Malolos Constitution | |
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Overview | |
Jurisdiction | First Philippine Republic |
Ratified | January 21, 1899 |
System | Parliamentary republic |
Chambers | Malolos Congress (National Assembly) |
Location | Malolos, Bulacan |
Author(s) | Felipe Calderón y Roca and Felipe Buencamino |
Signatories | Malolos Congress |
Full text | |
Constitution of the Philippines (1899) at Wikisource |
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The Political Constitution of 1899 (Spanish: Constitución Política de 1899), informally known as the Malolos Constitution, was the constitution of the First Philippine Republic. It was written by Felipe Calderón y Roca and Felipe Buencamino as an alternative to a pair of proposals to the Malolos Congress by Apolinario Mabini and Pedro Paterno. After a lengthy debate in the latter part of 1898, it was promulgated on January 21, 1899.[1]
The constitution placed limitations on unsupervised freedom of action by the chief executive which would have hampered rapid decision making.[2] As it was created during the fight for Philippine independence from Spain, however, its Article 99 allowed unhampered executive freedom of action during wartime.[3] Unsupervised executive governance continued throughout the Philippine–American War which erupted soon after proclamation.[4]