Timeline of the Philippine Constitution

• Constitution is a written instrument by which the fundamental powers of government are established, limited and defined and by which the powers are distributed among several departments for their safe and useful exercise for the benefits of the people.
• Constitution is a set of rules that guides how a country, state, or other political organization works.
• Constitution contains branches, powers, responsibilities and rights of the people.
• Constitution is the highest law of the land, the government must not pass a law against the constitution.
• Constitution is a body of rules and principles in accordance with which powers of sovereignty are regularly exercised (De Leon, 2011)
• The checks and balances system helps to ensure that no one branch of the government can dominate others and that power is distributed fairly across the system.
• Constitution Day of the Philippines is celebrated on February 2.
• The 4 R’s of Taxation: Revenue Redistribution Re-pricing Representation.
• The checks and balances system is designed to prevent any one branch of government from becoming too powerful.
• Checks and Balances refers to a system of government where different branches of government have separate powers and responsibilities that allow them to limit or check each other's actions.
• Under the doctrine of constitutional supremacy, if a law or contract violates any norm of the constitution that law or contract whether promulgated by the legislative or by the executive branch or entered into by private persons for private purposes is null and void and without any force and effect.
• Constitution is the fundamental, paramount and supreme law of the nation, it is deemed written in every statute and contract.
• 1987 Philippine Constitution is the highest law binding all the citizens of the society.
• The traditional characterizations of the powers of the branches of American government are: The legislative branch is responsible for enacting the laws of the state and appropriating the money necessary to operate the government. The executive branch is responsible for

  implementing and administering the public policy enacted and funded by the legislative branch. The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting the constitution and laws and applying their interpretations to controversies brought before it.
• Separation of powers is a doctrine of constitutional law under which the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) are kept separate, also known as the system of checks and balances, because each branch is given certain powers so as to check and balance the other branches.
• The three branches of government in the Philippines are the Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, and Judicial Branch.
• Separation of powers refers to the division of government responsibilities into distinct branches to limit any one branch from exercising the core functions of another.
• The themes of the 1987 Philippine Constitution are upholding of national sovereignty, democratic governance and prevention of another dictatorship, respect for human rights and civil liberties, and promotion of social justice.
• Anarchy is a state of a country without an authority or governing body.
• Purposes of government include maintaining law and order, imposing rules and regulations, protecting individual rights and freedom, and limiting the powers of the government.
• Philippine Constitution may be classified as conventional, written and rigid.
• Requisites of a good written constitution include briefness, broadness, definiteness, and adequate contents.
• Aguinaldo agreed and went to Hongkong.
• The Pact of Biak-na-Bato, signed on December 15, 1897, created a truce between Spanish colonial Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera and the revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo to end the Philippine Revolution.
• Article II, Section 1; Articles V, XI, XVII of the Evolution of the Constitution are related to the 1899 Malolos Constitution, the first Republican Constitution on Asia and the First Constitution of the First Philippine Republic.
• The Spanish Government agreed to grant self-rule to the Philippines in 3 years if Aguinaldo would go to exile and surrender his arms.
• The 1899 Philippine Constitution guaranteed Popular Representative Government, Unicameral Legislator, Separation of Church and State, Bill of rights, and already had a compulsory and free basic education.
• The 1899 Philippine Constitution was not fully implemented due to the eruption of Philippine US War.
• During the American occupation in the Philippines, World War 2 broke out and the Japanese invaded the Philippines, then colonized us.
• Articles III, IV, XII, XIII, XIV, XV of the Constitution of Sovereignty are those provisions which outline the process whereby the sovereign people may change the constitution.
• Articles VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X of the Constitution of Liberty are the provisions which guarantee individual fundamental liberties against governmental abuse.
• The 1935 Constitution, also known as the American Constitution, guaranteed Bicameral Legislator, 4 year term for the President and Vice President without re-election, and the introduction of Rights of Suffrage.
• The Treaty of Paris (1898) officially ended the period of Spanish colonization in the Philippines and granted possession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States.
• The Filipino-Spanish truce was a complete failure which forced Aguinaldo to go back to the Philippines and declare the Philippine Independence from Spain in June 1898 at Kawit, Cavite.
• Aguinaldo issued a decree forming a Malolos Congress which was a committee who was assigned to make the constitution for the First Philippine Republic.
• The Treaty of Paris required that the United States pay $20 million USD in recompense to the Spanish government.
• The implementation of the 1935 Constitution was interrupted due to Japanese occupation.
• The Malolos Constitution was formally adopted by the Malolos Congress on January 20, 1899 and promulgated by President Emilio Aguinaldo on January 21, 1899.
• Immediately after Corazon Aquino became the President, she abolished the 1973 Constitution and replaced it with the 1986 Constitution.
• There were amendments in the 1973 Constitution, but the most controversial is the 1976 Amendment.