly threatening the ratification of the draft charter that
President Aquino was campaigning very hard for!

However, toward the month's end, the militarist menace on the very survival of the Aquino regime was
underscored by a last-minute baffling "coup attempt" where Marcos loyalist soldiers moved to take
control of two vital military camps and a television station in the capital region. This development,
despite widespread suspicions that the failed coup was scripted by quarters close to Aquino, decisively
swayed the undecided voters and many even among the oppositors, and delivered the overwhelming
vote for the new Charter.

It was an anti-fascist vote. Ironically, shortly after that ratification, President Aquino "unsheathed the
Sword of War" and demanded a "string of victories" from the military and led to a series of massacres in
various parts of the country.