FRANCISCO S. TATAD
THE Constitution, otherwise known as the fundamental law of the land, is the only legislation that emanates directly from the people. Every other law comes from the will of Congress. The 1987 Constitution was crafted by a 50-member constitutional commission appointed by Cory Aquino, whom the military had installed as revolutionary president, after the February 1986 civilian-backed military uprising ousted Ferdinand Marcos. Absent any written provision governing the writing and adoption of a new Constitution, Mrs. Aquino was free to appoint 50 men and women to draft the needed document, which she later asked the electorate to ratify in a plebiscite.