I.

1987 Constitution
a. Nature and Concept of a Constitution (p.3-32)
“That body of rules and maxims in accordance with which the powers of sovereignty are habitually
exercised.”

“The written instrument enacted by direct action of the people by which the fundamental powers of the
government are established, limited and defined, and by which those powers are distributed among
several departments for their safe and usefule exercise for the benefit of the body politic”

“The PURPOSE of which is:

(1) to prescribe the permanent framework of a system of government;
(2) to assign to several departments their respective powers and duties, and
(3) to establish certain first fixed principles on which government is founded.”
“The Constitution is the basic and paramount law to which all other laws must conform, and to which all
persons, including the highest officials of the land, must defer.” [Supremacy of the Constitution]

b. Parts of a constitution (ibid.)

1. Constitution of Liberty – consists of a series of prescriptions setting forth the fundamental civil
and political rights of the citizens and imposing limitations on the powers of the government as
a means of securing the enjoyment of those rights.

2. Constitution of Government – consists of a series of provisions outlining the organization of

government, enumerating its powers, laying down certain rules relative to its administration and
defining the electorate

3. Constitution of Sovereignty – consists of the provisions pointing out the mode or procedure in
accordance with which formal changes in the fundamental law may be brought about.

c. Amendments and Revisions (ibid.)

d. Methods of interpreting the Constitution

II. Basic Concepts

 a. Declaration of Principles and State Policies

b. Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the supreme and uncontrollable power inherent in a State by which the State is governed.
It is permanent, exclusive, comprehensive, absolute, indivisible, inalienable, and imprescriptible.

1. Legal Sovereignty – authority which has the power to issue final commands.

2. Political Sovereignty – power behind the legal sovereign, or the sum of the influences that
ooperates upon it

3. Internal Sovereignty – power of the State to control its domestic affairs

4. External Sovereignty – power of the State to direct its relations with other States (i.e.
independence)

c. State immunity

d. Separation of powers

e. Checks and balances

f. Delegation of powers

g. Fundamental powers of the State

1. Police power

2. Eminent domain

3. Taxation

III. National Territory

Magallona v. Ermita

(1) RA 9522 did not result in a reduction of the Philippines’ maritime territory and the reack of the
Philippines state’s sovereign power. UNCLOS III has nothing to do with the acquisition or loss of
territory. It is a multilateral treaty regulating, among others, sea-use rights over maritime zones
and continental shelves. xxx States aacquire or conversely lose territory through occupation,
accretion, cession, and prescription, not by executing multilateral treaties on the regulations of
sea-use rights or enacting statutes to comply with the treaty’s terms to delimit maritime zones
and continental shelves.
(2) Whether referred to as Philippine internal waters under Art. II of the Constitution or as
archipelagic waters under UNCLOS III, the Philippines exercises sovereignty over the body of
water lying landward of the baseline, including the air space over it and the submarine areas
underneath.

The fact of sovereignty does not preclude the operation of municipal and international law
norms subjecting the territorial sea or archipelagic waters to necessary, if not marginal, burdens
in the interest of maintaining unimpeded, expeditious international navigation consistent with
the international law principle of FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION.

SOLUTION: Congress may pass legislation designating routes within the archipelagic waters to
regulate innocent and sea lanes passage.