"The structure and workings of our government also conform
to the standard defined by Mr. Root in that it is "subject
to the limitations and safeguards which the experience of
a constitutional government has shown to be necessary to the
preservation of individual rights." The Filipino people fought for
such constitutional safeguards during the Spanish régime. A modern
bill of rights was inserted in the Constitution of the Philippine
Republic. Our present constitutional limitations and safeguards
have been in operation since 1900 when President McKinley in
his instructions to the second Philippine Commission set down
as inviolable rules the fundamental provisions of the American
Bill of Rights. These provisions with slight modification were
later included in the Organic Act of 1902, and again set forth
in the Jones Law of 1916. For more than twenty years, therefore,
the Philippine Government has been subject to constitutional
practices. They are imbedded in the political life of the people,
and no matter what political change may occur in the Philippines
they will find no material alteration. An impartial judiciary is
there to enforce them.