ARTICLE III
BILL OF RIGHTS
Bill of Rights:
defined as a declaration and enumeration of a person’s rights and privileges which the
Constitution is designed to protect against violation by the government or any individual
or groups of individual.
It is a charter of liberties for the individual and a limitation upon the power of the State.
Its basis is the social importance accorded to the individual in democratic or republican
state, the belief that every human being has intrinsic dignity and worth which must be
respected and safeguard.
Classes of Rights
1. Natural Rights: They are those rights possessed by every citizen without being granted
by the State for they are given to man by God as a human being created to His image so
that he may live a happy life. [examples are the right to life and the right to love.]
2. Constitutional Rights: They are those rights which are conferred and protected by the
Constitution. Since they are part of fundamental law, they cannot be modified or taken
away by law making-body.
3. Statutory Rights: They are those rights which are provided by laws promulgated by the
law-making body and consequently, may be abolished by the same body. [examples are
the right to receive a minimum wage and the right to adopt a child by an unrelated
person]
Classification of Constitutional Rights
1. Political Rights: They are such rights of the citizens which give them the power to
participate, directly or indirectly, in the establishment or administration of the
government. Among these rights are the right to citizenship, the right of suffrage, and the
right to information on matters of public concern.
2. Civil Rights: they are those rights which the law will enforce at instance of private
individuals for the purpose of securing to them the enjoyment of their means of
happiness. They include the rights to due process and equal protection of the laws, the
right against involuntary servitude and imprisonment for non-payment of debt or a poll
tax; the constitutional right of the accused; the social and economic rights; religious
freedom; liberty of abode and of changing the same and the right against impairment of
obligations of contract.
Freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, the right of assembly and
petition and the right to form associations are likewise civil rights, however, they
partake of the nature of political rights when they are utilized as a means to
participate in the government.
3. Social and Economic Rights: They include those rights which are intended to insure the
well-being and economic security of the individual. The right to property and right to just
compensation for private property taken for public use belong more appropriately under
this category of rights. They are also provided in the articles dealing with the promotion
of social justice, the conservation and utilization of natural resources and the promotion
of education, science and technology and arts and culture.
“Political and Civil rights can have meaning only if concrete measures are taken to
breathe life and substance to social and economic rights which include cultural
rights”
4. Rights of the accused: They are the (civil) rights intended for the protection of a person
accused of any crime, like the right against unreasonable search and seizure, the right to
presumption of innocence, the right to a speedy, impartial and public trial and the right
against cruel, degrading or inhuman punishment. These provisions particularly and
directly dealing with these rights are discussed subsequently.
State authority and individual freedom
1. State, an instrument to promote both individual and social welfare. The state, as an
organization, exists to promote the happiness and welfare of both the individual and
the group of which he is part. It is not end by itself for the glorification of which the
life, liberty, property, or happiness of the individual may all cases be sacrificed.
Neither it is a means for realization of the best life only by the individual for which
the group may at all times, if necessary, be staked. Liberty is a blessing without which
life is a misery but should not be made to prevail over authority because then society
will fall into anarchy. The doctrines of laissez faire and of unrestricted freedom of
the individual as axioms of economics and political theory, are of the past.
2. Conflict between individual rights and group welfare. The individual must yield to
the group; and in other cases, the group to the individual. It is for this reason that the
Constitution creates a domain of individual rights and liberties, which is protected
from encroachments whether by individuals or group of individuals, and even by the
government itself. For the same reason, the Constitution provides, expressly or
impliedly, that in certain cases, when demanded by the necessity of promoting the
general welfare of society, the government may interfere with these rights and
liberties.
3. Role of Judiciary. How far, consistently with freedom, may the rights and liberties of
the individual be subordinated in the will of the government is a question which has
assailed the very existence of governments from the beginning of time. The effective
balancing of the claims of the individual and those of the community is the essence or
the indispensable means for the attainment of the legitimate aspirations of any
democratic society. There can be no absolute power whoever exercises it, for that
would be tyranny, yet there can neither be absolute liberty for that would mean
license and anarchy.
On the judiciary, in appropriate cases, rest primarily this all-important duty of
balancing the interests of the individual and group welfare in adjudication of disputes
that it is fair and just to the parties involved and beneficial to the larger interest of the
community or the people as a whole. In the exercise of the power of judicial review,
courts, ultimately the supreme court, act as arbiters of the limits of governmental
power especially in relation to individual rights.
