FREE Policy Papers on the Philippine Constitution
Over the years, the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies has published several policy papers on the Philippine Constitution, its background, the processes involved in its creation, and arguments regarding constitutional amendments. They are all available for free via the UP CIDS Database.
Chronology of the 1987 Philippine Constitution (2019)
Author: Maria Ela L. Atienza (ed.)
This monograph represents the preliminary drafts of the first part of the Constitutional Performance Assessment of the 1987 Constitution project. The chronology focuses on the background and processes of writing the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, covering elections, legislation, judicial interpretations, impeachment cases, peace processes, and approval ratings of officials and institutions created by the Constitution.
The 1986 Constitutional Commission and the 1987 Constitution: Background, Processes, and Outputs (2019)
Author: Maria Ela L. Atienza
This monograph chapter documents the context, actors, processes, issues, and dynamics that led to framing and approval of the 1987 Constitution. In the process, it aims to make people appreciate and understand the current Constitution better (see pages 3–12 of Chronology of the 1987 Philippine Constitution).
Laws and Jurisprudence as Gauge of Constitutional Efficacy (2019)
Author: Rogelio Alicor L. Panao
This monograph chapter surveys major legislation and court decisions that echo the basic state principles and policies found in Article II of the 1987 Constitution, as well as extant laws that reflect how Congress has responded to the organic law’s policy mandates (see pages 19–44 of Chronology of the 1987 Philippine Constitution).
Democratic Survivability and the Parliamentary Critique of the Presidential Form of Government in the Philippines (2003)
Author: Crisline G. Torres
This journal article assesses the argument regarding the superior democratic survival record of parliamentary over presidential forms of government in the comparative constitutional design literature used by Filipino parliamentary advocates to call for a shift to a parliamentary form of government in the Philippines.
Judicialized Governance and Populist Democracy: Majoritarian Adjudication in the Philippines and Selected Asian Countries (2014-2015)
Author: Raul C. Pangalangan
This journal article contends that, in the Philippines, when we cast the debate in the language of judicial review, we cloak the real issue because what we really want to say has less to do with law and more to do with politics, namely, the flaws of post-Marcos democracy. Judicial review is the answer to our search for a mode of democratic governance sufficiently insulated from the follies of raw populism.
Reconstructing the Constitutional and Political Order (1997)
Author: Perfecto Fernandez
This proceedings chapter seeks to answer whether this is the time we should make a Constitution of a permanent kind. The author argues the need for stability and suggests maintaining the current Freedom Constitution under strong presidential rule for the next five to six years before moving towards the framing of a permanent Constitution (see pages 91–98 of Issues in Socio-Political Transformation in Asia and the Pacific: The Recent Philippine Political Experience Papers & Proceedings).
The Military and Constitutional Change: Problems and Prospects in a Redemocratized Philippines (1997)
Author: Carolina G. Hernandez
This journal article argues that constitutional change in the Philippines, whether from democracy to authoritarianism or from authoritarianism to democracy, required the acquiescence, if not active participation and support, of the military.
Elections under the 1987 Constitution (2019)
Author: Jan Robert R. Go
This chapter briefly looks at the history of elections in the Philippines. As the Duterte Administration leads the campaign to change the charter, it is important to know the country’s election experiences under the 1987 Constitution. See Pages 13-18 of the monograph.
About UP CIDS
Established in 1985 during the presidency of then–UP President Edgardo J. Angara, UP CIDS is a policy research unit of the UP System. It is mandated to encourage collaborative and rigorous research addressing issues of national significance by supporting scholars and securing funding, enabling them to produce outputs and recommendations for public policy. Visit the UP CIDS database and download over 900 (and counting) policy papers for free.