History of the Philippine Constitution

and the Bill of Rights

During the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, Filipinos ardently fought for their
fundamental rights. The Propaganda Movement spearheaded by our national hero Jose
Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and Graciano Lopez-Jaena demanded assimilation of the
Philippines by Spain, and the extension to Filipinos of rights enjoyed by Spaniards under
the Spanish Constitution such as the inviolability of person and property, specifically
freedom from arbitrary action by officialdom particularly by the Guardia Civil and from
arbitrary detention and banishment of citizens. They clamored for their right to liberty of
conscience, freedom of speech and the press, freedom of association, freedom of
worship, freedom to choose a profession, the right to petition the government for redress
of grievances, and the right to an opportunity for education. They raised the roof for an
end to the abuses of religious corporations.[133]
With the Propaganda Movement having apparently failed to bring about effective
reforms, Andres Bonifacio founded in 1892 the secret society of the Katipunan to serve
as the military arm of the secessionist movement whose principal aim was to create an
independent Filipino nation by armed revolution.[134] While preparing for separation from
Spain, representatives of the movement engaged in various constitutional projects that
would reflect the longings and aspirations of the Filipino people. On May 31, 1897, a
republican government was established in Biak-na-Bato, followed on November 1, 1897
by the unanimous adoption of the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of the
Philippines, popularly known as the Constitution of Biak-na-Bato, by the revolutions
representatives. The document was an almost exact copy of the Cuban Constitution of
Jimaguayu,[135] except for four articles which its authors Felix Ferrer and Isabelo Artacho
added. These four articles formed the constitutions Bill of Rights and protected, among
others, religious liberty, the right of association, freedom of the press, freedom from
imprisonment except by virtue of an order issued by a competent court, and freedom from
deprivation of property or domicile except by virtue of judgment passed by a competent
court of authority.[136]
The Biak-na-Bato Constitution was projected to have a life-span of two years, after
which a final constitution would be drafted. Two months after it was adopted, however,
the Pact of Biak-na-Bato was signed whereby the Filipino military leaders agreed to cease
fighting against the Spaniards and guaranteed peace for at least three years, in exchange
for monetary indemnity for the Filipino men in arms and for promised reforms. Likewise,
General Emilio Aguinaldo, who by then had become the military leader after Bonifacios
death, agreed to leave the Philippines with other Filipino leaders. They left for Hongkong
in December 1897.
A few months later, the Spanish-American war broke out in April 1898. Upon
encouragement of American officials, Aguinaldo came back to the Philippines and set up
a temporary dictatorial government with himself as dictator. In June 1898, the dictatorship
was terminated and Aguinaldo became the President of the Revolutionary
Government.[137] By this time, the relations between the American troops and the Filipino
forces had become precarious as it became more evident that the Americans planned to
stay. In September 1898, the Revolutionary Congress was inaugurated whose primary
goal was to formulate and promulgate a Constitution. The fruit of their efforts was the
Malolos Constitution which, as admitted by Felipe Calderon who drafted it, was based on
the constitutions of South American Republics[138] while the Bill of Rights was substantially
a copy of the Spanish Constitution.[139] The Bill of Rights included among others, freedom
of religion, freedom from arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, security of the domicile and
of papers and effects against arbitrary searches and seizures, inviolability of
correspondence, due process in criminal prosecutions, freedom of expression, freedom
of association, and right of peaceful petition for the redress of grievances. Its Article 28
stated that (t)he enumeration of the rights granted in this title does not imply the prohibition
of any others not expressly stated.[140] This suggests that natural law was the source of
these rights.[141] The Malolos Constitution was short-lived. It went into effect in January
1899, about two months before the ratification of the Treaty of Paris transferring
sovereignty over the Islands to the United States. Within a month after the constitutions
promulgation, war with the United States began and the Republic survived for only about
ten months. On March 23, 1901, American forces captured Aguinaldo and a week later,
he took his oath of allegiance to the United States.[142]
In the early months of the war against the United States, American President
McKinley sent the First Philippine Commission headed by Jacob Gould Schurman to
assess the Philippine situation. On February 2, 1900, in its report to the President, the
Commission stated that the Filipino people wanted above all a guarantee of those
fundamental human rights which Americans hold to be the natural and inalienable
birthright of the individual but which under Spanish domination in the Philippines
had been shamefully invaded and ruthlessly trampled upon.[143] (emphasis
supplied) In response to this, President McKinley, in his Instruction of April 7, 1900 to the
Second Philippine Commission, provided an authorization and guide for the
establishment of a civil government in the Philippines and stated that (u)pon every division
and branch of the government of the Philippines . . . must be imposed these
inviolable rules . . . These inviolable rules were almost literal reproductions of the
First to Ninth and the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, with
the addition of the prohibition of bills of attainder and ex post facto laws in Article
1, Section 9 of said Constitution. The inviolable rules or Bill of Rights provided,
among others, that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without
due process of law; that no person shall be twice put in jeopardy for the same
offense or be compelled to be a witness against himself; that the right to be secure
against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; that no law shall
be passed abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the rights of the
people to peaceably assemble and petition the Government for redress of
grievances. Scholars have characterized the Instruction as the Magna Charta of
the Philippines and as a worthy rival of the Laws of the Indies. [144]

The inviolable rules of the Instruction were re-enacted almost exactly in the Philippine
Bill of 1902,[145] an act which temporarily provided for the administration of the affairs of the
civil government in the Philippine Islands,[146] and in the Philippine Autonomy Act of
1916,[147] otherwise known as the Jones Law, which was an act to declare the purpose of
the people of the United States as to the future of the Philippine Islands and to provide
an autonomous government for it.[148] These three organic acts - the Instruction, the
Philippine Bill of 1902, and the Jones Law - extended the guarantees of the American Bill
of Rights to the Philippines. In Kepner v. United States,[149] Justice Day prescribed the
methodology for applying these inviolable rules to the Philippines, viz: (t)hese principles
were not taken from the Spanish law; they were carefully collated from our own
Constitution, and embody almost verbatim the safeguards of that instrument for the
protection of life and liberty.[150] Thus, the inviolable rules should be applied in the
sense which has been placed upon them in construing the instrument from which
they were taken.[151] (emphasis supplied)