ARTICLE V

SUFFRAGE
 What is Suffrage?

Suffrage is the right and obligation to vote of qualified citizens in

the election of certain national and local officers of the
government and in the decision of the public questions submitted
to people.
 Nature of Suffrage
1. A mere privilege – Suffrage is not a natural right of the citizens but merely
privilege to be given or withheld by lawmaking power subject to constitutional
limitations. Suffrage should be granted to individuals only upon the fulfillment
of certain minimum conditions deemed essential for the welfare of society.
2. A political right – In the sense of a right conferred by the Constitution,
suffrage is classified as a political right, enabling every citizen to participate in
the process of government to assure that it can truly be said to derive its
powers from the consent of the governed.
 Scope of Suffrage
1. Election – Strictly speaking, it is the means by which people chose their
officials for definite and fixed periods and to whom they entrust, for the time
being as their representatives, the exercise of their powers of government.
Election in the Philippines happens every second Monday of May every
third year. The Presidential and Vice Presidential election are held every six
years.
For the Senators every six year also but only half of the 24 senators. For
example, (Nos. 1 to 12) elected in May 2010 were retained until June 30,
2016, while the other half (nos. 13-24) were replaced in the 2013 polls.
2. Plebiscite – It is the name given to a vote of the people expressing their choice for or against a
proposed law or enactment submitted to them.
The Constitution requires Plebiscite for the cases
Creation, division, merger, abolishment, or major boundary changes of a province, city,
municipality, or barangay (village)
Creation of special metropolitan political subdivisions
Creation of Autonomous Region
Approval of an amendment or revision of the constitution
• The Initiative and Referendum Act allows for plebiscite of the cases:
A petition of at least 12% of the registered voters, with 3% within every legislative districts, for
amending the constitution.
However, the Supreme Court declared the Initiative and Referendum Act procedures for amending
the constitution ad fatally defective, although it didn’t affect the operation on the law for other types
of initiatives.
3. Referendum – It is the submission of a law or part thereof passed by the national or local
legislative body to the voting citizens of a country for their ratification or rejection
• The Constitution mandates a referendum for
 Adoption of new name of country, National Anthem or new seal
Allowing foreign military troops in the Philippines if the Congress requires
• The Initiative and Referendum Act allows for referendums on these cases:
A petition of at least 10% of registered voters, 3 % within every legislative district for local
initiatives
 If there is only one legislative district in a province, city or municipality, it has to be 3% within
each municipality in a province, or each barangay in a city.
 For barangay initiatives, it has to be at least 10% of the registered voters
A local legislative body can also submit to the electorate approval of any ordinance or resolution.
4. Initiative – It is the process whereby the people directly propose and
enacts laws. Congress mandated by the Constitution to provide as early as
possible for a system of initiative of referendum.
5. Recall – It is a method by which a local public officer may be removed
from office during his tenure or before the expiration of his term by a vote of
the people after registration of a petition signed required by percentage of
the qualified voters
SECTION 1. Suffrage may be exercised by all citizens
of the Philippines not otherwise disqualified by law,
who are at least eighteen years of age, and who shall
have resided in the Philippines for at least for one
year and in the place where-in they propose to vote
for at least six months immediately preceding the
election. No literacy, property, or other substantive
requirement shall be imposed on the exercised of
suffrage.
 Qualifications of Voters

He must be:
(1) a citizen (male of female) of the Philippines
(2) not otherwise disqualified by law
(3) at least eighteen (18) years of age; and
(4) have resided in the Philippines for at least one (1) year and in the place
wherein he proposes to vote for at least (6) months preceding the election.
 Age Qualification
(1) Minimum Age – Obviously, there must be some minimum age for voting. No one, no
matter how ardent his belief in democracy, has ever contented that human beings must be
permitted to participate in the selection of public officials from the day of birth.
(2) Basis – This suffrage qualification is based on the assumption that under certain age,
human beings do not have the maturity, experience, education, and sense of judgment that
will enable them to vote with any reasonable degree of intelligence.
(3) No maximum age limit – No general agreement exists as to the exact age at which the
individual supposedly attains the maturity sufficient for political participation. While there is
a minimum voting age in every state, no country, however, has as yet seen fit to set a
maximum age limit.
 Residence Qualification
(1) Period of Residence – A voter must have been a permanent resident of the Philippines
for at least one (1) year preceding the election and six (6) months in the province, city, or
municipality where he is a voter.
(2) Importance – Six (6) months residence in a province, city or municipality is considered
the minimum length of time within which a person can adequately familiarize himself
with then needs and conditions and the personalities of the locality. Giving him right to
vote before that period, it is contented, will result in unpurposive and mechanical voting.
The requirement as to residence is desirable in order that registration lists may be
prepared and checked in ample time to prevent fraud.
 Voters Registration
Registration refers to the act of accomplishing and filing of a sworn
application for registration by a qualified voter before the election officer of
the city or municipality wherein he resides and including the same in the
book of registered voters upon approval by the Election Registration Board
 System of Continuing Registration
The personal filing of application of registration of voters shall be conducted
daily in the office of the Election Officer during regular office hours. No
registration shall, however, be conducted during the period starting one
hundred twenty (120) days before a regular election and ninety (90) days
before a special election.
 Person Disqualified to Vote
The responsibility of determining who maybe "Disqualified by law" and therefore may be precluded
from exercising the right of suffrage is left by the Constitution to Congress. As to who are
disqualified to vote the law enumerates them as follows:
1.) Any person who has been sentenced by final judgement to suffer imprisonment for not less than
(1) year such disability not having been removed by plenary pardon or granted amnesty. But such
person shall automatically acquire the right to vote upon expiration of five (5) years after service of
sentence;
2.) Any person who has been adjudged by final judgement by competent court or tribunal of having
committed any crime involving disloyalty to the duly constituted government such as rebellion,
violation of the anti- subversion and firearms laws, or any crime against national security unless
restored to his full civil and political rights in accordance with law such person shall likewise
automatically regain his right to vote upon expiration of five (5) years after service of sentence; and
3.) Insane or incompetent persons as declared by competent authority.
4. Any person who did not vote in the two (2) successive preceding regular
elections as shown by their voting records. For this purpose, regular
elections do not include the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections;
5. Any person whose registration has been ordered excluded by the Court;
and  
6. Any person who has lost his Filipino citizenship.  
 Reactivation of Registration
Any voter whose registration has been deactivated pursuant to the preceding
Section may file with the Election Officer a sworn application for
reactivation of his registration in the form of an affidavit stating that the
grounds for the deactivation no longer exist any time but not later than one
hundred twenty (120) days before a regular election and ninety (90) days
before a special election.
 Arguments Justifying the lowering of Voting Age from 21 to 18

The following have been given:

1.) It has the effect of broadening the base of democratic participation in the political
process;
2.) The voting age of 21 years is as old as the Roman Empire; therefore, it is obsolete;
3.) It is the (alleged) finding of medical science that today's 18- year- old is physically at
least three (3) years ahead of an 18- year - old of 1990;
4.) The communication media explosion has resulted in making 18- year - old- citizens
better informed than their parents;
5.) The Philippines is becoming an increasingly young country and the youth are more
idealistic and are more change oriented than their elders;
6.) The Objection that 18 year-old citizens lack the maturity to exercise an important political
right widely is at best a debatable question;
7.) If at the age of 18 one can enter into a marriage contract which is the most important in
the life of a person there is no reason why an 18- year- old should not be permitted to vote;
8.) If at the age of 18 one is mature enough to fight in defense of his country, he is old enough
to be given a voice in the determination of its public policy;
9.) By including those under 12 but at least 18 to vote will make them feel that they are part
of the decision- making process and thereby at least increase their loyalty to our institution s;
and
10.) Voting is the major if not the sole participation of common citizens in the political
process of the state. It is, under present circumstances, The most effective medium for
securing consent to or rejection of government short of extra- constitutional remedies. The
smaller the number of electors in a particular community, the more limited the basis of
consent. The reduction of the voting age is consistent with the theory of popular sovereignty
which is one of the fundamental premises of our government.
 Arguments Justifying Removal of Literacy Requirement

The 1973 Constitution removed the requirement under the 1935 Constitution on ability to read and
write such that then as now an illiterate person has the right to vote. The illiterate voter is not
necessarily an ignorant voter.
The arguments for its removal have been summarized as follows:
"This requirement [that a voter must know how to read and write) confuses literacy with intelligence,
and learning with wisdom. A Filipino does not cease to be a Filipino because he is illiterate; a man pays
taxes and he bleeds and he dies for his country whether he signs his name with a flourish or with an
"X." Some 28% of our people roughly about 4.3 million among us who are more than 21 years old are
illiterates. They cannot, it is true, read newspapers or magazines but they listen to the radio; they join
conversations and discussions with their neighbors at corner stores, at cockpits, and over the family
wash; they know what is happening in their community and in the country.
Yet they are denied the right to take part in their government and to help
shape their destiny. Should we wonder that they would feel little loyalty to
our democracy, and fall victims easily to the evils of other ideologies that
falsely offer them the dignity of helping to shape their destiny?
Granted that to give them the right to vote may pose practical problems of
how their votes could be cast and counted, but these problems are not
insurmountable. After all, our first election law did not require literacy in
order to vote only property. Later on, property ownership was eliminated and
literacy substituted. Thus, from the rule of the properties we pass to the rule
of the learned. It is time we effect the rule of the people.
 Property Requirement Prohibited

Under the present Constitution, Congress cannot also impose property

requirement for the exercise of suffrage. (Sec.1.)
(1) Property ownership not a test of an individual's capacity. The
justification for the abolition of property qualification is the assumption that
ownership of property, per se, neither adds to nor detracts from a man's
capacity to function properly and fully as a social and political being. Today,
the argument that only property holders have a stake in the community" is
considered obsolete. It is the human person, not property, that is to be
represented, and given primacy in the hierarchy of values."
(2) Property requirement inconsistent with concept of republican
government. The imposition of property qualifications on the voters would
be inconsistent with the very nature and essence of our republican system of
government ordained in our Constitution, for said political system is
premised upon the tenet that sovereignty resides in the people and all
governmental authority emanates from them (Art. II, Sec. 1.), and this, in
turn, implies necessarily that the right to vote and to be voted shall not be
dependent upon the wealth of the individual concerned.
(3) Property requirement inconsistent with social justice principle. - Social
justice presupposes equal opportunity for all, rich and poor alike. (see Art.
XIII, Sec. 1.) Accordingly, no person shall, by reason of poverty, be denied
the chance to vote and to be elected to public office. In a case, the Supreme
Court declared as unconstitutional a law requiring all candidates for public
offices to post a surety bond equivalent to the one (1) year salary or
emoluments of the position for which they are candidates which shall be
forfeited if the candidates, except when declared winner, fail to obtain at
least 10% of the votes cast for the office to which they have filed their
certificates of candidacy. This law, according to the Supreme Court, in
effect, imposed a property qualification."
 Other Substantive Requirements Prohibited.
Congress is prohibited by the Constitution to impose additional substantive (not
procedural) requirements for voting similar in nature to literacy or ownership of
property. (Sec. 1.)
Examples are:
(1) Education. As a general principle, the more education a man has, the better and
more valuable member of society he will be. Yet it is quite possible for a person to
become an important asset to government and the social body with little or no formal
schooling. Formal education itself is no guarantee of good citizenship or of intelligent
voting. Furthermore, the requirement of a high school or even an elementary education
would disenfranchise large segments of the poorer classes of our population."
(2) Sex. The antagonism in the past to female suffrage stemmed in some
degree from the belief that a woman's place was in the home and that the
performance of public duties was the function of the male members of the
family. In other cases, the opposition was based on political expediency
rather than on principle. At the present time, unless one is willing to contend
that women, simply by virtue of their womanhood, are incapable of free and
intelligent social and political activity, there would seem to be no adequate
or justifiable basis for depriving them of equal voting rights with men.
(3) Taxpaying ability. This restriction is related to property requirement for
voting. Congress cannot by law deny to an individual the right to vote on the
ground that he is exempted from taxation or is not liable to pay tax or the
taxes paid by him or for which he is liable during the year are below a
specified amount.
 Compulsory Suffrage
The 1973 Constitution made registering and voting a mandatory obligation of
every qualified citizen's Noteworthy is the fact that Section 1 uses the word "may"
as in the 1935 Constitution in place of the word "shall" in the 1973 Constitution.
In view of the permissive language of the Constitution, it is doubtful whether the
failure to perform the obligation to register and vote can be criminally punished.
Should voting be made compulsory?
(1) Arguments against compulsory suffrage. Those who are against any system of
coercive voting say that it is not only undemocratic but that no useful purpose
would be served by dragging the people to the polls against their will.
They maintain that it is not the size but the quality of the vote cast that is
important, and that individuals forced to exercise suffrage might do real
injury to the public good by voting blindly and unintelligently. There is no
means of compelling a person to vote intelligently or to study the
personalities and issues involved in an election.
Even assuming that the voter has the right to invalidate his ballot by leaving
it blank, still it would prevent those who feel strongly against the candidates
or the particular manner of holding an election from expressing their moral
indignation by openly boycotting the election and persuading others to
follow suit.
(2) Arguments in favor of compulsory suffrage. - The proponents of compulsory
suffrage, on the other hand, contend that a requirement that would force an
apathetic individual to the polls would make him aware of the responsibility that
rests on him and would encourage him to become acquainted with the issues and
personalities involved in the election. Once interest is awakened by actual
participation, the matter of coercion, they feel, would become a secondary motive.
In the Philippines, for instance, it is not uncommon to see political leaders
dragging their constituents to the polls on election day. This shameful spectacle
will not take place if suffrage were an obligation. It should be noted that people
are more prone to sell their votes if they depend on politicians to bring them to the
polling places. Furthermore, compulsory suffrage is the only way of assuring the
accurate representation of the will of the people. If suffrage were not exercised
then, the theory of popular sovereignty (supra.) would become a myth.
In the long run, the participation of the people in the government through the
ballot is more important than the result of an election or a plebiscite. A
defaulting majority will make possible a government installed only by a
voting minority.
Unfortunately, no definite study has as yet been made of the effects of
compulsory voting in any of the countries which employ it. Hence, there is
no way of actually determining whether the obligatory franchise improves or
detracts from representative government.
 SEC. 2 The Congress shall provide system for securing the
secrecy and sanctity of the ballot as well as system for
absentee voting by qualified Filipinos abroad.
The Congress shall also design a procedure for the
disabled and the illiterates to vote without the assistance of
other persons. Until then, they shall be allowed to vote under
existing laws and such rules as the Commission on Elections
may promulgate to protect the secrecy of the ballot.
System for securing the secrecy and sanctity of the ballot.
(1) Untrammeled exercise of the right to vote. – The right to vote has
reference to a constitutional guarantee of the utmost significance. It is a right
without which the principle of sovereignty residing in the people (Art. II,
Sec. 1.) becomes nugatory. It is essential then to ensure that the voters shall
exercise their right freely, “uninfluenced by threats, intimidation or corrupt
motives” and “to secure a fair and honest count of the ballots.” To
accomplish this aim, Congress is directed by the Constitution “to provide a
system for securing the secrecy and sanctity of the ballot.”
(2) Voting by the disabled and illiterates. – With the enfranchisement of the illiterates
and the existence of many disabled voters, this responsibility of the legislative body
assumes more importance. The sanctity of the electoral process requires secrecy of the
vote.
(a) Congress will have to enact a law prescribing procedures that will enable the
disabled and the illiterates to secretly cast their ballots without requiring the assistance
of other persons, to prevent them from being manipulated by unscrupulous politicians to
insure their victory at the polls. Perhaps, a method of voting by symbols may be devised
to make it possible for disabled and illiterate citizens to exercise the right of suffrage.
(2) Until Congress provides for the appropriate procedure, they shall be allowed to vote
under the existing law and such rules as the Commission on Elections (Art. IX, A-Sec.
6, C-Sec. 2 (1).) may promulgate to protect the secrecy of the ballot. This prevents their
disenfranchisement while the law referred to has not yet been enacted by Congress.
 System for Absentee voting by Qualified Filipino Abroad.

Section 2 extends the right of suffrage even to Filipinos abroad provided they possess all
the qualifications mentioned therein and none of the disqualifications provided by law.
Filipinos who by force of circumstances (e.g., the need to earn a living) have to
temporarily work and reside abroad but maintain their love and loyalty to their native land
are still part of our Republic. They are also affected by the quality of public officials and
the policies of the government. They remain liable to taxes, and are subject to many of its
laws. Hence, they should also be given the constitutional right to vote.
Congress is mandated to provide a system of absentee voting by qualified Filipinos
abroad. It is bound to set aside funds and other requirements for the purpose and to provide
safeguards to ensure that elections overseas are held in a free, clear, and orderly manner.
 Local Absentee Voting
Local Absentee voting is provided under R.A. 7166 (Nov. 26, 1991) whereby
government officials and employees including members of the Armed Forces of
the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), who are
registered voters, are allowed to vote for the positions of President, Vice-
President, Senators, and Party-List Representatives in places where they are not
registered but where they are temporarily assigned on election day to perform
election duty.
The same privilege is given to teachers and other persons assigned to perform poll
duty in places where they are not registered.
R.A. No. 10380 (March 14, 2013) extends the rights to vote under the local
absentee voting system to members of media and media practitioners, including the
technical support and support staff, who are duly registered voters due to
performance of their function in covering and reporting on the elections.
The Constitutional Commission intended to benefit particularly Filipino contract
workers in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, who have been
earning and remitting billions of dollars a year. Serious problems and complications
may arise, however, with respect to Filipinos who have practically abandoned their
country for the proverbial greener pastures abroad and have indicated a desire to
become a citizen of their adopted country. It would seem foolhardy to extend
suffrage to them.
R.A. 9189 (February 4, 2003) provides system of overseas absentee voting
by qualified citizens abroad. For purposes of the Act, absentee voting refers
to process by which qualified citizens of the Philippines abroad exercise
their right to vote. All citizens of the Philippines abroad, who are not
otherwise disqualified by law, at least 18 year of age on the day of elections,
may vote for president, vice-president, senators, and party-list
representatives. The law enumerates who shall de disqualified from voting
under it.
THANK YOU!!!