1987 Constitutional Plebiscite

Also known as: February 2, 1987 plebiscite · Plebiscite on the 1987 Constitution · 1987 constitutional referendum (common usage) · Constitution Day vote (February 2 is commemorated as Constitution Day)

Government

Definition

The 1987 Constitutional Plebiscite was the national referendum held on February 2, 1987, in which Filipino voters ratified the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines — the charter drafted by the Constitutional Commission appointed by President Corazon C. Aquino after the EDSA People Power Revolution, replacing the 1973 Constitution of the Marcos era. The proposed constitution, with its appended ordinance, was approved by 16,622,111 votes (77.04 percent) against 4,953,375 (22.96 percent), a turnout of 87.04 percent of registered voters, and was proclaimed ratified and in force by Proclamation No. 58 on February 11, 1987 — the constitutional reset recorded in this wiki’s entry on the Constitution of the Philippines and its revolutionary origin traced in the entry on the EDSA People Power Revolution. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite, LawPhil — Proclamation No. 58)

The plebiscite completed the transition begun by Proclamation No. 3 of March 25, 1986, the provisional Freedom Constitution under which Aquino governed and which provided for a commission to draft a permanent charter. Pursuant to Proclamation No. 9, Aquino appointed a commission of 48 members that convened on June 2, 1986 under its elected president, former Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, approved its draft on October 12, 1986, and presented it to the President on October 15, 1986. (Wikipedia — Constitutional Commission of 1986)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite
Wikidata	Q5101940
DBpedia	http://dbpedia.org/resource/1987_Philippine_constitutional_plebiscite
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	Plebiscite (general heading; no Philippines-specific LC heading verified)
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite ratification Constitutional Commission Aquino
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

February 2, 1987 plebiscite
Plebiscite on the 1987 Constitution
1987 constitutional referendum (common usage)
Constitution Day vote (February 2 is commemorated as Constitution Day)

Examples and Analogies

Ratifying the reset: the plebiscite functioned like a system-wide referendum on the post-Marcos order — one yes-or-no question on a whole charter that restored the presidential system, a bicameral Congress, an expanded Bill of Rights, and the constitutional commissions, so a vote for the document was a vote against the martial-law framework it displaced. (LawPhil — 1987 Constitution)
A divided regional map: the returns traced the revolution’s geography — the Ilocos north voted against the Aquino-era charter by wide margins (Ilocos Norte 85.35 percent No, Laoag 88.42 percent No) while Muslim Mindanao voted heavily for it (Sulu 95.34 percent Yes, the highest; Lanao del Sur 81.55 percent), and Baguio split closest at 50.36 percent Yes. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)
Verified electoral data:
Date: February 2, 1987
Yes: 16,622,111 (77.04 percent); No: 4,953,375 (22.96 percent)
Valid votes: 21,575,486 (99.04 percent of ballots); total votes 21,785,216; turnout 87.04 percent
Proclamation: No. 58, February 11, 1987, with effectivity dated to February 2
Drafting body: Constitutional Commission of 1986 — 48 members, convened June 2, 1986, draft approved October 12, 1986

Usage Scenarios

1. Completing the Freedom Constitution Transition

The plebiscite was the terminal step of the provisional order: Proclamation No. 3 (March 25, 1986) had installed the Freedom Constitution, abolished the office of Prime Minister and the Regular Batasang Pambansa, and provided for a commission to draft a permanent charter — the draft then went to the people, and ratification ended revolutionary government by converting it into constitutional government. (Wikipedia — Constitutional Commission of 1986, LawPhil — 1987 Constitution)

2. Reading the Regional Verdict

Analysts used the returns as a map of loyalty after the revolution: the Marcos home region of northern Luzon — Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union (66.88 percent No), Cagayan (67.37 percent No), and Isabela (53.07 percent No) — rejected the charter, while Sulu, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Marawi (85.26 percent Yes) endorsed it decisively; canvass practice also drew attention when returns from Davao del Sur, Eastern Samar, Pagadian, and Zamboanga del Sur (437,387 Yes to 105,338 No among them) arrived too late for the final tally. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)

3. Launching the Constitutional Order

Ratification set everything downstream in motion: the multi-party legislative elections of May 1987 filled the restored Congress, the constitutional commissions began operating under Article IX — including the Commission on Elections that had administered the vote, examined in this wiki’s entry on the Commission on Elections — and February 2 entered the civic calendar as Constitution Day. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite, Wikipedia — Commission on Elections)

Strategies

Appointive drafting, plebiscitary ratification: Aquino’s two-step legitimacy strategy — an appointed commission of “national, regional, and sectoral” breadth (48 members within the Freedom Constitution’s ceiling of 50, including five seats offered to the Marcos-era KBL, four filled), then a nationwide vote — converted a revolutionary government’s charter into a popularly ratified one. (Wikipedia — Constitutional Commission of 1986)
A single yes-or-no question: putting the whole charter to one vote, rather than itemized submissions, avoided line-by-line fragmentation and produced the overwhelming 77-percent mandate the new government needed; the cost was that dissenters could only reject the entire document. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)
Speed over schedule: the commission missed its original September 2, 1986 deadline, finishing October 12 — yet the plebiscite followed within four months, keeping the transition from drifting. (Wikipedia — Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Commemorative anchoring: dating the charter’s effectivity to the plebiscite itself let the new order claim both the ballot’s authority and a fixed civic anniversary. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 58)

Security and Safety Measures

Electoral administration by the constitutional commission: the Commission on Elections administered the nationwide vote — the body’s role under the transitory order, later entrenched in Article IX of the charter it was ratifying. (Wikipedia — Commission on Elections)
Supermajority as stability safeguard: the 77.04-percent approval left the new government a wide consensus base, insulating the transition from claims of a divided mandate. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)
Canvass discipline: excluding late-arriving provincial returns rather than delaying certification kept the count bounded and timely — at the documented cost of omitting several provinces’ votes. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)
Peaceful conduct after the revolution: the vote proceeded without the violence of the February 1986 snap election it implicitly answered, supporting the restoration government’s claim to have re-established orderly constitutional processes. (Wikipedia — Corazon Aquino)

Historical Context

The plebiscite’s immediate ancestor was the disputed February 7, 1986 snap election, whose count triggered the COMELEC technicians’ walkout and the four-day EDSA People Power Revolution that installed Aquino on February 25. Ruling under the Freedom Constitution, Aquino appointed a 48-member Constitutional Commission — led by Muñoz-Palma, the first woman on the Philippine Supreme Court, with vice president Ambrosio Padilla and floor leader Napoleon Rama, and including Joaquin Bernas, Hilario Davide Jr., Blas Ople, Christian Monsod, and film director Lino Brocka, who resigned on August 28, 1986 — which convened June 2, 1986 at the Batasang Pambansa and debated the form of government, the death penalty, the U.S. bases, and economic policy before approving its draft on October 12. (Wikipedia — Constitutional Commission of 1986, Wikipedia — Corazon Aquino)

On February 2, 1987, the electorate ratified the draft by better than three to one, and on February 11 President Aquino, government officials, and the Armed Forces pledged allegiance to the Constitution under Proclamation No. 58. The May 1987 legislative elections followed under the new charter’s rules, completing the restoration of Congress; as of 2026 the vote remains the Fifth Republic’s only constitutional plebiscite, and every subsequent charter-change debate has measured itself against the 1987 ratification. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite, LawPhil — Proclamation No. 58, Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines)

Challenges and Controversies

An Appointed Drafting Body

The commission’s members were appointed, not elected — chosen by a president who had herself taken office through revolution rather than election. Defenders answered that the plebiscite supplied the popular mandate the appointment stage lacked; critics, including commissioners who dissented or resigned like Brocka, argued the process embedded elite and Manila-centered choices a freer convention might have made differently. (Wikipedia — Constitutional Commission of 1986)

Ratification Under a Revolutionary Government

The plebiscite’s legal basis was the Freedom Constitution, issued by decree — so the authority that called the vote derived from revolution, not from the charter then in force. The 77-percent result and the peaceful 1987 succession largely settled practical objections, but the theoretical question of whether revolutionary ratification binds later generations resurfaces in constitutional-law debate whenever charter change is proposed. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite, Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines)

The Excluded Returns

The omission of late-arriving returns from Davao del Sur, Eastern Samar, Pagadian, and Zamboanga del Sur from the final tally — provinces whose partial totals ran heavily for ratification — was a documented canvass decision that shaped the certified figures; it is cited both as reasonable canvass discipline and as an early precedent for count-management controversies in Philippine elections. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)

The Regional Minority

A No vote concentrated at up to 85–88 percent in the Ilocos provinces meant the charter began life rejected outright in the Marcoses’ home region — a cleavage political scientists read into the persisting alignments of Fifth Republic politics. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)