1987 Constitution

ARTICLE II
Section 9. The State shall promote a just and dynamic social order that will ensure the prosperity and
independence of the nation and free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate
social services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life
for all.
This is accomplished through policies that provides adequate social services (in the field of health,
education, housing, etc.), and promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an improved
quality of life.
Such a society must insure the prosperity or progress and independence of the nation and free the people
from poverty. The Preamble calls for the establishment of a just and humane society. The goal is the
same: to reduce the political and economic power of a privileged few and lift the masses of our people from
their poverty and helplessness to a qualitative life worthy of human dignity.1
Section 10. The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national development.
The State must give preferential option or attention to the welfare of the less fortunate members of the
Section 11. The State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human
rights.
The value accorded to human dignity is measured by the extent of respect for human rights. In a democratic
state, the individual enjoys certain rights which cannot be modified or taken away by the lawmaking body.
The rights are recognized, promoted and protected because of the belief in the equal worth of every human
person, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, religion, property, or other status. 2
Section 12. The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family
as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of
the unborn from conception.
In referring to the family as a basic social institution, the Constitution recognizes that the family is anterior
to the State or before any governing institution and, therefore, is not a creature of the State. The family is
described as autonomous because it is invested with rights and duties independent of the civil community
and which the State must protect against improper interference or intrusion.3
This provision does not mention the term reproductive health or any of its affiliate vocabularies. This is
in the nature of a constitution. As explained in the 1930 case ofLopez v. de los Reyes,[1] speaking of the
Constitution:
The Constitution, directly or indirectly, does not prohibit the RH bill. Therefore, in constitutional terms, this
Senate is free to enact this bill. It is now well accepted in our jurisdiction that under the rational basis
test, so long as an act of Congress bears some reasonable relationship to the grant of power to the national
government and it is not otherwise prohibited by the Constitution, a reviewing court must find the law to be
necessary and proper.
If the Senate passes the RH bill, our action would amount to a legislative construction of the Constitution.
The rule is that a practical construction by Congress of a provision of the Constitution is entitled to great

1 Philippine Constitutional Law by De Leon

2 Philippine Constitutional Law by De Leon
3 Philippine Constitutional Law by De Leon

weight and should not be lightly disregarded. Hence, if we pass the RH bill, it will enjoy a presumption of
constitutionality if it is questioned in the Supreme Court.
It has been said that even if we abolish the entire Bill of Rights, all the rights enumerated would still exist,
provided that we keep the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause. These two great clauses are
found in our Bill of Rights, which provides: Sec. 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. The
right of the mother to protect herself and her baby from death-dealing poverty is a liberty protected under
the Due Process Clause. Similarly, the right of the mother in the lowest social class is equal to the right of
the mother in the highest social class, when both rights pertain to freedom of information. Thus, to make
information on reproductive health accessible to the rich but not to the poor would be a violation of the
Equal Protection Clause.4
Section 14. The State recognizes the role of women in nation building, and shall ensure the
fundamental equality before the law of women and men.
The Constitution gives recognition to the role women have played and continue to play in the task of
nation-building. They constitute one-half of the population, a powerful political and economic force indeed
in Philippine society. By sheer force of number alone, it is only right that their voice be heard on matters
affecting their welfare and the country as a whole; it is simple justice that they may be given a legitimate
share with men in leadership at all levels and in all spheres of human activity outside their homes. After all,
women carry with them the great responsibility of preserving the nations posterityThus, in certain
situations, women are entitled to special protection from the State.5
The health and well-being of women serve as the pivotal point in determining what kind of citizenry a
nation will produce. They ought then to be the serious concern not only of the State but of all sectors of
society.6
Section 15.The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health
consciousness among them.
The right to health does not focus only on a persons physical well-being. The realm of health and wellbeing also considers the mental, psychological, and emotional aspects of human development. There can be
no disagreement that the strength and progress of any nation depend on the quality of its human resources. 7
ARTICLE XIII
HEALTH
Section 1. The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect and
enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political
inequalities, and remove cultural inequalities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for
the common good.
Section 2. The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment to create economic
opportunities based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance
Social Justice

4 Speech of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago

55 Philippine Constitutional Law by De Leon
6 Philippine Constitutional Law by De Leon
7 Philippine Constitutional Law by De Leon

Social justice in the Constitution is principally the embodiment of the principle that those who have less in
life should have more in law. It commands a legal bias in favor of those who are underprivileged
Moreover, as will be seen, the 1987 Constitution advances beyond what was in previous Constitutions in
that it seeks not only economic social justice but also political social justice.
When one speaks, however, of the protection of the right to social justice and of the body of social rights
which the expression encapsulates, the meaning, in terms of effectiveness of protection, is not the same as
when one speaks of the protection of the right, for instance, of free speech. The guarantees of the civil and
political rights found principally in the Bill of Rights are self-executory and ready for use. One can assert
those rights in a court of justice. Social rights are a different phenomenon. Except to the extent that they
prohibit government from embarking in activity contrary to the ideals of social justice, they generally are
not rights in the strict sense that the rights in the Bill of Rights are. Social rights are latecomers in the
Development of law and came about through the efforts of social philosophers and through the social
teachings of Popes. In legal effectiveness they are primarily in the nature of claims or demands which
people expect government to satisfy, or they are ideals which government is expected to respect. Thus, in
the nature of things, the satisfaction of these demands must for the most part depend on legislation.
Section 1 translates the principle of more in law for those who have less in life into a duty of the state to
attend to the enactment of measures that protect and enhance the right of all people to human dignity,
reduce social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequalities by equitably diffusing
wealth and political power for the common good. It should be noted that one goal is to reduce, and not
remove, inequalities, because inequalities by themselves are not evil. Cultural inequities, however, are evil
and therefore must be removed. And since the goals embodied in the command are to be achieved
through legislation, the task is given to Congress. It is, moreover, given as a task of the highest priority.
The Choice of the expression highest priority is deliberate. It communicates the message that what is
expected of Congress is not just the exercise of day to day police power but of powers needed to achieve
radical social reform of critical urgency.
The route to achieving social justice is presented as consisting of two principal tracks: first, according to
the second paragraph of Section 1, There must be regulation of the acquisition, ownership use, and
disposition of property and its increments; and second, according to Section 2, Congress should create
economic opportunities based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance. Notably, the task of creating
wealth is made to follow the task of diffusing wealth because even now, in the present economic state of the
nation and quite independently of the need to create more wealth, there already is the urgent need of
diffusion of existing wealth. The sequencing thus follows the order of priorities established in Section 1 of
Article XII.
It should also be noted that, while Section 1 puts down a dual goal of diffusing economic wealth and
political power, the second paragraph of Section 1 and all of Section 2 deal especially with wealth. This is a
recognition of the reality that, in a situation of extreme mass poverty, political rights, no matter how
strongly guaranteed by the Constitution, become largely rights enjoyed by the upper and middle classes and
are a myth for the underprivileged. Without the improvement of economic conditions there can be no real
enhancement of the political rights of all the people.8
Section 11. The State shall adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development
which shall endeavor to make essential goods, health and other social services available to all the
people at affordable cost. There shall be priority for the needs of the under-privileged, sick, elderly,
disabled, women, and children. The State shall endeavor to provide free medical care to paupers.
Integrated and Comprehensive Health Delivery System

8 The Philippine Constitution For Ladies, Gentlemen and Others by Fr.

Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J.

The Constitution recognizes a right to health. The Philippines is party to the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and the Alma Conference Declaration of 1978 which recognize health as a fundamental
human right. Health is defined as the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not
merely the absence of disease or infirmity.9
The key concepts in Section 11 are integrated and comprehensive: and affordable. Integration connotes
a unified health delivery system, a combination of public and private sector, and a blend of western
medicine and traditional health care modalities. Comprehensiveneness includes health promotion, disease
prevention, education, and planning. These are premised on the understanding that the high level of health
of a people and of a country can be achieved only through a combination of social, economic, political and
cultural conditions. An effort in the direction of making affordable health measures available in the
Generics Law whose constitutionality was put to rest in Del Rosario v. Bengzon. 10
ARTICLE XIV
EDUCATION
Section 1. The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels
and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.
To accelerate social progress The fulfillment by the State of the constitutional mandate will hasten the
attainment of social progress or national growth and development. Essentially, social progress implies
improvement in the quality of the peoples life in all its aspects economic, social, cultural and political
that make up our standard of living.11
To promote total human liberation and development The goal is not only to promote the common good,
but the individual welfare as well. While liberation and development, as used above, are not
synonymous, one presupposes the other. The individual should be helped that he may develop
harmoniously his physical, moral and intellectual faculties and thereby liberate himself from the shackles of
poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, fear, disability and other social and economic circumstances that prevent or
hinder the full development of human personality.12

9 The Philippine Constitution For Ladies, Gentlemen and Others by Fr.

Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J.
10 G.R. No. 88265, December 21, 1989
11 Philippine Constitutional Law by De Leon
12 Philippine Constitutional Law by De Leon citing ADMU vs Capulong