Malolo’s Constitution

COMMENTARY ANALYSIS

Villa, Paula Marie | Readings in Philippine History | February 15, 2020

What is it?

The Political Constitution of 1899 which in Spanish is the Constitución Política de 1899,
informally known as the Malolo’s Constitution was the basic law of the First Philippine
Republic. It was written by Felipe Calderon y Roca and Felipe Buencamino as an alternative
to a pair of proposals to the Malolos Congress by Apolinario Mabini and Pedro Paterno.
After a lengthy debate in the latter part of 1898, it was promulgated on 21 January 1899.

This constitution placed limitations on unsupervised freedom of action by the chief

executive which would have hampered rapid decision making. As it was created during the
fight for Philippine independence from Spain, however, its Article 99 allowed unhampered
executive freedom of action during wartime. Unsupervised executive governance continued
throughout the Philippine–American War which erupted soon after proclamation.

Purpose

The Malolo’s Constitution is the first important Filipino document ever produced by the
people’s representatives, as it is anchored in democratic traditions that ultimately had their
roots in American soil. It created a Filipino state whose government was “popular,
representative, and responsible” with three branches knowingly the executive, legislative,
and the judicial. The constitution specifically provided for safeguards against abuses, and
enumerated the national and individual rights not only of the Filipinos and of the aliens.

The Constitution provided for universal and direct elections, the separation of church and
state, compulsory and free education, and equal legal status for the languages of all the
Philippine nationalist. It precisely delimited the rights of citizens.

Effectiveness

The Malolo’s constitution never became widely effective due to the war against the
Philippine Republic launched by the United States of America on February 1899 and the
subsequent seizure of the Philippines by the USA. However, it still left a profound mark on
the consciousness of the people and, when the USA introduced a law in 1902 on the
governance of the Philippines, several provisions from the Malolos Constitution relating to
civil rights had to be adopted.

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References

Guber, A. A. Filippinskaia respublika 1898 goda i amerikanskii imperializm, 2nd ed. Mosco
w, 1961. (The text of the constitution is on pp. 355-66.)

Malolos Constitution. (2020, January 30). Retrieved February 15, 2020, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malolos_Constitution

The Philippine Revolution; The Malolos Congress. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2020, from
http://msc.edu.ph/centennial/malolos.html

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