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SOCIAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
SEC. 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 inequities by
equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the
common good. To this end, the State shall regulate the
acquisition, ownership, use, and disposition of property and
its increments.
SEC. 2.
The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment
to create economic opportunities based on freedom of
initiative and self-reliance.
Labor
SEC. 3.
The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and
overseas, organized and unorganized, and promote full
employment and equality of employment opportunities for all.
It shall guarantee the rights of all workers to
self-organizations, and peaceful concerted activities,
including the right to strike in accordance with law. They
shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions
of work, and a living wage. They shall also participate in
policy and decision-making processes affecting their rights
and benefits as may be provided by law. The State shall
promote the principle of shared responsibility between
workers and employers and the preferential use of voluntary
modes in settling disputes, including conciliation, and
shall enforce their mutual compliance therewith to foster
industrial peace. The State shall regulate the relations
between workers and employers, recognizing the right of
labor to its just share in the fruits of production and the
right of enterprises to reasonable returns on investments,
and to expansion and growth.
Agrarian and Natural Resources Reform
SEC. 4.
The Sate shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform program
founded on the right of farmers and regular farm workers,
who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands
they till or, in the case of other farm workers, to receive
a just share of the fruits thereof. To this end, the State
shall encourage and undertake the just distribution of all
agricultural lands, subject to such priorities and
reasonable retention limits as the Congress may prescribe,
taking into account ecological, developmental, or equity
considerations, and subject to the payment of just
compensation. In determining retention limits, the State
shall respect the rights of small landowners. The State
shall further provide incentives for voluntary land-sharing.
SEC. 5.
The State shall recognize the right of farmers, farm
workers, and landowners, as well as cooperatives, and other
independent farmers' organizations to participate in the
planning, organization, and management of the program, and
shall provide support to agriculture through appropriate
technology and research, and adequate financial, production,
marketing, and other support services.
SEC. 6.
The State shall apply the principles of agrarian reform or
stewardship, whenever applicable in accordance with law, in
the disposition or utilization of other natural resources,
including lands of the public domain under lease or
concession suitable to agriculture, subject to prior rights,
homestead rights of small settlers, and the rights of
indigenous communities to their ancestral lands. The State
may resettle landless farmers and farm workers in its own
agricultural estates which shall be distributed to them in
the manner provided by law.
SEC. 7.
The State shall protect the rights of subsistence fishermen,
especially of local communities, to the preferential use of
local marine and fishing resources, both inland and
offshore. It shall provide support to such fishermen through
appropriate technology and research, adequate financial,
production, and marketing assistance, and other services.
The State shall also protect, develop, and conserve such
resources. The protection shall extend to offshore fishing
grounds of subsistence fishermen against foreign intrusion.
Fish workers shall receive a just share from their labor in
the utilization of marine and fishing resources.
SEC. 8.
The State shall provide incentives to landowners to invest
the proceeds of the agrarian reform program to promote
industrialization, employment creation, and privatization of
public sector enterprises. Financial instruments used as
payment for their lands shall be honored as equity in
enterprises of their choice.
Urban Land Reform and Housing
SEC. 9.
The State shall, by law, and for the common good, undertake,
in cooperation with the public sector, a continuing program
of urban land reform and housing which will make available
at affordable cost decent housing and basic services to
underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban centers and
resettlement areas. It shall also promote adequate
employment opportunities to such citizens. In the
implementation of such program the State shall respect the
rights of small property owners.
SEC. 10.
Urban or rural poor dwellers shall not be evicted nor their
dwellings demolished, except in accordance with law and in a
just and humane manner. No resettlement of urban and rural
dwellers shall be undertaken without adequate consultation
with them and the communities where they are to be
relocated.
Health
SEC. 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 people at affordable cost. There shall be priority
for the needs of the underprivileged sick, elderly,
disabled, women, and children. The State shall endeavor to
provide free medical care to paupers.
SEC. 12.
The State shall establish and maintain an effective food and
drug regulatory system and undertake appropriate health
manpower development and research, responsive to the
country's health needs and problems.
SEC. 13.
The State shall establish a special agency for disabled
persons for rehabilitation, self-development and
self-reliance, and their integration into the mainstream of
society.
Women
SEC. 14.
The State shall protect working women by providing safe and
healthful working conditions, taking into account their
maternal functions, and such facilities and opportunities
that will enhance their welfare and enable them to realize
their full potential in the service of the nation.
Role and Rights of People's Organizations
SEC. 15.
The State shall respect the role of independent people's
organizations to enable the people to pursue and protect,
within the democratic framework, their legitimate and
collective interests and aspirations through peaceful and
lawful means. People's organizations are bona fide
associations of citizens with demonstrated capacity to
promote the public interest and with identifiable
leadership, membership, and structure.
SEC. 16.
The right of the people and their organizations to effective
and reasonable participation at all levels of social,
political, and economic decision-making shall not be
abridged. The State shall, by law, facilitate the
establishment of adequate consultation mechanisms.
Human Rights
SEC. 17.
(1) There is hereby created an independent office called
Commission on Human Rights. (2) The Commission shall be
composed of a Chairman and four Members who must be
natural-born citizens of the Philippines and a majority of
whom shall be members of the Bar. The term of office and
other qualifications and disabilities of the Members of the
Commission shall be provided by law. (3) Until this
Commission is constituted, the existing Presidential
Committee on Human Rights shall continue to exercise its
present functions and powers. (4) The approved annual
appropriations of the Commission shall be automatically and
regularly released.
SEC. 18.
The Commission on Human Rights shall have the following
powers and functions: (1) Investigate, on its own or on
complaint by any party, all forms of human rights violations
involving civil and political rights; (2) Adopt its
operational guidelines and rules of procedure, and cite for
contempt for violations thereof in accordance with the Rules
of Court; (3) Provide appropriate legal measures for the
protection of human rights of all persons within the
Philippines, as well as Filipinos residing abroad, and
provide for preventive measures and legal aid services to
the underprivileged whose human rights have been violated or
need protection; (4) Exercise visitorial powers over jails,
prisons, or detention facilities; (5) Establish a continuing
program of research, education, ad information to enhance
respect for the primacy of human rights; (6) Recommend to
the Congress effective measures to promote human rights and
to provide for compensation to victims of violations of
human rights, or their families; (7) Monitor the Philippine
Government's compliance with international treaty
obligations on human rights; (8) Grant immunity from
prosecution to any person whose testimony or whose
possession of documents or other evidence is necessary or
convenient to determine the truth in any investigation
conducted by it or under its authority; (9) Request the
assistance of any department, bureau, office, or agency in
the performance of its functions; (10) Appoint its officers
and employees in accordance with law; and (11) Perform such
other duties and functions as may be provided by law.
SEC. 19.
The Congress may provide for other cases of violations of
human rights that should fall within the authority of the
Commission, taking into account its recommendations.
Article 14:
Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture, and Sports
Education
SEC 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.
SEC. 2.
The State shall:
(1) Establish, maintain, and support a complete, adequate,
and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of
the people and society;
(2) Establish and maintain a system of free public education
in the elementary and high school levels. Without limiting
the natural right of parents to rear their children,
elementary education is compulsory for all children of
school age;
(3) Establish and maintain a system of scholarship grants,
student loan programs, subsidies, and other incentives which
shall be available to deserving students in both public and
private schools, especially to the underprivileged;
(4) Encourage non-formal, informal, and indigenous learning
systems, as well as self-learning, independent, and
out-of-school study programs particularly those that respond
to community needs; and
(5) Provide adult citizens, the disabled, and out-of-school
youth with training in civics, vocational efficiency, and
other skills.
SEC. 3.
(1) All educational institutions shall include the study of
the Constitution as part of the curricula.
(2) They shall inculcate patriotism and nationalism, foster
love of humanity, respect for human rights, appreciation of
the role of national heroes in the historical development of
the country, teach the rights and duties of citizenship,
strengthen ethical and spiritual values, develop moral
character and personal discipline, encourage critical and
creative thinking, broaden scientific and technological
knowledge, and promote vocational efficiency.
(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 the 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.
SEC. 4.
(1) The State recognizes the complementary roles of public
and private institutions in the educational system and shall
exercise reasonable supervision and regulation of all
educational institutions.
(2) Educational institutions, other than those established
by religious groups and mission boards, shall be owned
solely by citizens of the Philippines or corporations or
associations at least sixty per centum of the capital of
which is owned by such citizens. The Congress may, however,
require increased Filipino equity participation in all
educational institutions.
The control and administration of educational institutions
shall be vested in citizens of the Philippines.
No educational institution shall be established exclusively
for aliens and no group of aliens shall comprise more than
one-third of the enrollment in any school. The provisions of
this subsection shall not apply to schools established for
foreign diplomatic personnel and their dependents and,
unless otherwise provided by law, for other foreign
temporary residents.
(3) All revenues and assets of non-stock, non-profit
educational institutions used actually, directly, and
exclusively for educational purposes shall be exempt from
taxes and duties. Upon the dissolution or cessation of the
corporate existence of such institutions, their assets shall
be disposed of in the manner provided by law.
Propriety educational institutions, including those
cooperatively owned, may likewise be entitled to such
exemptions subject to the limitations provided by law
including restrictions on dividends and provisions for
reinvestment.
(4) Subject to conditions prescribed by law, all grants,
endowments, donations, or contributions used actually,
directly, and exclusively for educational purposes shall be
exempt from tax.
SEC. 5.
(1) The State shall take into account regional and sectoral
needs and conditions and shall encourage local planning in
the development of educational policies and programs.
(2) Academic freedom shall be enjoyed in all institutions of
higher learning.
(3) Every citizen has a right to select a profession or
course of study, subject to fair, reasonable, and equitable
admission and academic requirements.
(4) The State shall enhance the right of teachers to
professional advancement. Non-teaching academic and
non-academic personnel shall enjoy the protection of the
State.
(5) The State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to
education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain
its rightful share of the best available talents through
adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction
and fulfillment.
Language
SEC. 6.
The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it
evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the
basis of existing Philippine and other languages.
Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem
appropriate, the Government shall take steps to initiate and
sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official
communication and as language of instruction in the
educational system.
SEC. 7.
For purposes of communication and instruction, the official
languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until
otherwise provided by law, English.
The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages
in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of
instruction therein.
Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and
optional basis.
SEC. 8.
This Constitution shall be promulgated in Filipino and
English and shall be translated into major regional
languages, Arabic, and Spanish.
SEC. 9.
The Congress shall establish a national language commission
composed of representatives of various regions and
disciplines which shall undertake, coordinate, and promote
researches for the development, propagation, and
preservation of Filipino and other languages.
Science and Technology
SEC. 10.
Science and technology are essential for national
development and progress. The State shall give priority to
research and development, invention, innovation, and their
utilization; and to science and technology education,
training, and services. It shall support indigenous,
appropriate, and self-reliant scientific and technological
capabilities, and their application to the country's
productive systems and national life.
SEC. 11.
The Congress may provide for incentives, including tax
deductions, to encourage private participation in programs
of basic and applied scientific research. Scholarships,
grants-in-aid, or other forms of incentives shall be
provided to deserving science students, researchers,
scientists, inventors, technologists, and specially gifted
citizens.
SEC. 12.
The State shall regulate the transfer and promote the
adaptation of technology from all sources for the national
benefit. It shall encourage the widest participation of
private groups, local governments, and community-based
organizations in the generation and utilization of science
and technology.
SEC. 13.
The State shall protect and secure the exclusive rights of
scientists, inventors, artists, and other gifted citizens to
their intellectual property and creations, particularly when
beneficial to the people, for such period as may be provided
by law.
Arts and Culture
SEC. 14.
The State shall foster the preservation, enrichment, and
dynamic evolution of a Filipino national culture based on
the principle of unity in diversity in a climate of free
artistic and intellectual expression.
SEC. 15.
Arts and letters shall enjoy the patronage of the State. The
State shall conserve, promote, and popularize the nation's
historical and cultural heritage and resources, as well as
artistic creations.
SEC. 16.
All the country's artistic and historic wealth constitutes
the cultural treasure of the nation and shall be under the
protection of the State which may regulate its disposition.
SEC. 17.
The State shall recognize, respect, and protect the rights
of indigenous cultural communities to preserve and develop
their cultures, traditions, and institutions. It shall
consider these rights in the formulation of national plans
and policies.
SEC. 18.
(1) The State shall ensure equal access to cultural
opportunities through the educational system, public or
private cultural entities, scholarships, grants and other
incentives, and community cultural centers, and other public
venues.
(2) The State shall encourage and support researches and
studies on the arts and culture.
Sports
SEC. 19.
(1) The State shall promote physical education and encourage
sports programs, league competitions, and amateur sports,
including training for international competitions, to foster
self-discipline, teamwork, and excellence for the
development of a healthy and alert citizenry.
(2) All educational institutions shall undertake regular
sports activities throughout the country in cooperation with
athletic clubs and other sectors. |
