Malolos Constitution
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The Malolos Constitution was enacted on January 20, 1899 by the Philippine Malolos Congress, and established the First Philippine Republic. The original was written in Spanish, which became the first official language of the Philippines.
[edit] Text
(Translation by Sulpicio Guevara from the original Spanish text)
| “ | POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC
WE, the Representatives of the Filipino people, lawfully convened, in order to establish justice, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and to secure for ourselves the blessings of liberty, imploring the aid of the Supreme Legislator of the Universe to help us attain these objectives, have voted, decreed, and sanctioned the following. POLITICAL CONSTITUTION TITLE I THE REPUBLIC Article 1. The political association of all the Filipinos constitutes a NATION, whose state shall be known as the Philippine Republic. Article 2. The Philippine Republic is free and independent. Article 3. Sovereignty resides exclusively in the people. TITLE II THE GOVERNMENT Article 4. Government of the Republic is popular, representative, alternative, and responsible, and shall exercise three (3) distinct powers: namely the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. Any two or more of these powers shall never be united in one person or corporation, nor the legislative power vested in one single individual. TITLE III RELIGION Article 5. The State recognizes the freedom and equality of all religions, as well as the separation of the Church and the State. TITLE IV THE FILIPINOS AND THEIR NATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS Article 6. The following are Filipinos:
It is understood that domicile is acquired by uninterrupted residence for two years in any locality within Philippine territory, with an open abode and known occupation, and contributing to all the taxes imposed by the Nation. The condition of being a Filipino is lost in accordance with law. Article 7. No Filipino or foreigner shall be detained nor imprisoned except for the commission of crime and in accordance with law. Article 8. All persons detained shall be discharged of delivered to the judicial authority within 24 hours following the act of detention. All detentions without the legal effect, unless the arrested person is duly prosecuted within 72 hours after delivery to a competent court. The accused shall be duly notified of such proceeding within the same period. Article 9. No Filipino shall be imprisoned except by virtue of an order by competent court. The order of imprisonment shall be ratified or confirmed within 72 hours following the said order, after the accused has been heard. Article 10. No one shall enter the dwelling house of any Filipino or foreigner residing in the Philippines without his consent, except in urgent cases of fire, inundation, earthquake or other similar danger, or by reason of unlawful aggression from within, or in order to assist a person therein who cries for help. Outside of these cases, the entry into the dwelling house of any Filipino or foreigner resident in the Philippines or the search of his papers and effects can only be decreed by a competent court and executed only in the daytime. The search of papers and effects shall be made always in the presence of the person searched or of a member of his family and .in their absence, of two witnesses resident of the same place. However, when a criminal caught in fraganti should take refuge in his dwelling house, the authorities in pursuit may enter into it, only for the purpose of making an arrest. If the criminal should take refuge in the dwelling house of foreigner, the consent of the latter must first be obtained. Article 11. No Filipino shall be compelled to change his residence or domicile except by virtue of final judgement. Article 12. In no case may correspondence confined to the post office be detained or opened by government authorities, nor any telegraphic or telephonic message detained. However, by virtue of an order a competent court, correspondence may be detained and opened in the presence of the sender. Article 13. All orders of imprisonment, of search of dwelling house, or detention of written correspondence, telegraph or telephone, must be justified. When an order lacks this requisite, or when the ground on which the act was founded is proven in court to be unlawful or manifestly insufficient, the person to be detained or whose imprisonment has not been ratified within the period prescribed in Article 9, whose correspondence has been detained, shall have the right to recover damages. Article 14. No Filipino shall be prosecuted or sentenced, expert by a judge or court of proper jurisdiction and according to the procedure prescribed by law. Article 15. Expert in the cases provided by the Constitution, all persons detained or imprisoned not in accordance with legal formalities shall be released upon his own petition or upon petition of another person. The law shall determine the manner of preceding summarily in this instance, as well as the personal and pecuniary penalties which shall be imposed upon the person who ordered, executed or cause to be executed the illegal detection or imprisonment. Article 16. No one shall be temporarily or permanently deprived of rights or disturbed in his enjoyment thereof, except by virtue of judicial sentence. The officials who, under any pretext whatsoever, should violate this provision, shall be personally liable for the damages caused. Article 17. No one shall be deprived of his property by expropriation except on grounds of public necessity and benefit, previously declared and justified by proper authority, and indemnifying the owner thereof prior to expropriation. Article 18. No one shall be obligated to pay any public tax which had not been approved by the National Assembly or by local popular governments legally so authorized, and which is not in the manner prescribed by the law. Article 19. No Filipino who is in full enjoyment of his civil and political rights, shall be impeded in the free exercise of said rights. Article 20. Neither shall any Filipino be deprived:
The right of petition shall not be exercised through any kind of armed force. Article 21. The exercise of the right provided for in the proceeding article should be subject to general provisions regulating the same. Article 22. Crimes committed on the occasion of the exercise of rights provided for in this title, shall be punished by the courts in accordance with the laws. Article 23. Ant Filipino may establish and maintain institutions of learning, in accordance with the laws authorizing them. Article 24. Foreigners may freely reside in Philippine territory, subject to legal dispositions regulating the matter; may engage in any occupation or professions for the exercise of which no special license is required by law to be issued by the national authorities. Article 25. No Filipino who is in full enjoyment of his political and civil rights shall be impeded in his right to travel freely abroad of in his right to transfer his residence or possessions to another country, except as to his obligations to contribute to military service or the maintenance of public taxes. Article 26. No foreigner who has not been naturalized may exercise in the Philippines any office which carries with it any authority of jurisdictional powers. Article 27. All Filipinos are obliged to defend his country with arms when called upon by law, and to contribute to the expenses of the State in proportion to his means. Article 28. The prior authorization to prosecute a public official in the cases which constitute apparent and clear violations of constitutional precepts. In others, the agents of the law shall only be exempted if they did not exercise the authority. Article 30. The guaranties provided for in articles, 7,8,9,10 and 11 and paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 20 shall not be suspended, partially or wholly, in any part of the Republic, except temporarily and by authority of law, when the security of the State in extraordinary circumstances so demands. When promulgated in any territory where the suspension applies, there shall be a special law which shall govern during the period of the suspension, according to the circumstances prevailing. The law of suspension as well as the special law to govern shall be approved by the National Assembly, and in case the latter is in recess, the Government shall have the power to decree the same jointly with the Permanent Commission, without prejudice to convoking the Assembly without the least delay and report to it what had been done. However, any suspension made shall not affect more rights than those mentioned in the first paragraph of this article nor authorize the Government to banish or deport from the Philippines any Filipino. In no case may the civil or military chief promulgate any penalty other than those previously provided by law. Article 31. In the Republic of the Philippines, no one shall be judged by a special law nor by special tribunals. No person or corporation may enjoy privileges or emoluments which are not in compensation for public service rendered and authorized by law. War and marine laws shall apply for crimes or delicts which have intimate relation to military or naval discipline. Article 32. No Filipino shall establish laws on primogeniture, nor institutions restrictive of property rights, nor accept honors, decorations or honorific titles or nobility from foreign nations without the consent of the Government. Neither shall the government establish in the Republic institutions mentioned in the preceding paragraph, nor confer honors, decorations or honorific titles and nobility to any Filipino. The Nation, however, may reward by special approved by the Assembly, conspicuous, services rendered by citizens of the country. TITLE V THE LEGISLATIVE POWER Article 33. Legislative power shall be exercised by Assembly Representatives of the nation. This Assembly shall be organized in the form and manner determined by law. Article 34. The Members of the Assembly shall represent the whole nation and not exclusively the electors who elected them. Article 34. No representatives shall receive from his electors any imperative mandates whatsoever. Article 36. The Assembly shall meet every year. The President of the Republic has the right to convoke it, suspend and close its sessions, and dissolve the same, within the periods prescribed by law enacted by the Assembly or by Permanent Commission. Article 37. The Assembly shall be open at lest months each year, without including in this period the time spent in its organization. The President of the Republic shall convoke the Assembly, not later than the 15th day of April. Article 38. In extraordinary cases, he may convoke the Assembly outside of the period fixed by law, as determined by the Permanent Commission, and prolong its law-making, provided the extended period does not exceed one month and provided further that such extensions do not take place more than twice during the same legislative term. Article 39. The National Assembly, jointly with the special Representatives, shall organize committees for the organization of the Assembly and for the election of a new President of the Republic, which shall be formed at least one month before the expiration of the term of office of the Representatives. In case of death or resignation of the President of the Republic, the Assembly shall meet in session by its own right or by initiative of the President or of the Permanent Commission. Article 40 In the meantime that the new President has not been chosen, his functions shall be exercised by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court whose office shall be taken over by one of the Justices of the Court, in accordance with law. Article 41. Any session of the Assembly held outside of the period of ordinary legislative shall be unlawful and void. The case provided for in Article 30 and in which the Assembly has constituted itself into a Tribunal of Justice shall be excepted, but in the latter case no other functions shall be exercised except that pertaining to judicial functions. Article 42. The sessions of the Assembly shall be public. However, session may be held in secret upon petition of a certain number of its members fixed by the Rules, deciding afterwards by an absolute majority of votes of the members present if the discussion on the same subject has to continue in public. Article 43. The President of the Republic shall communicate with the Assembly by means of messages, which shall be read by a Department Secretary. The Department Secretaries shall have the right to be heard in the Assembly, upon their request, and they may be represented in the discussion of certain bills by Commissioners appointed by decrees of the President of the Republic. Article 44 The Assembly may constitute itself into a Tribunal of Justice to hear and determine crimes committed against the security of the State by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and by the Solicitor General of the Nation, by means of decree promulgated by it, or by the Permanent Commission, or by the President of the Republic upon petition of the Solicitor General or Council of Government. The law shall determine the mode and manner of the accusation, instructions and disposition of the proceedings. Article 45. No member of the Assembly shall prosecuted nor held accountable for the opinions expressed by him, nor by type vote taken by him in the discharge of his office. Article 46 No member of the Assembly shall be prosecuted criminally without authority of the Assembly or of the Permanent Commission to which an immediate report of the facts shall be made, for its proper action. The imprisonment, detention, or apprehension of a member of the Assembly shall not be carried out without the prior authority of the same or by the Permanent Commission. The moment the Assemble in notified of the order of imprisonment, it shall incur liability if, within two days following the notification, it does not authorize the imprisonment or give sufficient reason upon which the refusal is based. Article 47. The National Assembly shall have the following additional powers:
Article 48. No bill shall become law without having been voted upon by the Assembly. To approve a bill, the presence in the Assembly of at least one-fourth of the total number of the members whose elections have been duly approved and taken the oath of office shall be necessary. Article 49. No bill shall be approved by the Assembly until after it has been voted upon as a whole and subsequently article by article. Article 50. The Assembly shall have the right of censure, and each of the members of the right of interpellation. Article 51. The initiative in he presentation of bills belongs to the President of the Republic and to the Assembly. Article 52. Any member of the Assembly who accepts from the Government any pension, employment or office with salary, is understood to have renounced his membership. From this shall be excepted the employment as Secretary of the Government of the Republic and other offices provided for by special laws. Article 53. The office of Representatives shall be for a term of four years, and shall be compensated by a sum fixed by law, according to the circumstances. Those who absent themselves during the entire period of the legislative session shall not be entitled to any compensation; but they may be allowed to recover the right to compensation should they attend subsequently. TITLE VI THE PERMANENT COMMISSION Article 54. The Assembly, before adjournment, shall elect seven of its members to form the Permanent Commission during the period of adjournment, which shall designate at its first session, the President and the Secretary. Article 55. The Permanent Commission, during the adjournment of the Assembly, shall have the following attributes:
The Permanent Commission shall meet in session whenever convoked by the presiding officer, in accordance with this Constitution. TITLE VII THE EXECUTIVE POWER Article 56. The Executive Power shall be vested in the President of the Republic, who shall exercise it through his Department Secretaries. Article 57. The administration of the particular interest of towns, provinces, and of the State shall correspond, respectively, to the Popular Assemblies, the Provincial Assemblies, and to the Administration in power, in accordance with the laws, and observing the most liberal of decentralization and administrative autonomy. TITLE VIII THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC Article 58. The President of the Republic shall be elected by absolute majority of votes by the Assembly and by the special Representatives, convinced in chamber assembled. His term of office shall be four years, and may be reelected. Article 59. The President of the Republic shall have the right to initiate the introduction of bills equally with the members of the Assembly and promulgate the laws when duly voted and approved by the latter, and shall see to it that the same are duly executed. Article 60. The power to execute the laws shall extend to all cases conducive to the preservation of internal public order and to the external security of the State. Article 61. The President shall promulgate the laws duly approved by him within 20 days following their transmittal to him by the Assembly. Article 62. If within this period, the President should fail to promulgate them, he shall return them to the Assembly with his reasons for the return, in which case the Assembly may consider same, and it shall be presumed that it does not insist in re-approving them if not re-passed by a vote of at least two- thirds of the members of the Assembly present in a quorum. If re-passed in the manner indicated, the Government shall promulgate same within ten days, with a manifestation of its non-conformity. The same obligation is imposed upon the Government if it allows twenty days to elapse without returning the bill to the Assembly. Article 63. When the promulgation of a law has been declared urgent by express will of an absolute majority of votes of the Assembly, the President of the Republic any require of the Assembly to re-approved same which cannot be refused, and if the same bill is re-passed, the President shall promulgate it within the legal period, without prejudice to his making of record his non- conformity with the bill. Article 64.the promulgation of laws shall be made by publishing them in the official gazette of the Republic, and shall have the force of law thirty days following such publication. Article 65. The President of the Republic shall have at his disposal the army and the navy, and may declare war and make and ratify treaties with he prior consent of the Assembly Article 66. Treaties of peace shall not take effect until voted upon by the Assembly. Article 67. The President of the Republic, in addition to his duty to execute the laws, shall:
Article 68. The President of the Republic may be authorized by special law:
Article 69. To the President belongs the power to issue regulations for the compliance and application of the laws in accordance with the requisites prescribed in said laws. Article 70. The President of the Philippines, with the prior approval by majority vote of the Representatives, may dissolve the Assembly before the expiration of its legislative term. In case the Assembly is dissolved, new elections shall be called within three months. Article 71. The President of the republic may be held liable only of cases of high treason. Article 72. The salary of the President of the Republic shall be fixed by special law which may not be changed except after the presidential term has expired. TITLE IX THE SECRETARIES OF GOVERNMENT Article 73. The Council of the Government is composed of one President and seven Secretaries, each of whom shall have under his charge the portfolios of Foreign Relations, Interior, Finance, War and Marine, Public Education, Communications and Public Works, and Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. Article 74. All the facts done by the President of the Republic in the discharge of these duties shall be signed by the corresponding Secretary. No Public official shall give official recognition to any act unless this requisite is complied with. Article 75. The Secretaries of Government are jointly responsible to the Assembly of the general administration of the Government, and individually for their respective personal acts. Article 76. In order to exempt them from responsibility, when held guilty by the Assembly, a petition to this effect approved by absolute majority of the Representatives is necessary. TITLE X THE JUDICIAL POWER Article 77 To the Court corresponds exclusively the power to apply the laws, in the name of the Nation, in all civil and criminal trials. The same codes of laws shall be applied throughout the Republic, without prejudice to certain variations according to circumstances as determined by law. In all trials, civil, criminal, and administrative, all citizens shall be governed by one code of laws of procedure. Article 78 The courts of justice shall not apply general local regulations, except when they conform to the laws. Article 79. The exercise of judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in other courts established by law. Their composition, organization, and other attributes shall be determined by the laws creating them. Article 80. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Solicitor-General shall chosen by the National Assembly in concurrence with the President of the Republic and Secretaries of the Government, and shall be absolutely independent of the Legislative and Executive Powers. Article 81. Any citizen may file suit against any member exercising the Judicial Power for any crime committed by them in the discharge of their office. TITLE XI PROVINCIAL AND POPULAR ASSEMBLIES Article 82. The organization and attributes of provincial and popular assemblies shall be governed by their respective laws. These laws shall conform to the following principles:
TITLE XII ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATE Article 83. The Government shall submit every year to the Assembly a budget of expenditures and income, indicating the changes made from those of the preceding year, accompanying the same with a balance sheet as of the end of the year, in accordance with law. This budget shall be submitted to the Assembly within ten days following the commencement of its session. Article 84. No disbursement of funds shall be valid unless made in accordance with an appropriation law, or with a special law in the form and manner prescribed by the same. Article 85. The Government, in order to dispose of the property and effects of the State, and to borrow money secured by mortgage or credit of the Nation, must be authorized by special law. Article 86. Public debts contracted by the Government of the Republic, in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution, shall be under the special guaranty of the Nation. No debts shall be contracted unless the means of paying the same are also voted upon. Article 87. All laws relating to income, public expenses or public credits shall be considered as part of the appropriation and shall be published as such. Article 88. The Assembly shall determine every year, upon the recommendation of the President of the Republic, the military forces by land and sea. TITLE XIII AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION Article 89. The Assembly, on its own initiative or that of the President of the Republic, may purpose amendments to the Constitution, indicating what article or articles are to be amended. Article 90. This proposal having been made, the President of the Republic shall dissolve the Assembly, and shall convoke a Constituent Assembly which shall meet within three months. In the decree convoking the Constituent Assembly, the resolution mentioned in the proceeding article shall be inserted. TITLE XIV CONSTITUTIONAL OBSERVANCE, OATH, AND LANGUAGE Article 91. The President of the Republic, the Government, the Assembly and all Filipino citizens shall faithfully observe the provisions of the Constitution; and the Legislative Power, upon approval of the Appropriations Act, shall examine if the constitution has been strictly complied with and whether violations duly held liable. Article 92. The President of the Republic and all other officials of the Nation shall not enter into the discharge of their office without having taken the prescribed oath. The oath of the President of the Republic shall be taken before the National Assembly. The other officials of the Nations shall take their oath before the authorities determined by law. Article 93. The use of languages spoken in the Philippines shall be optional. This use cannot be regulated except by virtue of law, and solely for acts of public authority and in the courts. For these acts the Spanish language will be used in the meantime. TRANSITORY PROVISIONS Article 94. Meanwhile and without prejudice to the provisions of Article 48 and to the acts of the commissions designated by the Assembly to translate and submit to the same the organic laws in the development and application of the rights granted to Filipino citizens and for the government of the public powers therein mentioned, the laws of the Republic shall be considered those found existing in these Islands before the emancipation of the same. The provisions of the Civil Code relating to marriage and civil registry, suspended by the Governor General of these islands; the Instructions of April 26, 1888 to carry into effect Articles 77,78,79,and 82 of said Code; the law on civil registry of June 17, 1870 which refers to Article 332 of the same, and the Regulation of December 13 following for the enforcement of this law, without prejudice to the Chiefs of towns continuing to be in charge of inscriptions in the civil registry and intervening in the celebration of marriages between Catholics, shall also be deemed in force and effect. Article 95. In the meantime that the laws referred to in the preceding article have not been approved or enforced, the Spanish laws which said article allows to be enforced provisionally may be amended by a special law. Article 96. Once the laws approved by the Assembly have been promulgated in accordance with Article 94, the Government of the Republic shall have the power to issue decrees and regulations necessary for the immediate organization of the various organs of the State. Article 97. The present President of the Revolutionary Government shall assume later the title of President of the Republic and shall discharge the duties of this office until the Assembly when convoked proceeds to the election of one shall definitely exercise the duties of the office. Article 98. The present Congress, composed of members by suffrage or by decree, shall last for four years, or for the duration of the present legislative term commencing the 15th of April of next year. Article 99. Notwithstanding the general rule established in paragraph 2 of Article 4, in the meantime that the country is fighting for its independence, the Government is empowered to resolve during the closure of the Congress all questions and difficulties not provided for in the laws, which give rise to unforeseen events, by the issuance of decrees, of which the Permanent Commission shall be duly apprised as well as the Assembly when it meets in accordance with this Constitution. Article 100. The execution of article 5, Title III shall be suspended until the constituent Assembly meets in session. In the meantime, municipalities which require spiritual ministry of Filipino priest may provide for his necessary maintenance. Article 101 Notwithstanding the provisions of Articles 62 and 63, bills returned by the President of the Republic to the Congress may not be repassed except in the legislature of the following year, this suspension being under the responsibility of the President and his Council of Government. When these conditions have been fulfilled, the promulgation of said laws shall be obligatory within ten days, without prejudice to the President making of record his non-conformity. If the reapproval is made in subsequent legislative terms, it shall be deemed law approved for the first time. ADDITIONAL ARTICLE. All the estates, edifices, and other property possessed by religious corporations in these islands shall be deemed restored to the Philippine State as of May 24, 1898 when Dictatorial Government has been constituted in Cavite. BARASOAIN, the 20th day of January, 1899. The President of the Congress PEDRO A. PATERNO |
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Another English language translation which does not identify the translator contains a list of 91 additional signatories and the following addendum:
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Presidency of the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines. Know all Filipino citizens: That the Assembly of Representatives of the nation, by virtue of its sovereign power, has decreed and I have sanctioned the political Constitution of the state. Therefore: I command all the authorities, civil as well as military, of whatever class or rank, to keep it and cause it to be kept, complied with and executed in all its parts, because it is the sovereign will of the Filipino people. Done at Malolos, on the twenty-first of January in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-nine. EMILIO AGUINALDO[3] |
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[edit] References
- ^ Guevara, Sulpico, ed. (2005), “The Malolos Constitution (English translation)”, The laws of the first Philippine Republic (the laws of Malolos) 1898-1899., Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library (published 1972), <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=philamer&cc=philamer&idno=aab1246.0001.001&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=104>. Retrieved on 26 March 2008. (English translation by Sulpicio Guevara)
- ^ Guevara, Sulpico, ed. (2005), “The Malolos Constitution (Original text)”, The laws of the first Philippine Republic (the laws of Malolos) 1898-1899., Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library (published 1972), <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=philamer&cc=philamer&idno=aab1246.0001.001&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=88>. Retrieved on 26 March 2008.
- ^ The Malolos Constitution, Chanrobles Law Library, January 20, 1899, <http://www.chanrobles.com/1899constitutionofthephilippines.htm>. Retrieved on 2007-12-21
