MANILA, Philippines – Did you know that for every change in the constitution in the Philippines, the President

released a proclamation to commemorate the date when the new charter took effect? This day is called
Constitution Day.

Of all the constitutional changes the country went through, it's only the 1943 Constitution which did not have a
corresponding proclamation.

President Corazon C. Aquino, through Proclamation No. 211 of 1988, assigned February 2 of each year as
Constitution Day to mark the new 1987 Constitution.

How well do you know the supreme law of the land? We're listing down some vital information concerning one
of the country's most important legal documents.

The 1973 Constitution, according to former Aquino spokesman Teodoro Locsin Jr, was never ratified as the
process conducted by then president Ferdinand Marcos Jr met strong opposition.

The Aquino government had 3 options with regard to the law of the land:

 To revert to the 1935 Constitution. But because Marcos abolished the bicameral legislature they had to
resort to general elections.
 To retain the 1973 Constitution and be granted the power to make reforms. This was shot down by
Aquino as "she did not want to derive legitimacy and power from the very institutions that she fought."
 To start anew and break from the "vestiges of a disgraced dictatorship."

The 1986 Constitutional Commission drafted the Philippine Constitution we now know

 President Corazon Aquino in April 1986 created – through Proclamation No. 9 – the 1986 Constitutional
Commission (ConCom), which was responsible for drafting a replacement for the 1973 Constitution.
 The new constitution, she said, should be “truly reflective of the aspirations and ideals of the Filipino
people.”
 The 1986 ConCom was composed of 48 individuals who represented all sectors in the country,
including, among others, Bishop Teodoro Bacani, former Supreme Court chief justice Roberto
Concepcion, former labor minister (and eventually senator and foreign affairs secretary) Blas Ople,
Ateneo De Manila University president Father Joaquin Bernas SJ, and University of the Philippines
Student Council Chairperson (now Commission on Human Rights chair) Chito Gascon.
 The first session of the commission was held on June 2, 1986 when Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, the first
woman appointed to the Supreme Court in 1973, was elected president of ConCom.

More than ¾ of votes were in favor of the ratification of the 1987 Philippine Constitution

 On February 2, 1987, a National Plebiscite was held after a nationwide information campaign on the
draft constitution.
 The question voters had to answer was: "Do you vote for the ratification of the proposed Constitution of
the Republic of the Philippines with the ordinance appended thereto?"