POWERS OF CONGRESS
facilitate the attainment of state interest, among them
Generally classified as:
1. Legislative
2. Non-legislative
- Legislative Power (express)
a. Specific powers of appropriation
b. Taxation
c. Expropriation
- Non-legislative Power (express)
a. Canvass the presidential elections
b. Declare the existence of a state of war
c. Give concurrence to treaties and amnesties
d. Propose constitutional amendments
e. Impeach
- Implied Power
a. Power to punish contempt in legislative
investigations
- Inherent Powers
a. Determination of its rules and proceedings
b. Discipline of its members
LEGISLATIVE POWER IN GENERAL
- Power of lawmaking, the framing and enactment of
laws. This is effected through the adoption of a bill,
or a proposed or projected law, which once approved,
becomes a statute.
STATUTE - the written will of the legislature,
solemnly expressed according to the forms necessary
to constitute it the law of the state.
WHO MAY EXERCISE LEGISLATIVE POWER
- DAVID V ARROYO “legislative power is
peculiarly within the province of Legislature. Neither
Martial Law nor a state of emergency can Justify the
President’s exercise of legislative power by issuing
decrees”
- The power to make laws includes the power to alter
and repeal them.
- GONZALES V HECHANOVA “Executive may not
interfere in the performance of the legislative powers
of the Congress except in the exercise of the veto
power. He may not defeat legislative enactments by
indirectly repealing the same through an executive
agreement providing for the performance of the very
act prohibited by such laws.”
- KIDA V SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES
“subsequent laws that do no change or revise any
provision in an earlier law, cannot be considered as
amendments of the latter.”
- LEAGUE OF CITIES OF THE PHILIPPINES
“legislative body possesses plenary powers for all
purposes of civil government. Any power, deemed to
be legislative by usage and tradition, is necessarily
possessed by the Congress, unless the Constitution
has lodged it elsewhere. Except as limited by the
Constitution, either expressly or impliedly, legislative
power embraces all subjects, and extends to matters
of general concern or common interest.”
- TANCHANCO V SANDIGANBAYAN “Exclusive
power of Congress to define crimes and their nature
and to provide for their punishment carries the power
to immunize certain persons from prosecution to
the solution and prosecution of crimes with high
political, social and economic impact. In the exercise
of this power, Congress possesses broad discretion
and can lay down the conditions and the extent of the
immunity to be granted.”
LIMITATIONS ON LEGISLATIVE POWER
- Congress is limited in its exercise of its legislative
power by the Constitution.
LIMITATIONS
1. Cannot provide for the holdover of elective
officers if the same would go beyond their
terms, as fixed in the Constitution.
2. Cannot create a new term and effectively
appoint the occupant of the position for the
new term.
3. Cannot grant legislative franchises for the
operation of public utilities which shall not
be subject to amendment, alteration or
repeal when the common good so requires.
- KIDA V SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES
“Congress cannot pass irrepealable laws. Where the
legislature, by its own act, attempts to limit its power
to amend or repeal laws, the Court has the duty to
strike down such act for interfering with the plenary
powers of Congress.”
- General Law “Laws have no retroactive effect,
unless the contrary is provided.”
EXCEPTIONS:
1. The law itself expressly provides
2. Remedial statutes
3. Curative statutes
4. Laws interpreting others
5. Law creating new rights
- ATIZADO V PEOPLE “
SUBSTANTIVE LIMITATIONS
PROCEDURAL LIMITATIONS
PROHIBITED MEASURES
PROCEDURE IN PASSAGE OF BILLS
1. Bill is introduced by any member of the House of
Representatives or the Senate except for some
measures that must originate only in the former
chamber.
2. First Reading involves only a reading of the number
and the title of the measure and its referral by the
Senate President of the Speaker to the proper
committee for study.
- Bill may be killed in the committee or it
may be recommended for approval, with or
without amendments, sometimes after public
hearings are first held.
- Other bills of the same nature may be
consolidated into one bill under common
authorship or as a committee bill.
3. Once reported out, the bill shall be calendared for
second reading. In is in this stage that the bill is read
in its entirety, scrutinized, debated upon and amended
 when desired. It is the most important stage in the DELEGATION OF TARIFF POWERS TO THE
passage of a bill. PRESIDENT

ORIGIN OF BILLS TAX EXEMPTIONS

TITLE OF BILLS THE POWER OF CONCURRENCE

FORMALITIES REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

APPROVAL OF BILLS

3 METHODS BY WHICH A BILL MAY BECOME A LAW

VETO POWER

GENERAL VETO POWER

ITEM VETO POWER

POWER OF CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT

3 CATEGORIES OF OVERSIGHT POWERS OF

CONGRESS

LEGISLATIVE VETO

POWER OF LEGISLATIVE INQUIRY

IN AID OF LEGISLATION

IN ACCORDANCE WITH DULY PUBLISHED RULES OF

PROCEDURE

RIGHT OF WITNESSES MUST BE RESPECTED

APPEARANCE OF DEPARTMENT HEADS

PURPOSE

DISTINCTION BETWEEN SECTIONS 21 AND 22

THE WAR POWERS

THE EMERGENCY POWERS

THE POWER OF APPROPRIATION

IMPLIED LIMITATIONS CONSTITUTIONAL

LIMITATION

ON GENERAL APPROPRIATIONS

ON SPECIAL APPROPRIATION

DISCRETIONARY FUNDS

TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATIONS

LIMITATIONS

SAVINGS

CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PRIORITY DEVELOPMENT

ASSISTANCE FUND (PDAF)

CONSTITUTIONALITY OF DISBURSEMENT
ASSISTANCE FUND (DAP)

AUTOMATIC RE-APPOINTMENT

APPROPRIATIONS FOR SECTARIAN PURPOSES

SPECIAL FUNDS

THE POWER OF TAXATION

TAXATION