ARTICLE III

BILL OF RIGHTS

A. Bill of rights may be defined as a declaration and enumeration of a person’s right and
privileges which the constitution designed to protect against violations by the
government or by an individual or groups of individuals. Example: right to receive a
minimum wage and the right to adopt a child by an unrelated person.

B. Classes of Rights. Rights may be classified into:

1. Natural Rights - Rights possess by every citizen without being granted by the
state for they are given to man by God as human being created to his image.
2. Constitutional Rights - Rights which are conferred by the constitution.
3. Statutory Rights - Rights which are provided by laws by the law-making body
and consequently maybe abolish by the same body.

C. Classification of Constitutional Rights. Constitutional rights may be classified into:

1. Political Rights – This right gives the citizen the power to participate directly or
indirectly in the affairs of the government.
2. Civil Rights - Rights which the law enforces. Includes the rights to due process
and equal protection of the law.
3. Social and Economic Rights - Includes the right which are intended to insure
the well-being and economic security of the individual.
4. Rights of the Accused - Civil rights intended for the protection of the person
accused of any crime, e.g., the right to presumption of innocence.
5. Cultural rights. Rights granted to cultural minorities and indigenous people.

Section 1. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due

process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.

A. Right to Due Process of Law refers to a law or a policy that hears before it
condemns, a principle of fair play.

Aspects of Due Process of Law:

1. Procedural Due Process - refers to the method or manner by which the law is
enforced.

In judicial proceedings, the following are the requisite:

a. An impartial court clothed by law with authority to hear and determine
the matter before it.
b. Jurisdiction lawfully acquired over the person of the defendant or
property w/c is the subject matter of the proceedings.
c. Opportunity to be heard given the defendant.
d. Judgment to be rendered after lawful hearing
 In administrative proceedings, notice and hearing may be dispensed with, where
because of public need or for practical reasons, the same is not feasible.

2. Substantive Due Process - requires that the law itself not merely the procedure
by which the law would be enforced is fair, reasonable, and just.

Substantive Due Process - Law requires that the law in question affecting life,
liberty or property be a valid law.
Life - means something more than mere animal existence.
Liberty – denotes not merely freedom from physical restraint. It also embraces
the rights of man to use his faculties with which he has been endowed by his Creator.
Property – may refer to the thing itself or the right over a thing.

B. Right to Equal Protection of the Law – signifies that “all persons subject to legislation
should be treated alike, under like circumstances and conditions both in the privileges
conferred and liabilities imposed”.

Section 2. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures of whatever nature and
for any purpose shall be inviolable, and no search warrant or warrant of arrest
shall issue except upon probable cause to be determined personally by the judge
after examination under oath or affirmation of the complainant and the witnesses
he may produce, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the
persons or things to be seized.

A. Right Against Warrantless Arrest and Unreasonable Search and Seizures.

1. Search warrant – an order of writing issued in the name of the people of the
Philippines, signed by a judge and directed to a peace officer commanding him to
search for certain personal property and bring it before the court.
2. Warrant of arrest – to arrest a person designated and to take him into custody
in order that he may be bound to answer for the commission of an offense.

Scope of the Protection:

1. Persons - the protection applies to everybody.
2. Houses - the protection is not limited to dwelling houses but extends to a
garage, warehouse, shop, store, office, and even a safety deposit vault. Does not
extend to open spaces and fields belonging to one.
3. Papers and effects - include sealed letters and packages in the mail which
may be opened and examined only in pursuance of a valid search warrant.

Requisites for valid search warrant or warrant of arrest:

1. Must be issued upon probable cause.
2. Probable cause must be determined personally by the judge himself.
3. Such determination of the existence of probable cause must be made after
examination by the judge of the complainant and the witnesses he may produce.
 4. Must be particularly describe the place to be search and the person or things
to be seized.

Probable cause - such facts and circumstances antecedent to the issuance of the
warrant sufficient in themselves to induce a cautious man to rely upon them and act in
pursuance thereof.

When search and seizure may be made without warrant:

1. Where there is consent and waiver.
2. Where such is an incident to a lawful arrest.
3. In the case of contraband or forfeited goods being transported by ship,
automobile, or other vehicle, where the officer making it has reasonable cause for
believing that the latter contains them.
4. Where without a search, the possession of the articles prohibited by law is
disclosed to plain view or is open to eye and hand.
5. As an incident of inspection, supervision and regulation in the exercise of
police power.
6. Routinary searches usually made at the border or at ports of entry in the
interest of national security.

When Arrest may be made without warrant:

1. When in his presence, the person to be arrested has committed or attempting
to commit an offense.
2. When an offense has in fact just been committed and he has personal
knowledge of facts indicating that the person to be arrested has committed it.
3. When the person to be arrested is a prisoner who has escaped from a penal
establishment or place where he is serving final judgment, or has escaped while being
transferred to one confinement to another.

Section 3. (1) The privacy of communication and correspondence shall be

inviolable except upon lawful order of the court, or when public safety or order
requires otherwise, as prescribed by law.

(2) Any evidence obtained in violation of this or the preceding section shall
be inadmissible for any purpose in any proceeding.

A. Right of Privacy – right to be left alone.

Section 4. No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of

expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and
petition the government for redress of grievances.

A. Freedom of Expressions.
 Meaning of Freedom of speech, expression and of the press: Also known as
freedom of expression, implies the right to freely utter and publish whatever one pleases
without previous restraint, and to be protected against any responsibility for so doing as
long as it does not violate the law. It also includes the right to circulate what is
published.

Scope of the terms of speech, expression and press:

1. Speech and expression includes any form of oral utterances.
2. Press covers every sort of publication. Radio and television as instrument of
mass communication is included within the term.

Freedom of expression is not absolute:

1. It is subject to regulation by the State - it is always subject to some regulation
by the State in order that it may not be injurious to the right of the community or society.
2. It subject one to liability when abused. the following may be penalized:
a. Anyone who Slanders or Libels.
b. Lewd and obscene speech.
c. Fighting words.
d. Seditious speeches

B. Right of Assembly - the right on the part of the citizens to meet peaceably for
consultation in respect to public affairs.