Mirror of the Past: The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines

The Philippines has gone through a lot of things in the past. We have a historical record of coming from the Dawn man or the Tabon Man (whatever..lol.). From those prehistoric men, we were famous for our barangays, which were derived from the word balangay which refers to the small boats that families use to travel from one coast to another coast to trade goods with other traders. But enough for this. Hehe.

We have been under 3 different occupations in the past, thus, making us adopt their culture, language, traditions, superstitions and specially religion. The Spaniards were the most influential because of the fact that they occupied the Philippines for 4 centuries. From pagans, we have become Christians, we learned the values that the church instilled upon its people. They have educated us, exposed a new type of government which is so much different to the barangays. Along with the good things they brought with them, we also had a hell of experience. A faulty government plus corrupt officials equals abuse.

The Americans also played a very big role to our country. They had war against the Spaniards for the rights of claim over our country. Obviously, they were the ones who introduced English as a language to us. When they ceded the Philippines, they gave us independence, our sovereignty.

In the time of the Late Great President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, Philippines was at its glorious time. I’m referring to his first term as president though. Philippines was very progressive. We were at the top of the charts. I think we were second to Japan. But because of the power of the human mind, his mind also went off the charts. He became greedy for power and fortune. Because of his brilliant mind, he used the constitution as his source of power. From a Republican, Presidential and Unitary type of government, he changed it to a Modified Parliamentary type of government ( a president instead of a prime minister exercises actual power). He was also the one who introduced the Constitutional Authoritarianism government. He uses the Constitution for his tyrannical actions. He was a dictator. He was also the only president who sat on position for 20 years. He killed democracy in the Philippines.

During the People power 1, the Filipino people finally broke free from the nutshell they were in. They revolted at EDSA and overthrew the administration of Marcos. With President Cory Aquino as the People’s president, they were successful in bringing back democracy to the country. A constitutional Commision was then called to draft the constitution. It was made sure that every sector was well represented, including the religious sector. The constitution was made out from the people, a proof of the restoration of absolute democracy.

A lot of problems were addressed in the constitution. From the president’s term of office down to every filipino’s right. Even the use of martial law for no such reason was prevented by the present constitution. Almost everything that the people feared to happen again is being safeguarded by the present constitution. The 1987 constitution is an evidence of the people’s struggle for justice. The content of our constitution itself is the mirror of our past, the proof of the people’s struggle to correct the past, to correct what was wrong, to promote equality, and to ensure that progress will be at hand in the coming of a new dawn.