Talk:Malolos Constitution

Translation used
Today, I happened to compare Article 23 of the constitution as quoted in this article to the NHI translation, and found major differences. Looking at the edit history, it seems that I have been the primary contributor to this article. It looks to me as if I originally took the translated text from the ChanRobles version, being unaware of the NHI translation. I've redone the article text to agree with the NHI version. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 07:22, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Where is the Constitution?
Does anyone have a copy of the Constitution? Where is it? This article should included a few sentences on the history of the physical document. This also badly needs more information, period, such as who wrote it, what influenced the writers and what influence, if any, has it had on subsequent constitutions? --Bruce Hall (talk) 11:44, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

Took out empty sub-headings from article but left them hidden
I removed from the article titles for empty sub-sections but I left them in the underlining code because I assume that the sections were intended to be written and am hoping that leaving them there would inspire someone to write the sections. With that same hope, I put the code in here using Template:nowiki:

====Presented plans==== Four plans were presented.

Ratification Debates
and

==Reception==

Malolos Congress
Debates on Religion Recognition of the Spanish Civil Code

Provinces
Confederacy Provincial autocephaly

Department of Education
--Iloilo Wanderer (talk) 10:23, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

The "Drafting a basic law" section
I've just made a WP:BOLD edit to this article section. Before my edit, its initial sentence read as follows: "In accordance with article 11 of the Revolutionary Government Decree of 23 June 1898, the Malolos Congress selected a commission to draw up a draft constitution on 17 September 1898."

Note the large redlink there, and see here. The assertion re article 11 there was incorrect. Neither article 11 or the articles which follow it mandate the revolutionary government to select a commission to draw up a draft constitution. Here, in 1927, Maximo Kalaw described lack of agreement between Mabini, who had conceived the revolutionary government, and the Revolutionary Council of that government (known here as the Malolos Congress) over the creation of a constitution. In further pages, Kalaw goes on to describe how the Council went on to create the Malolos Constitution.

I've reverted the part of the article quoted above back to its state prior to this July 29, 2013 edit, and added a supporting cite. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 13:59, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

Spanish as the official language
This article contains assertions that Spanish was "was the official language of the Philippines at the time [of its authorship]" and that Spanish "became the first official language of the Philippines". In point of fact, Article 93 of the Malolos Constitution secifies that Spanish can temporarily be used for acts of public authority and judicial affairs. This, to my mind, stops a bit short of declaring Spanish to be the official language of the country or of its government. Spanish was no doubt the official language of New Spain, from which Aguinaldo had declared independence, but I don't believe that any official language was declared for Aguinaldo's Dictatorial Government of the Philippines or for his Revolutionary Government of the Philippines which produced the Malolos Constitution. Confusion or unsupported assertions on this point are also seen in other articles. I don't currently have a specific suggestion for improvements to this situation. Is there any discussion regarding it? Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 15:18, 7 October 2018 (UTC)