Military rule is extended only to land occupied in time of war or to possessions recently acquired, and even in these instances the President usually institutes, as in the case of the Second Philippine Commission, a semi-civil government composed of civilian officials. Military rule ends at any time upon the decision of the legislative department. Civil power represents the people - which military power does not- and in a democracy the will of the people is supreme.

217. Due Process of Law and Equal Protection of the Laws. A basic limitation on the power of our Legislature is that it can enact no law which shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law or which shall deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.

Due process of law has been interpreted to mean the law of the land. It should be a law, in the words of Daniel Webster, the great American statesman and orator, "which hears before it condemns, which proceeds upon inquiry, and renders judgment only after trial. The meaning is that every citizen \shall hold his life, liberty, property, and immunities under the protection of the general rules which govern society."1 The intention is to secure the individual from the arbitrary exercise of the powers of government.

Equal protection of the laws means that no person or class of persons can be denied the same protection of the law which is enjoyed by other persons in the same place and under like circumstances.

218. The Police Power. The police power is based on the Latin màxim: The welfare of the people is the first law. It is the power vested in the legislature to pass reasonable laws to promote the health, peace, morals, education, and good order of the people, and to increase the industries of

1 In Webster's famous argument before the United States Supreme Court in the Dartmouth College Case, Wheat. 518.

the state, develop its resources, and add to its wealth and prosperity.

The police power may be said to extend to all the great public needs. Thus, laws to secure reforms in morals, sanitation, or safety, to prevent fraud, to protect the people against the consequences of incapacity or ignorance, to conserve the natural resources, and to promote the general welfare, are considered within the police power. The Philippine Legislature and municipal councils frequently pass laws of this nature, whose purpose is to advance the public welfare.

Such laws may often appear contrary to other constitutional rights. For instance, laws have been passed in many states of the Union which prohibit child labor or limit working hours in factories to eight hours a day. These would apparently violate the rights of contract and labor; but inasmuch as they have been passed for the public welfare, they have been held to be within the police power of the state and hence valid.

219. Taxation. Taxes are burdens or charges imposed by the legislature upon persons or property to raise money for public purposes. The right of taxation is inherent in the state from its very nature. The state, as we have learned, is established for the advancement of the people, and hence it must have means with which to carry out its work. The state was established because only through its existence human beings can attain their well-being, and for that reason the people must give up something to the state.

There are limitations on the power of taxation. For instance, the tax must be for a public purpose. The rules of taxation in the Islands shall also be uniform.

220. Eminent Domain. - Eminent domain, as accurately defined, "is the rightful authority, which exists in every sovereignty, to control and regulate those rights of a public

nature which pertain to its citizens in common, and to appropriate and control individual property for the public benefit, as the public safety, necessity, convenience, or welfare may demand.” 1

The power of eminent domain is the right of the state as Isovereign to take private property for public use upon making just compensation. There is no limitation upon its exercise, except that the use must be public, compensation must be made, and due process of law observed. Philippine statute law names the following purposes for which private property may be taken: Schools, cemeteries, crematories, parks, playgrounds, public buildings, streets, market site, public plazas, sidewalks, bridges, artesian wells, water supply and sewerage systems, cesspools, ferries, levees, wharves, piers, military posts, and railroads. If a private individual refuses to sell his property to the Government for the effectuation of a public purpose, action is begun in the courts, and commissioners and the judge of First Instance fix the just compensation for the property.

221. Freedom of Speech and of the Press. It was Wendell Phillips who asked regarding freedom of speech: "Who can adequately tell the sacredness and value of free speech? Who can fitly describe the enormity of the crime of its violation? Free speech, at once the instrument and the guaranty and the bright consummate flower of all liberty."

It was Judge Cooley who said of the press: "The newspaper is . one of the chief means for the education of the people. The highest and the lowest in the scale of intelligence resort to its columns for information; it is read by those who read nothing else, and the best minds of the age make it the medium of communication with each other

1 Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 7th ed., page 754.

on the highest and most abstruse subjects. Upon politics it may be said to be the chief educator of the people; its influence s potent in every legislative body; it gives tone and direction to public sentiment on each important subject as it arises; and no administration in any free country ventures to overlook or disregard an element so pervading in its influence, and withal so powerful." 1

It was Lord Bryce who wrote of public opinion: “Towering over Presidents and State governors, over Congress and State legislatures, over conventions and the vast machinery of party, public opinion stands out, in the United States, as the great source of power, the master of servants who tremble before it." 2

These quotations but serve to illustrate slightly the strategic position of freedom of speech and of the press in enlightened democracies.

3

Freedom of speech and of the press as cherished in democratic countries, was unknown in the Philippine Islands before the year 1900. It was among the fundamental reforms insisted upon by the Filipino people, and was one of the prime causes of the revolt against Spain. The Malolos Constitution, the work of the Revolutionary Congress, in its Bill of Rights, was careful to guard this basic right. Beginning with the President's instructions to the Commission of April 7, 1900, the guaranties of freedom of speech and of the press were made effective in the Philippines.

Freedom of speech and press permits a full discussion of public affairs. Questions of the hour and the acts of officials may properly be made the subject of comment and criticism.

1 Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 7th ed., page 641.

2 Bryce, The American Commonwealth, new and revised edition, vol. ii, chapters 76-83, at page 267.

See U.S. v. Bustos, 37 Phil. 731, for an account of freedom of speech and of the press in the Philippines.

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