THE 1987 CONSTITUTION

OF THE
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

PREAMBLE

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 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 very first Committee report to come out for deliberation by the 1986 Constitutional
Commission was a draft of a preamble. The draft was a modification of the Preamble of the 1973
Constitution.
 The Committee’s “guidance” gave way to “aid” as the more all-embracing term.
 The word “enhance” yielded to the 1935’s and 1973’s “conserve and develop.”
 The addition of the more dynamic word “aspirations” to the passive sounding “ideals” was accepted.
 But the modifier “participatory,” which the Committee said was meant to introduce the element of
direct democracy and “people power,” was deleted as being tautological.
 An attempt to restore the phrase “general welfare” in place of the Committee’s phrase “common
good” was not accepted.
o The change was intended to project the idea of a social order that enables every citizen to
attain his or her fullest development economically, politically, culturally and spiritually.
o The rejection of the phrase “general welfare” was based on the apprehension that the phrase
could be interpreted as meaning “the greatest good for the greatest number” even if what
the greater number wants does violence to human dignity.
 For instance, when the greater majority might want the extermination of those who
are considered as belonging to an inferior race.
 It was thought that the phrase “common good” would guarantee that mob
rule would not prevail and that the majority would not persecute the
minority.
 An attempt to substitute “Lord of History” or “God of History” for “Divine Providence” was made
on the reasoning that the suggested substitute connoted active involvement of God in the affairs of
men. BUT the suggestion was rejected when it was pointed out that the phrase could be
misunderstood as an acceptance of the Marxist concept of history as being the only God.
o Instead, the phrase “Almighty God” was chosen as being more personal than “Divine
Providence” and therefore more consonant with Filipino religiosity.
 Another change made by the body was the insertion of the phrase “a just and humane society”. The
phrase added the notion that a constitution not merely sets up a government but is also an
instrument for building the larger society of which government is merely a part.
 An attempt to substitute “equity” for “equality” was rejected as being subject to the interpretation
that the Commission was rejecting the enshrinement of “equality” already made by the 1973
Constitution. The 1973 Preamble had added “equality” to reflect the mounting wave of protests basic
social inequalities which even at the time of 1971 Constitutional Convention plagued Philippine
society.

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  The Committee’s desire to substitute “rule” for “regime” was rejected. Instead, the phrase “rule of
law” was inserted and the concluding litany was made to read “truth, justice, freedom, love, equality
and peace”.
o The introduction of the word “love” probably makes the Philippines the only nation to
enshrine the word in its Constitution.
 It serves as a monument to the love that prevented bloodshed in the February
Revolution of 1986.
o The insertion of “truth” is a protest against the deception that characterized the Marcos
regime.
o Finally, the enumeration captures a stream in Catholic thought which sees peace as the fruit
of the convergence of truth, justice, freedom, and love.
 Purpose and effect of the Preamble
o Constitutionally, a Preamble is not a source of power or right for any department of
government.
o But because it sets down the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution, it is useful as an
aid in ascertaining the meaning of ambiguous provisions in the body of the Constitution.
 In Aglipay v. Ruiz, Justice Laurel, in seeking the true meaning of separation of
church and state in Philippine jurisprudence, had occasion to allude to the
invocation of the “aid of Divine Providence” found in the 1935 Preamble.
o The Preamble bears witness to the fact that the Constitution is the manifestation of the
sovereign will of the Filipino people.
o The identification of the Filipino people as the author of the constitution also calls attention
to an important principle: that the document is not just the work of representatives of the
people but of the people themselves who put their mark of approval by ratifying it in a
plebiscite.
o The 1935 text had also stated that one of the objects of the promulgation of the constitution
was “to secure to themselves and their posterity the blessings of independence.”
 The text thus suggested that independence was still merely an aspiration and not yet
a possession of the Filipino people. To remove this anachronistic suggestion, the
Preamble now, as also the 1973 Preamble, speaks of the “blessings of democracy”
and calls the Filipino people “sovereign.”

ART. I THE NATIONAL TERRITORY

SEC 1. THE NATIONAL TERRITORY COMPRISES THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO,

WITH ALL THE ISLANDS AND WATERS EMBRACED THEREIN, AND ALL OTHER
TERRITORIES OVER WHICH THE PHILIPPINES HAS SOVEREIGNTY OR
JURISDICTION, CONSISTING OF ITS TERRESTRIAL, FLUVIAL, AND AERIAL
DOMAINS, INCLUDING ITS TERRITORIAL SEA, THE SEABED, THE SUBSOIL, THE
INSULAR SHELVES, AND OTHER SUBMARINE AREAS. THE WATERS AROUND,
BETWEEN, AND CONNECTING THE ISLANDS OF THE ARCHIPELAGO,
REGARDLESS OF THEIR BREATH AND DIMENSIONS, FORM PART OF THE
INTERNAL WATERS OF THE PHILIPPINES.

 The definition of national territory found in the Constitution went through three phases.
o 1934-1935 Constitutional Convention
o 1972 Constitutional Convention

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 o 1986 Constitutional Convention
 A constitution is a municipal law. It is binding only within the territorial limits of the sovereignty
promulgating the constitution.
 For purposes of actual exercise of sovereignty, it is important for the sovereign state to know the
extent of the territory over which it can legitimately exercise jurisdiction.
 For purposes of settling international conflicts, a legal instrument purporting to set out the territorial
limits of the state must be supported by some recognized principle of international law.
 The silence of a constitution regarding the territorial limits of a sovereignty does not deprive such
sovereignty of any portion of territory it is entitled to under international law. Neither, however, does
a constitutional definition of territory have the effect of legitimizing a territorial claim not founded
on some legal right protected by international law.
o Philippine constitutionalism accepts the principle that it is not the Constitution which
definitely fixes the extent of Philippine territory.
 Rather, Art. I reflected a historical purpose.
 The determinative factor which persuaded the 1935 Convention to include an article on national
territory was the intent of the Convention to uses the Constitution as an international document
binding on the United States.
o The possibility of transforming the Constitution, a municipal law, into an international
document arose from a provision of the Tydings-McDuffie Law which prescribed that the
effectivity of the Philippine constitution would depend partly on the acceptance of its
provisions by the US Government.
 National Territory under the 1935 Constitution
o Four points of reference for the determination of Philippine territory:
 Treaty of Paris
 Treaty of Washington
 Treaty between Great Britain and the United States
 All territory over which the present Government of the Philippine Islands exercises
jurisdiction.
 Why a Definition of Territory in the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions?
o Motion to delete the entire article
 Territorial definition was a subject of international law, not of municipal law, and
that Philippine territory was already defined by existing treaties.
 Its continued presence in the Constitution had in fact embarrassed the Philippines
in negotiations for territories not covered by the constitutional definition.
 “Nationalistic arguments”
 The mention of the Treaty of Paris is a repulsive reminder of the indignity
of our colonial past
 To accept the territorial boundaries defined in the Treaty of Paris would be
to lend legitimacy to the illegal act of Spain and the United States
 The ancestral home of the Filipino people might be larger than the Treaty
of Paris would allow.
o Arguments for the inclusion of the article
 Attempt to demonstrate the need for a clear definition of Philippine territory
 Territorial definition was necessary for the preservation of our national
wealth, for national security, and as a manifestation of our solidarity as a
people.
 Concern for the protection of our national resources

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  Attempt to show that the definition must be expressed in the Constitution itself
 Territorial assertions found in RA 3046 were couched merely in “Whereas”
clauses. These clauses should be expressed in more authoritative fashion.
 To delete the article entirely would again leave the status of the Batanes
Islands in doubt.
 He expressed the need for curing the failure of the 1935 Constitution to
express the possibility of future territorial acquisitions by the Philippines.
o ADMITTEDLY, these arguments were valid for strengthening the
force of our territorial definition as municipal law. However, they
did not prove that a constitutional definition would strengthen
Philippine legal position in international law. The transposition of
the provisions of RA 3046 to the Constitution would transform
such provisions into constitutional provisions, but the provisions
would remain municipal law, not international law.
 The 1973 Provision on National Territory
o Philippine national territory under the 1973 Constitution may roughly be divided into three
groups:
 The Philippine archipelago
 Other territories belonging to the Philippines
 Philippine waters, air-space, and submarine areas
 The 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea
o The 1987 Constitution was formulated while the Philippines was already a party to the 1982
Convention on the Law of the Sea.
o Some important concepts found in the Convention are archipelago, archipelagic state,
archipelagic waters, baseline.
o Archipelagic state: means a State constituted wholly by one or more archipelagos and may
include other islands;
o Archipelago: a group of islands, including parts of islands, interconnecting waters and other
natural features form an intrinsic geographical, economic and political entity, or which
historically have been regarded as much.
o The territorial sea: consists of a marginal belt of maritime waters adjacent to the base lines
extending twelve nautical miles outward. Outside the territorial sea are the high seas.
 The traditional length of territorial waters measured seawards, according to the
cannon-shot rule formulated in 1702, was three miles.
 The three-mile rule has now been discarded in favor of the 12-mile rule
now found in Art. 3 of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea.
o Where, however, the application of the 12-mile rule to neighboring
littoral states would result in overlapping, the rule now
established is that the dividing line is a median line
equidistant from the opposite baselines.
 But the equidistance rule does not apply where historic
title or other special circumstances require a different
measurement.
o Baselines: the low-water line along the coast as marked on large scale charts officially
recognized by the coastal State.
 The width of the territorial sea is measured from the baseline.
 Two ways of drawing the baseline:

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  The “normal” baseline is one drawn following “the low-water line along
the coast as marked on large0scale charts officially recognized by the coastal
State.”
 Archipelagic States, however, instead of drawing “normal baselines,” have
drawn “straight baselines.”
o Instead of following the sinuosities of the coast, straight lines are
drawn connecting selected points on the coast without appreciable
departure from the general shape of the coast.
o Sovereignty over territorial waters
 A state exercises sovereignty over its territorial sea subject to the right of innocent
passage by other States.
 Innocent passage is understood as passage not prejudicial to the interests
of the coastal state nor contrary to recognized principles of international
law.
 Acts that are not considered innocent passage:
o Passage of a foreign ship shall be considered to be prejudicial to
the peace, good order or security of the coastal State if in the
territorial sea it engages in any of the following activities:
 Any threat or use of force against the sovereignty,
territorial integrity or political independence of the coastal
State, or in any other manner in violation of the principles
of international law embodied in the Charter of the United
Nations;
 Any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind;
 Any act aimed at collecting information to the prejudice of
the defense or security of the coastal State;
 Any act of propaganda aimed at affecting the defense or
security of the coastal State;
 The launching, landing or taking on board of any aircraft
 The launching, landing or taking on board of any military
device;
 The loading or unloading of any commodity, currency or
person contrary to the customs, fiscal, immigration or
sanitary laws and regulations of the coastal State;
 Any act of willful and serious pollution contrary to this
Convention;
 Any fishing activities;
 The carrying out of research or survey activities;
 Any act aimed at interfering with any systems of
communication or any other facilities or installations of the
coastal State;
 Any other activity not having a direct bearing on passage
 COASTAL STATES HAVE THE UNILATERAL RIGHT TO VERIFY
THE INNOCENT CHARACTER OF PASSAGE, AND IT MAY TAKE
THE NECESSARY STEPS TO PREVENT PASSAGE THAT IT
DETERMINES TO BE NOT INNOCENT.
o Archipelagic waters

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  The waters around, between and connecting the islands of the archipelago,
irrespective of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the
Philippines (Art. I). This assertion, together with the “straight base line method”
form the “Archipelagic Principle”.
o Insular shelf
 The continental shelf, archipelagic or insular shelf for archipelagos, refers to
 (a) The seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas adjacent to the coastal
state but outside the territorial sea, to a depth of two hundred meters or,
beyond that limit, to where the depth allows exploitation, and
 (b) the seabed and subsoil of areas adjacent to islands.
 The coastal state has the right to explore and exploit its natural resources, to erect
installations needed, and to erect a safety zone over its installations with a radius of
500 meters.
 The right does not affect the right of navigation of others. Moreover, the
right does not extend to non-resource material in the shelf area such as
wrecked ship and their cargoes.
 National Territory in the 1987 Constitution
o “all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction.”
 It was explained that the word “has” was of broader scope than “exercises” so that
it clearly allowed juridical retention of a territory even when it was physically
wrested by a stronger force.
 The phrase was explained to import a durative sense, that is, in included any
territory over which the Philippines then had sovereignty or jurisdiction, even if
such territory should temporarily be controlled by an invading force, and any other
territory over which the Philippines might establish sovereignty or jurisdiction in the
future.
 It clearly therefore did not abandon any claim to Sabah or to any other
territory but left all such matters to determination through international
processes.
o “its terrestrial, fluvial, and aerial domains, including the territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil,
the insular shelves, and other submarine areas thereof”
 Introduce a logical sequencing and a summary of the elements that make up the
Philippine territory.
 The fluvial domain includes the inland waters: bays and rivers, streams, as well as
internal waters or the waters of the sea, landwards from the baselines.
 Aerial domain of the Philippines includes the air directly above its terrestrial and
fluvial domains.
 The Art. 2 of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea:
1. The sovereignty of a coastal State extends, beyond its land territory and
internal waters and, in the case of an archipelagic State, its archipelagic
waters, to an adjacent belt of sea, described as the territorial sea.
2. This sovereignty extends to the air space over the territorial sea as well
as to its bed and subsoil.
3. The sovereignty over the territorial sea is exercised subject to this
Convention and to other rules of international law.
 Is the Philippine territory bigger because of the new article on national territory?

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 Not really. The treaty of Paris is the 1935 Constitution’s principal point of reference for the
delineation of Philippine territory. Although the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions make no mention of
the Treaty of Paris or any other treaty, the Philippine archipelago of the new Constitution is,
according to the sponsors of the provision, also the archipelago of the Treaty of Paris.

ART. II DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES

SEC 1. THE PHILIPPINES IS A DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN STATE.

SOVEREIGNTY RESIDES IN THE PEOPLE AND ALL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY
EMANATES FROM THEM.

 This portion of the Constitution might be called the basic political creed of the nation. It lays
down the policies that the government is bound to observe.
 With the exception of Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution, which refers to the duty of the citizen to
serve the State, these provisions prescribe the fundamental obligations of the government,
particularly the legislative and executive departments as its policy determining organs.
 In general, the 1935 provisions were not intended to be self-executing principles ready for
enforcement through the courts. They were rather directives addressed to the executive and to
the legislature.
 The Declaration of Principles and State Policies of the 1987 Constitution ballooned from the 5
sections of 1935 and the 10 sections of 1973 to 28 sections.
 The 1987 provisions were written in the same spirit as their counterparts in the 1935 and 1973
Constitutions; but there was an attempt to distinguish “principles” from “policies”.
 The principles are binding rules which must be observed in the conduct of government whereas
policies are guidelines for the orientation of the state.
o The distinction is of little significance because not all of the six “principles” are self-
executory and some of the “policies” already anchor justiciable rights.
o In *KILOSBAYAN V. MORATO, for instance, read Secs. 5, 12, 13, and 17 as mere
“guidelines” which do not yet confer rights enforceable by the courts but recognized Section
16 as a right conferring provision because it speaks of “the right of the people.”
 Section 5. The maintenance of peace and order, the protection of life, liberty,
and property, and promotion of the general welfare are essential for the
enjoyment by all the people of the blessings of democracy.
 Section 12. The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect
and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall
equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from
conception. The natural and primary right and duty of parents in the rearing
of the youth for civic efficiency and the development of moral character shall
receive the support of the Government.
 Section 13. The State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building
and shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual,
and social well-being. It shall inculcate in the youth patriotism and
nationalism and encourage their involvement in public and civic affairs.
o In *OCAMPO V. ENRIQUEZ, the issue is whether or not the issuance and
implementation of the assailed memorandum directing the burial of dictator Ferdinand
Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani violate the Constitutional provisions in Art. II Secs.

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 2, 11, 13, 23, 26, 27, and 28; Art. 3 Sec. 1, Art. VII Sec. 17, Art. XI Sec. 1, Art. XIV Section 3
(2) and Art. XVIII Sec. 26. It was ruled that the provisions in Art. II and Sec. 1 of Art. 11 are
not self-executing, ready for enforcement through the courts. They do not embody judicially
enforceable constitutional rights but guidelines for legislation.
o In Tanada v. Angara, a case involving a possible conflict of the General Agreement on Tariff
and Trade with the nationalistic provisions of Article II, the SC made this statement:

By its very title, Art. II of the Constitution is a “declaration of principles and state policies.”
These principles in Art. II are not intended to be self-executing principles ready for
enforcement through the courts. They are used by the judiciary as aids or as guides in the
exercise of its power of judicial review, and by the legislature in its enactment of laws.

The statement, however, is less than exact when applied to the 1987 version. Whether or not
a provision in it is self-executing depends on the way it is formulated. For instance, the right
to a healthful environment asserted in Sec. 16 was deemed by the Court to be an enforceable
right without need for further legislation. But Time and again, the Court has ruled that the
social justice provisions of the Constitution are not self-executing principles ready for
enforcement through the courts.
 Definition and Elements of “State”
o The Philippines is a state and all that being a state means in the international scene:
 States are repositories of legitimated authority over peoples and territories.
 It is by the virtue of their law-making power and monopoly that states enter
into bilateral and multilateral compacts, that wars can be started or terminated, that
individuals can be punished or extradited.
o State is a community of persons more or less numerous (PEOPLE), permanently
occupying a definite portion of (TERRITORY), independent of external control
(SOVEREIGNTY), and possessing an organized (GOVERNMENT) to which the
great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience.
o State is a legal concept while a nation is a racial or ethnic concept.
o PEOPLE
 Means 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.
 In the second sentence of Sec. 1, the word “people” in this context has reference to
the segment of the political society wherein legal sovereignty lies. Hence, it has
reference to the electorate or to that segment of the political community which can
establish or alter the fundamental law.
o TERRITORY
 A definite territory, consisting of land and waters and the air space above them and
the submarine areas below them, is another essential element of the modern state.
 An entity may satisfy the territorial requirement for statehood even if its boundaries
have not been finally settled, if one or more of its boundaries are disputed, or if
some of its territory is claimed by another state.
 The extent of Philippine territory is defined in Art. I of the Constitution.
o GOVERNMENT
 Defined as that institution or aggregate of institutions by which an independent
society makes and carries out those rules of action which are necessary to
enable men to live in a social state, or which are imposed upon the people

8
 forming that society by those who possess the power or authority of prescribing
them.
 The Government of the Philippine Islands is a term which refers to the
corporate governmental entity through which the functions of government
are exercised throughout the Philippine Islands, including, save as the contrary
appears from context, the various arms through which political authority is
made effective in said Islands, whether pertaining to the central Government
or to the provincial or municipal branches or other form of local government.
 On national scale, the term refers to the three great departments—
legislative, executive and judicial—mandated by the Constitution, and on
the local level, it means the regional, provincial, city, municipal and barrio
governments.
 For purposes of international law, it is the national government that has legal
personality and it is the national government that is internationally responsible for
the actions of other agencies and instrumentalities of the state.
 Government is the institution through which the state exercises power;
administration, on the other hand, consists of the set of people currently running
the institution.
 The functions of government may be classified into constituent and ministrant
functions.
Constituent functions are the compulsory functions which constitute the very bonds of society.
President Wilson’s enumeration of the constituent function of government was adopted in Bacani v.
NACOCO:
1. The keeping of order and providing for the protection of persons and property from violence
and robbery.
2. The fixing of legal relations between man and wife and between parents and children.
3. The regulation of the holding, transmission, and interchange of property, and the
determination of its liabilities for debt or for crime.
4. The determination of contract rights between individuals.
5. The definition and punishment of crime.
6. The administration of justice in civil cases.
7. The determination of the political duties, privileges, and relations of citizens.
8. Dealings of the state with foreign powers: the preservation of the state from external danger
or encroachment and the advancement of its international interest.
Ministrant functions are the optional functions of government intended for achieving a better life for
the community.
Ex. Public works, Public education, Public charity, Health and Safety, Trade and Industry
 The principles for determining whether or not a government shall exercise certain of
these optional functions are:
 That a government should do for the public welfare those things which
private capital would not naturally undertake [Private entity can’t handle it]
 That a government should do those things which by its very nature it is
better equipped to administer for the public welfare than is any private

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 individual or group of individuals. [Government is the best entity to
perform these functions]
o For the purpose of the decision in Bacani, the disquisition on the functions of government
was really of little moment. The issue in the case was whether NACOCO was part of
“government” or not. And since NACOCO was a corporation with personality distinct from
the government, it was clearly not part of the government and could not therefore claim the
privileges which flow from sovereignty. When, however, government chooses to operate
through an unincorporated agency, the distinction between constituent and
ministrant functions can be useful.
 Unincorporated governmental agency without any separate juridical personality
of its own enjoys immunity from suit because it is invested with an inherent power
of sovereignty.
o What is important to remember is that the enumeration of specific government functions
under these headings cannot be static.
 This was emphasized in *ACCFA V. CUGCO. At issue was the characterization of
the functions of a government agency charged with the implementation of the land
reform program. The function, the Court said, may not strictly be “constituent” in
the sense of Bacani, but the compelling urgency with which the Constitution speaks
of social justice does not leave any doubt that land reform is not an optional but a
compulsory function of sovereignty.
 Facts of the case
o On 4 Sept 1961, a collective bargaining agreement (effective for
one year) from 1 July 1961, was entered into by and between the
Unions and the ACCFA. A few months thereafter, the Unions
started protesting against alleged violations and non-
implementation of said agreement.
o CUGCO filed a complaint with the Court of Industrial relations
against the ACCFA for having allegedly committed acts of unfair
labor practice that included violation of collective bargaining
agreement in order to discourage members of the Unions in the
exercise of their right to self-organization, discrimination against
said members in the matter of promotions, and refusal to bargain.
 Among more recent decisions, housing has been found to be a governmental
function since housing is considered an essential service. But undertaking to supply
water for a price, as does the government corporation National Irrigation Authority,
is considered a trade and not a governmental activity.
o Government de jure and de facto
 All acts and proceedings of the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of a
de facto government are good and valid.
 This principle coupled with the fact that the Philippines had just emerged
from military occupation by the Imperial Forces of Japan made the concept
of a government merely de facto of great importance in Philippine Law of
the late forties.
 Classification of governments merely de facto in *Co Kim Chan v. Valdez
Tan Keh
1. Government that gets possession and control of, or usurps, by force or by the voice of the majority,
the rightful legal government and maintains itself against the will of the latter

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 2. Established and maintained by military forces who invade and occupy a territory of the enemy in the
course of war, and which is denominated a government of paramount force
3. Established as an independent government by inhabitants of a country who rise in insurrection
against the parent state.
 Facts of the Case:
o De facto government - a government wherein all the attributes of sovereignty have, by
usurpation, been transferred from those who had been legally invested with them to others,
who, sustained by a power above the forms of law, claim to act and do really act in their
stead.
o De jure government - the legal, legitimate government of a state and is so recognized by
other states
o Petitioner Co Cham had a pending Civil Case with the Court of First Instance of Manila
initiated during the time of the Japanese occupation. The respondent judge refused to
continue hearings on the case which were initiated during the Japanese occupation on the
ground that the proclamation issued by MacArtur that “all laws, regulations, and processes
of any other government in the Philippines that that of the said Commonwealth are null and
void and without legal effect in areas of the Philippines free of enemy occupation and
control. This had the effect of invalidating and nullifying all judicial proceedings and
judgements of the court of the Philippines during the Japanese occupation, and that the
lower courts have no jurisdiction to take cognizance of and continue judicial proceedings
pending in the courts of the defunct Republic of the Philippines in the absence of an
enabling law granting such authority.
Issue: WON the judicial acts and proceedings of the courts under the Philippine Executive Commission were
good and valid?
Ruling: YES. It is a legal truism in political and international law that all acts and proceedings of the
legislative, executive and judicial department of a de facto government are good and valid.
 Government under the 1986 Freedom Constitution
o The Provisional Constitution of 1986 did not contain a Preamble. What it had were the
introductory “Whereases” and the concluding paragraphs of Proclamation No. 4.
o In essence therefore President Aquino anchored her assumption of power on “the direct
mandate of the people” when she “was installed through a direct exercise of [their] power”
and “in defiance of the provisions of the 1973 Constitution.”
o Was the government she set up revolutionary?
 It was revolutionary in the sense that it came into existence in defiance of the
existing legal processes. She did not win her victory through a protest lodged
either before the Batasan or before a Presidential Electoral Tribunal. She won it
through the extra-legal action taken by the people.
 Was it revolutionary in the sense that it was despotic?
 The answer to the question would depend on how President Aquino
comported herself, on how courageously the SC exercised its powers to
check abuse, and on the vigilance and activism of the people who chose to
install her President.
 Was it revolutionary in the sense that it was militaristic?
 The military or non-military character of a regime is shown not so much in
words but in actual behavior: in the behavior of military as well as of
civilian leaders.

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 
Was it revolutionary in the sense of being temporary?
 Temporary arrangements are rarely free from the temptation to
prolongation. Fortunately, one of the first things the President did was to
appoint a Constitutional Commission to draft a Constitution for
presentation to the people for ratification or rejection.
o Was the government a de facto or a de jure one?
 In answering this question, one must state whether the question is being raised in a
local law context or in an international law context. In local law, until a government
is ousted, it is not too important to ask the question. For as long as the government
is in possession, it is the law and it is legal within the context of its structures. Once
a government is ousted, however, for the purpose of determining the validity
of the actions taken by the ousted government, it becomes necessary to ask
whether it was merely de facto or de jure.
 The status of a government in international law depends on the recognition it
receives or does not receive from the community of nation.
 When the government under the Freedom Constitution was challenged, the SC did
not consider the challenge a justiciable manner and dismissed the challenge saying
that the people had accepted the Aquino government and the community of nations
had recognized its legitimacy.
 Presidential and parliamentary government
o Presidential form of government
 Principal identifying feature—the separation of powers
o What differentiates a parliamentary form of government from a presidential?
 Essential features of parliamentary form:
 Members of the government or cabinet or the executive arm, as a rule,
simultaneously members of the legislature
 The government or cabinet, consisting of the political leaders of the
majority party or of a coalition who are also members of the legislative is in
effect a committee of the legislature
 The government or cabinet has a pyramidal structure at the apex of which
is the Prime Minister or his equivalent
 The government or cabinet remains in power only for as long as it enjoys
the support of the majority of the legislature.
 Both government and legislature are possessed of control devices with
which each can demand of the other immediate political responsibility.
o Presidential system embodies interdependence by separation and coordination,
parliamentarism embodies interdependence by integration
o The constitutional revision of 1981 reverted to a form of government which, although
adopting features of parliamentarism, preserved the essence of presidentialism.
 The 1987 Constitution has brought back to the country to the presidential system of
1935 and has removed the parliamentary features of the 1973 Constitution but has
imposed new limits on the powers of the President.
 Sovereignty
o A final essential element of statehood according to the Montevideo Convention is capacity
to conduct international relations.
o Sovereignty in Sec. 1, Art. II can be understood as the source of ultimate legal authority.
Since the ultimate law in the Philippine system is the constitution, sovereignty, understood as

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 legal sovereignty, means the power to adapt or alter a constitution. This power resides in the
“people” understood as those who have a direct hand in the formulation, adoption, and
amendment or alteration of the Constitution.
o Legal sovereignty (sum total of all the influences in a state, legal and non-legal, which
determine the course of law) v. Political sovereignty (supreme power to make laws)
o Sovereign authority is not always directly exercised by the people. It is normally delegated by
the people to the government ad to the concrete persons in which whose hands the powers
of government temporarily reside.
 Is recognition by other states a constitutive element of a state such that even if it has all four
elements it is not a state if it has not been recognized?
o Constitutive theory recognition “constitutes” a state
o Declaratory theory recognition is merely “declaratory” of the existence of the state and that
its being a state depends upon the possession of the required elements and not upon
recognition.
 Democratic and republican state
o A republican form of government is understood as “one constructed on the principle, that
the supreme power resides in the body of the people.”
o What the Philippine text declares is that the Philippines is a state whose government is
republican in form, that is, whose government is democratic in the sense of
American constitutionalism.
 In the Case of People v. Gozo, Loreta Gozo bought a house and a lot located inside the US Naval
Reservation in Olongapo City. She demolished and built a new house without a permit from
Olongapo City Mayor, because she was told by Ernesto Evalle (City Mayor assistant) and her
neighbors that such permit is not necessary. On December 1966, Malones (from City Engineer’s
Office) and Macahilas (from police force) apprehended carpenters working on the house. Gozo
was charged with violation of Municipal Ordinance No. 14, S. of 1964 (imprisonment + pay
costs).

Court of First Instance of Zambales found her guilty. But when it was raised to the Court of
Appeals, she argued that such ordinance does not apply to her because her dwelling is within the
naval bases.
Issue: Whether Gozo’s dwelling is not within the jurisdiction of Olongapo City due to its location
within the naval base.

Ruling: No. There is no alleged absence of administrative jurisdiction of Olongapo City because
the mere existence of military or naval bases does not cut the power to govern. The military bases
agreement of 1947 does not impose an alien character on naval bases, which still retain their
status as part of “native soil”. The administrative jurisdiction of a municipal corporation allows
statutory powers vested in it to be validly exercised

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