1943

Article I: The Republic of the Philippines

SECTION 1. The Philippines is a republican state. The government established by this

Constitution shall be known as the Republic of the Philippines.

SEC. 2. The Republic of the Philippines shall exercise sovereignty over all the national
territory as at present defined by law.

1935
Article I.—THE NATIONAL TERRITORY

Section 1. The Philippines comprises all the territory ceded to the United States by the
treaty of Paris concluded between the United States and Spain on the tenth day of
December, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, the limits of which are set forth in Article
III of said treaty, together with all the islands embraced in the treaty concluded at
Washington, between the United States and Spain on the seventh day of November,
nineteen hundred, and in the treaty concluded between the United States and Great
Britain on the second day of January, nineteen hundred and thirty, and all territory over
which the present Government of the Philippine Islands exercises jurisdiction.

1973

ART

ARTICLE 1. THE NATIONAL TERRITORY

SECTION 1. The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the
islands and waters embraced therein, and all the other territories belonging to the
Philippines by historic right or legal title, including the territorial sea, the air space, the
subsoil, the sea-bed, the insular shelves, and the other submarine areas over which the
Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction. 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.
 ARTICLE II

1987
ARTICLE I

National Territory

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 breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters
of the Philippines.