1. ARTICLE III
The Bill of Rights

2. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BILL
OF RIGHTS
Government is powerful. When
unlimited it becomes tyranny.
The Bill of Rights is a guarantee
that there are certain areas of a
person’s life, liberty and property
which government powers may not
touch.

3. INHERENT POWERS OF THE
GOVERNMENT
All the powers of the Government are
limited by the Bill of Rights.
Powers of the Government:
1. Police Power
2. Power of Eminent Domain
3. Power of Taxation

4. POLICE POWER
Police Power is that inherent and
plenary power of the State which
enables it to prohibit all that is
hurtful to the comfort, safety and
welfare of the society.

5. SCOPE OF POLICE POWER
Police power rests upon public
necessity and upon the right of the
State and of the public to self-
protection. For this reason, its scope
expands and contracts with
changing needs.

6. WHO EXERCISES THE POLICE
POWER?
The national government, through
the legislative department, exercises
police power. But police power is
also delegated, within limits, to local
governments.

7. WHAT ABOUT MMDA?
In MMDA vs. Bel-Air Village
Association, the Supreme Court ruled
that the MMDA, not being a political
subdivision but merely an executive
authority, has no police power. Police
Power in metro manila is exercised by
the cities and municipalities.

8. SECTION 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.

9. SECTION 2
The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable
searches and seizures of whatever nature and for any
purpose shall be inviolable, and no search warrant or
warrant of arrest shall issue except upon probable cause
to be determined personally by the judge after
examination under oath or affirmation of the
complainant and the witnesses he may produce, and
particularly describing the place to be searched and the
persons or things to be seized.

10. Purpose of the provision – to protect
the privacy and sanctity of the person
and of his house and other possessions
against arbitrary intrusions of the State
officers.

11. Searches and Seizures – must be authorized
by a validly issued search warrant or warrant
of arrest.
CHECK – POINTS?
Drug tests?
Bank deposits?

12. Requisites of a valid warrant:
1. must be issued upon probable cause
2. probable cause must be determined personally by a
judge (not personal examination)
3. such judge must examine under oath or affirmation the
complainant and the witnesses he may produce
4. the warrant must particularly describe the place to be
searched and the person or things to be seized.

13. Exceptions to warrantless arrest
1. Warrantless search incidental to a lawful arrest
2. Seizure of evidence in plain view.
3. Search of a moving vehicle.
4. Consented warrantless search.
5. Customs search or seizure.
6. Stop and frisk
7. Exigent and emergency circumstances.

14. SECTION 3
(1) The privacy of communication
and correspondence shall be
inviolable except upon lawful order
of the court, or when public safety
or order requires otherwise, as
prescribed by law.

15. (2) Any evidence obtained in
violation of this or the
preceding section shall be
inadmissible for any purpose
in any proceeding.

16. RA 4200 – the Anti-Wire
tapping law provides penalties
for specific violations of private
communication.

17. SECTION 4
No law shall be passed abridging the
freedom of speech, of
expression, or of the press, or the
right of the people peaceably to
assemble and petition the
government for redress of
grievances.

18. Doctrine of No Prior Restraint –
prior restraint means official
government restrictions on the
press or other forms of expression
in advance of actual publication or
dissemination. Includes movie
censorship.

19. exception:
1. during war
2. security of the community
3. primary requirements of decency
DOCTRINE OF SUBSEQUENT PUNISHMENT
3 tests:
1. dangerous tendency test
2. clear and present danger test
3. balancing of interest test

20. LIBEL?
1. the allegation of a discreditable
act or condition concerning another
2. publication of the charge
3. identity of the person defamed
4. existence of malice

21. OBSCENITY AND INDECENCY
1. Whether the average person, applying
contemporary community standards would
find that the work, taken as a whole, appears to
the prurient interest
2. whether the work depicts or describes, in a
patently offensive way, sexual conduct
specifically defined in the applicable state law
3. whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks
serious literary, artistic, political or scientific
value.

22. SECTION 5
No law shall be made respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof. The free exercise and
enjoyment of religious profession and
worship, without discrimination or
preference, shall forever be allowed. No
religious test shall be required for the
exercise of civil or political rights.

23. NON-ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION
CLAUSE
1. Must have a secular legislative purpose
2. must have a primary effect that neither
advances nor inhibits religion
3. must not require excessive entanglement
with recipient institutions.
FREE-EXERCISE CLAUSE

24. NON-ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE
(OTHER PROVISIONS)
1. ARTICLE VI, SECTION 29 (2)
“No public money or property shall be
appropriated, applied, paid or employed, directly or
indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any
sect, church, denomination, sectarian institution, or
system of religion, or of any priest, preacher, minister, or
other religious teacher or dignitary as such, EXCEPT
when such priest, preacher minister, or dignitary is
assigned to the Armed Forces, or to any penal
institution, or government orphanage or leprosarium.”

25. 2. ARTICLE II, SECTION 6
“The Separation of Church and State shall be
inviolable.”
3. ARTICLE IX, (C) SECTION 2(5)
-the prohibition against religious
denomination and sects from being registered
as political parties or organizations.

26. PURPOSE OF THE NON-
ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE
The values non-establishment seeks to
protect:
1. VOLUNTARISM – both personal and
social
2. INSULATION OF THE POLITICAL
PROCESS FROM INTERFAITH
DISSENSION

27. MEANING OF NON-
ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE
“ Neither a State nor the Federal
government can set up a church. Neither
can pass laws which aid one religion, aid
all religions, or prefer one religion over
another… Neither… can, openly or
secretly, participate in the affairs of any
religious organizations or groups and vice
versa. “
(Board or Education vs. Everson – US case)

28. WHAT ABOUT ALLOWABLE AID?
To be allowable, government aid must:
1. Have a secular legislative purpose
2. 2. must have a primary effect that neither
advances nor prohibit religion
3. Must not require excessive entanglement
with recipient institutions.

29. EXPROPRIATION OF THE
BIRTHPLACE OF FELIX Y. MANALO
- The purpose is to preserve a
historical landmark and hence for
public use. The religious effect is
only incidental to the main
purpose.

30. AUSTRIA VS. NLRC
The court upheld the decision of the NLRC
against Pastor Austria of the Seventh Day
Adventist Church for unaccounted church
tithes and offerings collected by the
Pastor’s wife, being in this case, the issue is
not ecclesiastical or purely religious affair.
The issue is employer-employee
relationship.

31. LONG VS. ALMERIA V. BASA
“….in matters purely ecclesiastical, the decision
of the proper church tribunals are conclusive
upon the civil courts. A church member who is
expelled from the membership by the church
authorities, or a priest or minister who is by them
deprived of his sacred office, is without remedy
in the civil courts, which will not inquire into the
correctness of the decisions of the ecclesiastical
tribunals…”

32. CERTIFICATION AS “HALAL”
-a religious
exercise, therefore, not to be
performed by the
government

33. EXCEPTIONS TO THE NON-
ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION
CLAUSE
1. ARTICLE VI, SECTION 28 (3)
“ Charitable institutions, churches, parsonages or
convents appurtenant thereto, mosques, and non-
profit cemeteries, and all lands, buildings and
improvements ACTUALLY, DIRECTLY AND
EXCLUSIVELY used for religious, charitable or
educational purposes shall be exempt from
taxation.”

34. 2. ARTICLE VI, SECTION 1(2)
- The priest, preacher or minister
or dignitary assigned to the Armed
Forces, or to any penal
institution, or government
orphanage or leprosarium.

35. 3. ARTICLE XIV, SECTION 3(3)
“At the option expressed in writing by the
parents or guardians, religion shall be allowed to
be taught to their children or wards in public
elementary and high schools within regular class
hours by instructors designated or approved by
the religious authorities of the religion to which
the children or wards belong, without additional
cost to the Government.”

36. FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION
1. Freedom of conscience and freedom to
adhere to such religious organization or
form of worship as the individual may
choose cannot be restricted by law.
(FREEDOM TO BELIEVE)
2. It safeguards the free exercise of the
chosen form of religion. (FREEDOM TO
ACT)

37. WHAT ABOUT CRIMES?
Cannot be tolerated
and sanctioned by the
State.

38. IMMORALITY?
“Whether an act is immoral within the
meaning of the statute is not to be
determined by the accused’s concept of
morality. Congress has provided the
standard. The offense is complete if the
accused intended to perform, and did in
fact perform, the act which the statute
condemns..” (Cleveland vs. US)

39. HOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER A
CASE IS FREE EXERCISE OR NON-
ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE
1. Every violation of the free exercise
clause involves
COMPULSION, whereas,
2. A violation of the non-establishment
clause need not involve compulsion.

40. PUBLIC OFFICER MAKING
DEROGATORY REMARKS ABOUT A
RELIGIOUS GROUP
(Iglesia ni Kristo v. Gironella)
Where a judge, on his decision referred to the
interest of the INC members in a case as
“gimmickry”, the court saw violation of free
exercise. Freedom of religion implies respect for
every creed. No one, much less a public official, is
privileged to characterize the actuations of its
adherents in a derogatory sense.

41. LICENSE FOR DISSEMINATION OF
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE?
Unless the dissemination is done as a business operation
FOR PROFIT, no license is required.
“The constitutional guarantee of free exercise and
enjoyment of religious profession and worship carries
with it the right to disseminate religious information.
Any restraint of such right can ONLY BE JUSTIFIED like
other restraints of freedom of expression on the grounds
that there is clear and present danger of any substantive
evil which the State has the right to prevent.”
(American Bible v. City of Manila)

42. FLAG SALUTE LAW
- Freedom of religion requires that
protesting members be exempted
from the operation of law.

43. JUST A THOUGHT!
Driving while drunk when the
drunkeness was due to large
amount of mass wine ingested
in the celebration of the mass.
-?????

44. PROHIBITION OF RELIGIOUS
TESTS
- To render the government powerless to
restore the historically and constitutionally
discredited policy of probing religious
beliefs by test oaths or limiting public
offices to persons who have, or perhaps
more properly, profess to have a belief in
some particular kind of religious concept.

45. CAN A PRIEST BE
ELECTED/APPOINTED TO PUBLIC
OFFICE?
Yes.
(McDaniel v. Patty – US
case)

46. SECTION 6
The liberty of abode and of changing the
same within the limits prescribed by law
shall not be impaired except upon lawful
order of the court. Neither shall the right to
travel be impaired except in the interest of
national security, public safety, or public
health, as may be provided by law.

47. Liberties covered in this provision:
1. freedom to choose and change ones
place of abode
2. freedom to travel both within the
country and outside.

48. SECTION 7
The right of the people to information on
matters of public concern shall be recognized.
Access to official records, and to documents and
papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or
decisions, as well as to government research data
used as basis for policy development, shall be
afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as
may be provided by law.

49. RIGHTS GUARANTEED:
1. The right to information on
matters of public concern
2. corollary right of access to
official records and documents.

50. EXCEPTIONS
1. National security matters.
2. Trade secrets and banking
transactions.
3. Criminal matters.
4. Other confidential matters.

51. SECTION 8
The right of the people, including those
employed in the public and private
sectors, to form unions, associations, or
societies for purposes not contrary to
law shall not be abridged.

52. SECTION 9
Private property shall not be
taken for public use without
just compensation.

53. SECTION 10
No law impairing the
obligation of contracts
shall be passed.

54. SECTION 11
Free access to the courts and
quasi-judicial bodies and
adequate legal assistance shall
not be denied to any person by
reason of poverty.

55. SECTION 12
1) Any person under investigation for the
commission of an offense shall have the right to
be informed of his right to remain silent and to
have competent and independent counsel
preferably of his own choice. If the person
cannot afford the services of counsel, he must be
provided with one. These rights cannot be waived
except in writing and in the presence of counsel.

56. (2) No
torture, force, violence, threat, intimidat
ion, or any other means which vitiate
the free will shall be used against him.
Secret detention
places, solitary, incommunicado, or other
similar forms of detention are
prohibited.

57. (3) Any confession or admission
obtained in violation of this or
Section 17 hereof shall be
inadmissible in evidence against
him.

58. (4) The law shall provide for penal
and civil sanctions for violations of
this section as well as compensation
to the rehabilitation of victims of
torture or similar practices, and their
families.

59. SECTION 13
All persons, except those charged with offenses
punishable by reclusion perpetua when evidence of
guilt is strong, shall, before conviction, be
bailable by sufficient sureties, or be released on
recognizance as may be provided by law. The
right to bail shall not be impaired even when the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended.
Excessive bail shall not be required.

60. SECTION 14
(1) No person shall be held
to answer for a criminal
offense without due process
of law.

61. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall be
presumed innocent until the contrary is
proved, and shall enjoy the right to be heard by
himself and counsel, to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation against
him, to have a speedy, impartial, and public
trial, to meet the witnesses face to face, and to
have compulsory process to secure the
attendance of witnesses and the production of
evidence in his behalf.

62. However, after arraignment, trial
may proceed notwithstanding the
absence of the accused:
Provided, that he has been duly
notified and his failure to appear is
unjustifiable.

63. SECTION 15
The privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus shall not be
suspended except in cases of
invasion or rebellion, when the
public safety requires it.

64. SECTION 16
All persons shall have the right to a
speedy disposition of their cases
before all judicial, quasi-judicial, or
administrative bodies.

65. SECTION 17
No person shall be
compelled to be a
witness against himself.

66. SECTION 18
(1) No person shall be
detained solely by
reason of his political
beliefs and aspirations.

67. (2) No involuntary servitude
in any form shall exist except
as a punishment for a crime
whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted.

68. SECTION 19
(1) Excessive fines shall not be
imposed, nor cruel, degrading or inhuman
punishment inflicted. Neither shall death
penalty be imposed, unless, for compelling
reasons involving heinous crimes, the
Congress hereafter provides for it. Any
death penalty already imposed shall be
reduced to reclusion perpetua.

69. (2) The employment of
physical, psychological, or degrading
punishment against any prisoner or
detainee or the use of substandard or
inadequate penal facilities under
subhuman conditions shall be dealt
with by law.

70. SECTION 20
No person shall be
imprisoned for debt or
non-payment of a poll
tax.

71. SECTION 21
No person shall be twice put in
jeopardy of punishment for the same
offense. If an act is punished by a law
and an ordinance, conviction or
acquittal under either shall constitute a
bar to another prosecution for the same
act.

72. SECTION 22
No ex post facto law or
bill of attainder shall be
enacted.