FREQUENTLY REWRITTEN CONSTITUTION

I remember my college professor, who, in our Political Science 101 subject in the early 1970s, gave only
two kind of constitutions, or fundamental laws: the written and the unwritten.

The British Constitution is a prime example of an unwritten constitution. Its fundamental laws have been
products of customs and traditions handed down from one generation to another generation.

The U.S Constitution is a prime example of a written constitution. Its founding fathers saw the necessity
to put its fundamental laws in written form. It serves as the social contract between the governors and
the governed.

Being a former U.S colony and a young nation in the community of nations, the Philippines adopted a
written constitution.

The first constitution was the 1935 Constitution. The Filipino people ratified it in 1935. It became
operational when the Philippines became a Commonwealth, or autonomous, state in 1935 in
preparation for self-rule, or independence, ten years later.

The 1935 Constitution had remained the fundamental charter after the Philippines has gained
independence from the U.S. in 1946.

Because of the colonial nature of the 1935 Constitution, the government of Ferdinand Marcos (he was
not yet the dictator then) initiated a constitutional convention in 1971 to draft a new constitution to
reflect the republican character of the Philippines.

But Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and manipulated the convention to come out with a
constitution that would serve as the blueprint of the martial law government or the Marcos dictatorship.

Marcos did everything to manipulate the ratification of the 1973 Constitution. In the Javellana vs.
Executive Secretary case, the Supreme Court, then under the respected Chief Justice Roberto
Concepcion, ruled that the 1973 Constitution was not properly ratified by the Filipino people under the
established norms of ratifying constitutions.

It was declared to have been ratified under fraudulent circumstances. It only became operational when
somebody in the Supreme Court inserted the encompassing phrase that the 1973 Constitution had no
judicial obstacle to become effective and operational.

The 1973 Constitution was amended six times to insert provisions to strengthen the one-man rule of
Marcos.

Because of those frequent pro-Marcos amendments, wags claimed that a third kind of constitution had
come into existence: the frequently rewritten constitution.

The 1973 Constitution was totally scrapped when the near bloodless 1986 EDSA People Revolution took
place and ousted Marcos from power.
Initially, Cory Aquino had a revolutionary government and her government operated under what was
termed as the "Freedom Constitution."

The Freedom Constitution was replaced by the present 1987 Constitution, which the Filipino people
have ratified overwhelmingly on Feb. 7, 1987.

This narrative goes to open minded millennials, who have the passion to know and learn our political
history.

Forget the Marcos loyalists, who possess twisted minds. They will never understand what actually
happened in our history. They will even revise our history.

Please ignore them completely.