diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index bb49d945b78a3a020a39cc90480fa2355c13816e..895f917a78190df43d08ca53c4f9b7e67f96411d 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ php_session_gc_divisor: '1000'
 php_session_gc_maxlifetime: '1440'
 php_short_open_tag: 'Off'
 php_upload_max_filesize: '2M'
-php_zend_assertions: '0'
+php_zend_assertions: '-1'
 
 # apc.ini
 apc_rfc1867: '1'
diff --git a/templates/etc-php5-apache2-php.ini b/templates/etc-php5-apache2-php.ini
index 9d27b99b0218efe22bc8e0e7a3992cb552583dd3..2a84b4bb69b9fc705c4fd7437b3914a514069f44 100644
--- a/templates/etc-php5-apache2-php.ini
+++ b/templates/etc-php5-apache2-php.ini
@@ -384,8 +384,6 @@ zend.enable_gc = On
 ; Default: ""
 ;zend.script_encoding =
 
-zend.assertions = {{ php_zend_assertions }}
-
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
 ; Miscellaneous ;
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
@@ -1677,6 +1675,9 @@ mssql.secure_connection = Off
 ;mssql.charset = "ISO-8859-1"
 
 [Assertion]
+
+zend.assertions = {{ php_zend_assertions }}
+
 ; Assert(expr); active by default.
 ; http://php.net/assert.active
 ;assert.active = On