Constitutional Commission of 1986

Also known as: ConCom — the standard abbreviation in Philippine constitutional literature · 1986 Constitutional Commission — the date-tagged form distinguishing it from the 1934 and 1971 conventions · Constitutional Commission of the Philippines — the descriptive styling in comparative scholarship · Aquino Constitutional Commission — the attribution by appointing president used by critics and historians alike

Government

Definition

The Constitutional Commission of 1986 (ConCom) was the body of 48 appointed members convened by President Corazon C. Aquino on June 2, 1986 at the Batasang Pambansa Complex to draft the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines — the charter this wiki’s entry on the Constitution of the Philippines documents as the supreme law now in force. Created under Article V of the provisional Freedom Constitution, which authorized a commission of 30 to 50 natural-born citizens “of recognized probity, known for their independence, nationalism and patriotism,” and formally convened by Proclamation No. 9 of April 1986, it held regular sessions from June 2 to October 15, 1986, elected former Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma — the first woman to sit on the Philippine Supreme Court — as its president, approved its draft on October 12, 1986, and presented it to the President on October 15, 1986, the timeline this wiki’s entry on the 1987 constitutional plebiscite records. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986, LawPhil — Proclamation No. 3 (1986), Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)

The commission’s draft went to the people rather than to a legislature: under the Freedom Constitution’s Article V, the charter became “valid and effective upon ratification by a majority of the votes cast” in a plebiscite held within sixty days of submission — the February 2, 1987 vote in which 16,622,111 Filipinos (77.04 percent) ratified the constitution against 4,953,375 (22.96 percent), proclaimed in force by Proclamation No. 58 on February 11, 1987. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 3 (1986), Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite, LawPhil — 1987 Constitution)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986
Wikidata	Constitutional Commission of 1986 (Q7185022)
DBpedia	Constitutional_Commission_of_1986
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	Constitutional law–Philippines
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	Constitutional Commission of 1986 ConCom Aquino Muñoz-Palma 1987 Constitution drafting plebiscite revolutionary government appointed body
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

ConCom — the standard abbreviation in Philippine constitutional literature
1986 Constitutional Commission — the date-tagged form distinguishing it from the 1934 and 1971 conventions
Constitutional Commission of the Philippines — the descriptive styling in comparative scholarship
Aquino Constitutional Commission — the attribution by appointing president used by critics and historians alike

Examples and Analogies

A convention without an election: where the 1934 and 1971 charter-drafting bodies were elected constitutional conventions, the 1986 ConCom worked like an expert commission convened by a mandate-holder — members were appointed after published nominations, sectoral consultation, and, as an inclusiveness gesture, seats offered to the opposition KBL — with popular legitimacy supplied afterward by the plebiscite rather than beforehand by election. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
A stopwatch government: the Freedom Constitution gave the drafters sixty-day clocks — sixty days to appoint the commission, sixty days from submission to the plebiscite — and the commission itself beat a “short a period” standard by three and a half months, trading deliberation time for a swift return to constitutional rule. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 3 (1986), Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Verified commission data:
Legal basis: Article V of Proclamation No. 3 (March 25, 1986) — 30 to 50 natural-born citizens of recognized probity, appointed after consultation with sectors; Proclamation No. 9 (April 1986) convened the commission and invited public nominations (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 3 (1986), Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Appointment: first 44 members announced May 25, 1986 at the “Reunion of EDSA Heroes,” Camp Aguinaldo; 5 seats offered to the Marcos-era KBL (4 filled); the Iglesia ni Cristo declined the single seat offered it — 48 members in all (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Sessions: formally convened June 2, 1986 at the Batasang Pambansa Complex plenary hall; regular sessions June 2 – October 15, 1986 (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Officers: President Cecilia Muñoz-Palma; Vice President Ambrosio Padilla; floor leader Napoleon Rama; secretary general Flerida Ruth Pineda-Romero (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Members (selection): Joaquin Bernas, Hilario Davide Jr., Blas Ople, Christian Monsod, Adolfo Azcuna, Bernardo Villegas, Teodoro Bacani Jr., Ed Garcia, Chito Gascon, Florangel Rosario-Braid, Soc Rodrigo, Roberto Concepcion, Lorenzo Sumulong, Jose Laurel Jr., Domocao Alonto, Ponciano Bennagen, and film director Lino Brocka, who resigned August 28, 1986 (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Output: draft approved October 12, 1986; presented to Aquino October 15, 1986; 47 of the 48 commissioners signed the final text (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986, Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines)
Ratification: February 2, 1987 — 16,622,111 (77.04 percent) for, 4,953,375 (22.96 percent) against; proclaimed by Proclamation No. 58 on February 11, 1987 (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)

Usage Scenarios

1. Studying Charter-Drafting After Revolution

The ConCom is the standing Philippine case of constitution-making by a revolutionary government’s appointment — the method chosen after the EDSA People Power Revolution this wiki’s entry on it documents, and the alternative Aquino weighed against simply restoring the 1935 Constitution or reforming the 1973 charter before choosing to draft anew. (Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines, Wikipedia — Corazon Aquino)

2. Comparing Philippine Constitution-Making Bodies

Set against the 1934 convention that wrote the 1935 Constitution, the 1971 convention overwhelmed by martial law, and the 1973 drafting under duress, the 1986 commission supplies the comparative dataset: smaller, appointed, deadline-driven, and ratified within months — the contrast constitutional historians use to periodize Philippine charter-making. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986, Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines)

3. Reading the 1987 Constitution’s Origins

Provisions traced to commission debates — the restored presidential system with its checks, the abolished death penalty, the bases and economic-policy questions argued over Clark and Subic — are studied through the ConCom’s public, fully recorded plenary sessions, the record Article V of the Freedom Constitution required. (Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines, LawPhil — Proclamation No. 3 (1986), LawPhil — 1987 Constitution)

4. Analyzing Transitional Legitimacy

The two-step design — appointed commission drafts, electorate ratifies — is the template political scientists cite for converting revolutionary authority into constitutional authority, the strategy this wiki’s entry on the 1987 constitutional plebiscite analyzes at the ratification stage. (Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite, Wikipedia — Corazon Aquino)

Strategies

Publishing the nominations: Proclamation No. 9 invited public nominations, and the nominees’ names ran in the major newspapers with their endorsers — transparency at the appointment stage compensating for the absence of an election. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Offering seats to the vanquished: the five KBL seats (four filled) put the deposed regime’s party inside the drafting room, blunting the charge of a one-sided charter at modest cost — though the walkouts and dissents showed the limits of the gesture. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Breadth as insulation: the 48 members spanned former justices, legislators, a Catholic bishop’s counsel, business figures, labor and peasant leaders, academics, and artists — the sectoral spread that let the draft claim national, regional, and sectoral representation, as this wiki’s plebiscite entry records. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986, Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)
Public sessions as legitimacy: Article V’s requirements — public hearings and fully recorded public plenary sessions — converted the drafting into a national spectacle and created the verbatim record on which the charter’s interpretation still draws. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 3 (1986))
Deadline management: missing the September 2, 1986 target but finishing October 12 kept the schedule on the revolution’s clock — four months from approval to ratification, and a constitutional government within a year of EDSA. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986, Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)

Security and Safety Measures

Civilian drafting after martial law: the commission’s design answered the 1973 experience — a charter used to concentrate power — with layered counterweights: term limits, independent constitutional commissions, and an expanded Bill of Rights, the safeguards this wiki’s Constitution of the Philippines entry summarizes. (Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines, LawPhil — 1987 Constitution)
Inclusiveness against re-radicalization: by seating labor, peasant, and regional voices alongside the legal establishment, the process aimed to keep dissent inside the convention hall rather than outside the new order — the gamble that held everywhere except among those who resigned or dissented. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)
Ratification as the safety valve: because the draft required a nationwide majority, the commission worked under the discipline that anything the electorate would not accept was wasted labor — the check that no appointed majority could simply legislate its preferences. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 3 (1986), Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)
For researchers: the commission’s article count varies between sources — 48 members seated within the Freedom Constitution’s 50-seat ceiling, with five KBL offers of which four filled — cite the appointment records when the number matters, as this wiki’s plebiscite entry does. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986, Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)

Historical Context

The commission answered a constitutional emergency created in four days of February 1986. The disputed snap election, the EDSA uprising that installed Corazon Aquino on February 25, and the resulting Freedom Constitution of March 25, 1986 left the new government ruling by proclamation with a mandate to replace the 1973 charter; Article V of that proclamation authorized the commission, and Proclamation No. 9 in April announced it and invited nominations. The first 44 commissioners were named on May 25, 1986 at the “Reunion of EDSA Heroes” in Camp Aguinaldo, with the KBL and Iglesia ni Cristo offers completing the bench at 48, and the commission convened on June 2, 1986 under Muñoz-Palma’s presidency. (LawPhil — Proclamation No. 3 (1986), Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986, Wikipedia — Corazon Aquino)

Through the summer the commissioners argued the form of government, the abolition of the death penalty, the retention of the United States bases at Clark and Subic, and the integration of economic policy into the charter — the issue set this wiki’s plebiscite entry catalogs. Lino Brocka resigned on August 28, 1986; the September 2 completion date passed unmet; the draft was approved on October 12 and presented to the President on October 15, signed by 47 of the 48 members with two delegates dissenting. On February 2, 1987 the electorate ratified the draft by better than three to one, and Proclamation No. 58 proclaimed the 1987 Constitution in force on February 11 — the completion of the transition the Freedom Constitution had scheduled and the beginning of the constitutional order under which the Philippines still governs itself. (Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines, Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite, Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)

Challenges and Controversies

An Appointed Drafting Body

The members were chosen by a president who had taken office through revolution, not election — the standing objection to the ConCom’s provenance. Defenders answer with the published nominations, the sectoral breadth, the public sessions, and above all the 77-percent ratification; critics, including commissioners who dissented or resigned like Brocka, argued the design embedded elite and Manila-centered choices a freely elected convention might have made differently. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986, Wikipedia — 1987 Philippine constitutional plebiscite)

The Opposition Seats Question

The gesture of five KBL seats — four filled, the INC declining its single offer — was read two ways: as genuine power-sharing with the deposed regime’s party, or as a token presence that left the real drafting to the anti-Marcos majority, a debate renewed whenever the 1987 Constitution’s durability is compared with its rival charters’ collapse. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)

The Missed Deadline

The commission failed to complete its work by September 2, 1986, finishing on October 12 instead — presented by contemporaries either as deliberation refusing to be rushed on a permanent charter, or as the first sign that revolutionary timetables and thorough constitution-making pull against each other. (Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)

Dissent and Resignation

The final draft carried the signatures of 47 of 48 commissioners — one member, Brocka, had resigned on August 28, 1986 before completion, and two delegates dissented from the final text — the documented margins of a consensus process, and the evidence cited in debates over whether the 1987 settlement was as unifying as its ratification margin suggests. (Wikipedia — Constitution of the Philippines, Wikipedia — Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986)