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.