"We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order 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, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution."
The Philippine Constitution or the Saligang Batas in filipino, is the supreme law of the Philippines. This was inacted in year 1987 during the administration of President Corazon Aquino, popularly known as the 1987 Constitution. Other previous constitution that governed the country are - the 1935 commonwealth Constitution, the 1973 constitution and the 1986 freedom constitution.
During the People Power Revoultion in year 1986, President Corazon Aquion issued a Proclamation No. 3, which states that, declaring a national policy to implement the reforms mandated by the people, protecting their basic rights, adopting a provisional constitution, and providing for an orderly translation to a government under a new constitution. Later, she issued a Proclamation No. 9, creating a Constitutional Commission (konwn as"ConCom" in the Philippines) to frame a new constitution to replace the 1973 Constitution which took effect during the martial law regime imposed by her predecessor.
1987 Constitution
Philippines is said to be a "democratic and republican State", where "sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them". Branches of a government are divided into three parts, — the executive branchheaded by the President, the composed of legislative branch of the congress and the judicial branch with the Supreme Court occupying the highest tier of the judiciary.The President and the members of Congress shall be elected by direct vote of the people, while the members of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President from a list formed by the Judicial Council and As with the American system of government, it is Congress which enacts the law subject to the veto power (I forbid) of the President which may nonetheless be overturned by a two-thirds vote of Congress. The President has the constitutional duty to ensure the faithful execution of the laws, while the courts are expressly granted the power of judicial review, including the power to nullify or interpret laws.
Republic of the Philippines has a territorial and political subdivision, they are provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays. The local governments are generally considered as the executive branch, yet local legislation requires enactment by duly elected local legislative bodies. The Constitution mandated that the Congress would enact a Local Government Code which shall provide for a more responsive and accountable local government structure instituted through a system of decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall, initiative, and referendum, allocate among the different local government units their powers, responsibilities, and resources, and provide for the qualifications, election, appointment and removal, term, salaries, powers and functions and duties of local officials, and all other matters relating to the organization and operation of the local units.The Supreme Court has noted that the Bill of Rights "occupies a position of primacy in the fundamental law"The Bill of Rights, of Article III, enumerates the specific protections against State power. The scope and limitations to these rights have largely been determined by Philippine Supreme Court decisions.
The Constitution also contains several other provisions enumerating various state policies including, the affirmation of labor"as a primary social economic force", the equal protection of "the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception"; the "Filipino family as the foundation of the nation"; the recognition of Filipino as "the national language of the Philippines", and even a requirement that "all educational institutions shall undertake regular sports activities throughout the country in cooperation with athletic clubs and other sectors." Whether these provisions may, by themselves, become the source of enforceable rights without accompanying legislation as the the subject of considerable debate in the legal sphere and within the Supreme Court. For example, the court has ruled that a provision requiring that the State "guarantee equal access to opportunities to public service" could not be enforced without accompanying legislation, and thus could not bar the disallowance of so-called "nuisance candidates" in presidential elections. But in another case, the Court held that a provision requiring that the State "protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology" did not require implementing legislation to become the source of operative rights.
