ansition to Independenc

The Commonwealth

THE FRAMING OF
THE CONSTITUTION OF
THE PHILIPPINES (1934-1935)

ce 24 June 1571 (the founding date of the Philippines), Spanish has been the offi
guage of government and court offices. There was no written constitution back t
ce the Philippines was an overseas territory under the Spanish crown.
theLeyes de Indias(Laws of the Indies) oversaw the social, political, and econom
of Filipinos. Also, many educational institutions such as the
neo Municipal de Manilaand theUniversidad de Santo Tomstaught its students
ng Spanish as a medium of instruction. And all church documents were written in
t same language. All this for obvious reasons.
may be true that the Spanish language was not the mother tongue of the majority
tives who lived during the Spanish times. But that does not mean that it was not
ken on a national level.
en Tagalog rebels revolted against Spain and proclaimed the independence of th
untry on 12 June 1898, it should be noted that they still chose Spanish as the offi
guage of the First Philippine Republic (1899-1901) under President Emilio Aguina
d this was made official when theConstitucin Poltica de Malolos(Malolos Constit
s promulgated on 22 January 1899.