History background of malolos constitution

After swearing an oath of allegiance to the United States, on April 19, , Aguinaldo officially declared peace with the United States. By this time, the United States was ready to support limited Philippine independence. It wasn't until that the Philippines would have absolute control of its own sovereignty. Aguinaldo retreated to a private life as a farmer but never forgot the men who fought alongside him.

In their honor, he would later establish the Veterans of the Revolution, an organization that arranged their pensions, as well as affordable payment plans for land purchases. Aguinaldo took another stab at politics when he ran for presidency in against Manuel Quezon but lost. In he became a presidential advisor on the Council of State. His private land and mansion, which he had donated the prior year, continue to serve as a shrine to both the revolution for Philippine independence and the revolutionary himself.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

Sign up for the Biography newsletters to receive stories daily and weekly about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. After his execution, he became an icon for the nationalist movement. Toussaint L'Ouverture was a leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution. Mongolian general and statesman Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan.

After conquering China, he founded the country's Yuan Dynasty and became its first emperor. The Spanish-speaking middle classes of the 19th century were increasingly exposed to modern European ideas, including Liberalism , some studying in Spain and elsewhere in Europe. During the s, the Katipunan , or KKK, a secret society dedicated to achieving Philippine independence from Spain, was formed and led by Andres Bonifacio. The revolutionary forces took steps to form a functioning government called the Republic of Biak-na-Bato. In , the Tejeros Convention was convened and the Constitution of Biak-na-Bato drafted and ratified.

However, it was never fully implemented. After several battles between the Spanish and Philippine Revolutionary Army , a truce was signed called the Pact of Biak-na-Bato in Emilio Aguinaldo who had replaced Bonfiacio as leader and other revolutionary leaders accepted a payment from Spain and went into exile in Hong Kong. Later that month, the U. Navy transported Aguinaldo back to the Philippines. Aguinaldo took control of the newly re-formed Philippine revolutionary forces and quickly surrounded Manila on land while the American blockaded the city from the bay.

Elections were held from June 23 to September 10, for a new national legislature, the Malolos Congress. After the Malolos Congress was convened on 15 September , a committee was selected to draft a constitution for the republic. The Political Constitution of is written in Spanish which was the official language of the Philippines at the time.

It is composed of ninety-three articles divided into fourteen titles, with further eight articles with transitory provisions, and a final additional article. The style of the document is patterned after the Spanish Constitution of , which many Latin American charters from the same period similarly follow. The principle of the retroversion of the sovereignty to the people , which challenged the legitimacy of the colonial authorities of the Spanish Empire , [10] was the legal principle underlying the Spanish American wars of independence and Philippine Revolution.

This principle was a preprocessor to the concept of popular sovereignty , currently expressed in most constitutional systems throughout the world, whereby the people delegate governmental functions to their civil servants while retaining the actual sovereignty. The twenty-seven articles of Title IV detail the natural rights and popular sovereignty of Filipinos.

The list is extensive, encompassing not just civil liberties and negative liberties , but also protections against self-incrimination and the limitation of criminal procedure. The inclusion of the rights of the accused in the national charter was done in direct response to numerous instances of abuse by police, a number of them specifically mentioned in the 12 June Philippine Declaration of Independence. This concept of constitutionally defining what is essentially administrative action is not unique to the Malolos constitution. According to Title II, Article 4 the Government of the Republic is to be popular, representative, alternative and responsible, and shall exercise three distinct powers: namely, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.

Any two or more of these three powers shall never be united in one person or cooperation, nor the legislative power vested in one single individual. The Government of the Republic is a Responsible Government , a very important aspect of parliamentarianism where the executive branch is directly responsible to the legislative branch. Title V, Article 50 stated that the National Assembly of Representatives the unicameral legislature of the Republic shall have the right of censure and each of the members the right of interpellation.

Interpellation is a right granted to representatives to directly question members of the executive branch. In other words, there are Question Periods allotted to each member of the executive branch. While Title VII, Article 56 stated that executive power resides in the President of the Republic , who shall exercise it through his Secretaries convened in a Council of government that is led by the President of the council of government. The Constitution also stated in Title IX, Article 75 that the secretaries of government shall be held jointly responsible by the National Assembly for the general policies of Government, and individually for their personal actions like in most parliamentary systems.

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. 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.

Any session of the Assembly held outside the period of ordinary legislature shall be unlawful and void. The case provided 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.

The sessions of the Assembly shall be public. However, sessions 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.

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.

The Assembly may constitute itself into a Tribunal of Justice to hear and determine crimes committed against the security of the State by the President of the Republic and members of the Council of Government, by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and by the Solicitor General of the Nation, by means of a decree promulgating 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, instruction, and disposition of the proceedings.

Constitutional history

No member of the Assembly shall be prosecuted nor held accountable for the opinions expressed by him, nor by the vote taken by him in the discharge of his office. 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 Assembly is 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. The National Assembly shall have the following additional powers:. To examine the legality of the elections and the legal qualifications of the elected members. Until the Assembly has been dissolved, the President, Vice-Presidents, and Secretaries shall continue to exercise their office for the period of four legislative terms; and.

To accept the resignations of its members and grant privileges in accordance with the Rules. No bill shall become law without having been voted on by the Assembly.

• Malolos Constitution - Wikipedia?
• Navigation menu.
• Museum of the Republic of 1899, the Philippines.

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. No bill shall be approved by the Assembly until after it has been voted upon as a whole and subsequently article by article.

The Assembly shall have the right of censure, and each of the members the right of interpellation. The initiative in the presentation of bills belongs to the President of the Republic and to the Assembly. 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 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From this shall be excepted the employment as Secretary of the Government of the Republic and other offices provided for by special laws. 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 sessions shall not be entitled to any compensation; but they may be allowed to recover the right to compensation should they attend subsequently. 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.