HISTORY OF DEMOCRATIC

POLITICS IN THE
PHILIPPINES
AN INTRODUCTION
• HOW DID DEMOCRACY DEVELOP IN THE PHILIPPINES?
• WHAT IS TE EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIAL RULE AND THE JAPANESE
OCCUPATION ON THE COUNTRY’S DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS AND
PROCESSES?
• WHAT CHANGES AND WHAT REMAINED FROM THE COLONIAL TO THE
POSTCOLONIAL DEMOCRATIC POLITICS OF THE PHILIPPINES
DEMOCRACY
 DEMOCRACY

• A system of government in which power is vested in

the people, who rule either directly or through freely
elected representatives

• a system of government by the whole population or

all the eligible members of a state, typically through
elected representatives.
• “NO COUNTRY IN ASIA HAS MORE EXPERIENCE
WITH DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS THAN THE
PHILIPPINES”
 REPRESENTATIONAL
MALOLOS REPUBLIC STRUCTURES
1898

POLITICAL
AMERICAN COLONIAL TUTELAGE
RULE

CACIQUE
POST-WAR REPUBLIC DEMOCRACY

RESTORATION OF PEOPLE POWER

DEMOCRACY UPRISING
 MORE THAN A CENTURY OF
DEMOCRACY - 6 constitutions 3 organic
ACTS

• 1899 Malolos Constitution- first

Asian Democracy to be
established, during the
Philippine Revolution— ending
the more than 300 years of
Spanish colonial rule
 MORE THAN A CENTURY OF
DEMOCRACY - 6 constitutions 3 organic
ACTS

• The US Philippine Bill of 1902

• President Mckinley’s
Instructions to the Second
Philippine Commission on
Organizing and establishing
civil government, including
local government and the civil
liberties of the Filipinos
that served as the organic act
of the Phil Government unti
August 1916 and Authorized
the establishment of the
Philippine Assembly 1907
 MORE THAN A CENTURY OF
DEMOCRACY - 6 constitutions 3 organic
ACTS

• US Philipine Autonomy Act of

1916/ Jones Law-
establishment of all-Filipino
Philippine Legislature and
promised independence
following the establishment of a
stable government by the
Filipinos
 MORE THAN A CENTURY OF
DEMOCRACY - 6 constitutions 3 organic
ACTS

• 1935 Constitution- drafted by

the Filipinos, approved by the
American President and ratified
by the Filipinos as authorized
by the US Congress
• The 1943 Constitution of the
Philippine Republic under the
Japanese Occupation. (Many
officials collaborated with the
Japanese while others were in
self exile)
• 1973 Marcos Constitution that
was adopted under Ferdinand
Marcos’s Authoritarian Rule
• 1987 CONSTITUTION - further
defined the institutions,
functions, and purposes of
Filipino Democracy.

• “RE-Establishment of FILIPINO
DEMOCRACY.”— CHAROT
3 IMPORTANT JUNCTURES
IN THE COUNTRY’S
HISTORY
1. AMERICAN COLONIALISM

2. JAPANESE COLONIALISM &JAPAN

SPONSORED REPUBLIC

3. IMPOSITION OF AUTHORITARIAN RULE BY

MARCOS