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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW IFILE No. 4
II.CONSTITUTIONS AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
1.CONCEPTS, PURPOSE OFa.Definition, purpose of Constitution
– the document which serves as the fundamental law of the state; that written instrument enacted by direct action of thepeople by which the fundamental powers of the government areestablished, limited and defined, and by which those powers aredistributed among the several departments for their safe and usefulexercise for the benefit of the body politic.
Constitutional Law
-designates the law embodied in the Constitutionand the legal principles growing out of the interpretation andapplication of its provisions by the courts in specific cases.
b.Distinguished from: organic law, statute,decree, ordinanceOrganic law
– a fundamental law. Organic statute.
Statute
– is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority thatgoverns a country, state, city or country.
Decree
– is an order made by a head of the State or government andhaving the force of law.
Ordinance
– a law made by a colony, or a municipality or other localauthority. Local Ordinance – is a law usually found in a municipal codeor an act passed by the local legislative body in the exercise of its lawmaking authority.
c.Classified:
i)
written and unwritten
 
written
– conventional or enacted
unwritten
– cumulative or evolvedii)
rigid and flexible
iii)
democratic and monarchical
 The Philippine Constitution is written and rigid(Art. XVII).
d.Qualities of a good writtenConstitution: brevity, clarity, comprehensivee.Essential parts:
1. bills of rights2. organization and functions of government3. provision for amendment
i)bills of rightsSection 1. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, orproperty without due process of law, nor shall any person bedenied the equal protection of the laws.
Significance of the Bill of Rights
Government is powerful. When unlimited, it becomes tyrannical. TheBill of Rights is a guarantee that there are certain areas of a person’slife, liberty, and property which governmental power may not touch.
Powers of Government 
All the powers of government are limited by the Bill of Rights.
 The totality of governmental power is contained in three greatpowers:
police power
,
power of eminent domain
, and
power of taxation
.
 
 These powers are considered inherent powers because they belongto the very essence of government and without them nogovernment can exist.Distinction between the guarantees of the Bill of Rights (Art. III) andthe guarantees on Social Justice (Art. XIII)
Bill of Rights (Art. III)Social Justice (Art. XIII)
Focuses on civil and political rights. The guarantees in the Bills of Rights are generally self-implementing, i.e., they cab beappealed to even in the absence of implementing legislation.Focuses on social and economicrights. The social and economic rightsguaranteed generally requireimplementing legislation.
ii)organization and functions of governmentFunctions
1.
constituent
– compulsory becauseconstitutive of the society;
2.
ministrant
– undertaken to advance the general interest of thesociety
(Bacani v. NACOCO, 100 Phil, 468
); merely optional.
iii)provision foramendmentf.Preamble:We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society, andestablish a Government that shall embody our ideals andaspirations, promote the common good, conserve and developour patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, theblessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, andpeace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.
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