Branches of the Philippine Government: Separation of Powers

The Philippines is a democratic and republican state. As a republican state, sovereignty resides in the People and all government authority emanates from them (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 1). A Republican form of government rests on the conviction that sovereignty should reside in the people and that all government authority must emanate from them. It abhors the concentration of power on one or a few, cognizant that power, when absolute, can lead to abuse, but it also shuns a direct and unbridled rule by the people, a veritable kindling to the passionate fires of anarchy. Our people have accepted this notion and decided to delegate the basic state authority to principally three branches of government the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary each branch being supreme in its own sphere but with constitutional limits and a firm tripod of checks and balances . The Executive Branch The executive branch is headed by the President, who is elected by a direct vote of the people. The term of office of the President, as well as the Vice-President, is six (6) years. As head of the Executive Department, the President is the Chief Executive. He represents the government as a whole and sees to it that all laws are enforced by the officials and employees of his department. He has control over the executive department, bureaus and offices. This means that he has the authority to assume directly the functions of the executive department, bureau and office or interfere with the discretion of its officials. Corollary to the power of control, the President also has the duty of supervising the enforcement of laws for the maintenance of general peace and public order. Thus, he is granted administrative power over bureaus and offices under his control to enable him to discharge his duties effectively. The President exercises general supervision over all local government units and is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Under the existing Presidential form of government, the executive and legislative branches are entirely separate, subject only to the mechanisms of checks and balances. There were attempts to amend the Constitution in order to shift to a parliamentary system, but these moves were struck down by the Supreme Court. The most recent petition that reached the Supreme Court is Lambino vs. COMELEC. The Legislative Branch The legislative branch, which has the authority to make, alter or repeal laws (see also the definition of legislative power), is the Congress. Congress is vested with the tremendous power of the purse, traditionally recognized in the constitutional provision that no money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law. It comprehends both the power to generate money by taxation (the power to tax) and the power to spend it (the power to appropriate). The power to appropriate carries with it the power to specify the amount that may be spent and the purpose for which it may be spent. Under a bicameral system, the Congress is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Senate is composed of twenty-four (24) Senators, who are elected at large by the qualified voters of the Philippines. The term of office of the Senators is six (6) years. The House of Representatives, on the other hand, is composed of not more than two hundred and fifty (250) members, unless otherwise fixed by law, who are elected from legislative districts apportioned among the provinces, cities and the Metropolitan Manila area, and those who are elected through a party-list system of registered national, regional and sectoral parties or organizations. The term of office of members of the House of Representatives, also called Congressmen, is three (3) years. The Judiciary Judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law. The judiciary has the moderating power to determine the proper allocation of powers between the branches of government. When the judiciary mediates to allocate constitutional boundaries, it does not assert any superiority over the other departments; it does not in reality nullify or invalidate an act of the legislature, but only asserts the solemn and sacred obligation assigned to it by the Constitution to determine conflicting claims of authority under the Constitution and to establish for the parties in an actual controversy the rights which that instrument secures and guarantees to them. In the words of Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno: The Judiciary may not have the power of the sword, may not have the power of the purse, but it has the power to interpret the Constitution, and the unerring lessons of history tell us that rightly wielded, that power can make a difference for good. While Congress has the power to define, prescribe and apportion the jurisdiction of the various courts, Congress cannot deprive the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction provided in the Constitution. No law shall also be passed reorganizing the judiciary when it undermines the security of tenure of its members. The Supreme Court also has administrative supervision over all courts and the personnel thereof, having the power to discipline or dismiss judges of lower courts. The Supreme Court is composed of a Chief Justice and fourteen Associate Justices. It may sit en banc or, in its discretion, in divisions of three, five or seven members. A member of the Supreme Court must be a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, at least forty (40) years of age and must have been for fifteen (15) years or more a judge of a lower court or engaged in the pratice of law in the Philippines. Justices hold office during good behavior until they reach the age of seventy (70) years or become incapacitated to discharge the duties of their office. What is the concept of separation of powers? There are three branches of the government: legislative, executive and judicial. Each department of the government has exclusive cognizance of the matters within its jurisdiction, and is supreme within its own sphere. But it does not follow from the fact that the three powers are to be kept separate and distinct that the Constitution intended them to be absolutely unrestrained and independent of each other. The Constitution has provided for an elaborate system of checks and balances to secure coordination in the workings of the various departments of the government. Definition: The term separation of powers originated with the Baron de Montesquieu, a French enlightenment writer. However, the actual separation of powers amongst different branches of government can be traced to ancient Greece. The framers of the Constitution

decided to base the American governmental system on this idea of three separate branches: executive, judicial, and legislative. The three branches are distinct and have checks and balances on each other. In this way, no one branch can gain absolute power or abuse the power they are given Separation of Powers Understanding that a government's role is to protect individual rights, but acknowledging that governments have historically been the major violators of these rights, a number of measures have been derived to reduce this likelihood. The concept of Separation of Powers is one such measure. The premise behind the Separation of Powers is that when a single person or group has a large amount of power, they can become dangerous to citizens. The Separation of Power is a method of removing the amount of power in any group's hands, making it more difficult to abuse. The US government has a partial Separation of Powers. It distinguishes between three groups. The Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial. They are distinguished by the kind of power they wield. The Legislative branch has the ability to enact laws. The Executive branch has the ability to see those laws enforced. The Judicial branch has the ability to decide the guilt of a party, allowing punishment. If a single group shared all three powers, they would have unlimited power. They could specify any law, arresting the 'criminal', and then decide that they are guilty. Through the Separation of Powers, though, no group can have more than one of these powers. Only through the combined use of all three can the government use force. By requiring the consent of all three branches, it increases the likelihood that the government will not initiate violent force. There are many different ways to separate the powers of a government. The US, for instance, requires those that declare war to be different from those that execute the war. Only by combining the two can a war be declared. Also, the Legislative branch is further broken into two, each with separate responsibilities and powers. By any number of possible separations, a government can be made safer for its citizens.

This doctrine is being carried out until this modern day that it is now incorporated in the constitutions of many states. Among which is the United States of America. Kilbourne vs. Thompson, 103 US 168, 190, 25L.ed. 377, ruled: It operates to maintain the legislative powers to the legislative department, executive powers to the executive department, and those which are judicial in character to the judiciary. Through this allocation of powers, the person entrusted shall not be permitted to encroach upon the power confided to the others, but that each shall, by the law of its creation, be limited to the exercise of the powers appropriate to its own department and no other. There must be independence and equity of the several departments. In essence, the separation of powers means that the making of the laws belongs to Congress, the execution of the laws is to the executive and the settlement of controversies rests in the Judiciary. Each is prevented from invading the domain of the others. The purpose of the separation of powers is to prevent concentration of authority in one department and thereby avoid tyranny. The separation of powers however should not be interpreted as complete separation and absolute exclusion. The doctrine carries that although the three branches are not subject to the control by either of the others and each is supreme within its own sphere, they are still equal and coordinate. Equal because they all derive their powers from the same common sovereign through the constitution. And coordinate because they cannot simply ignore the acts done by other departments as nugatory and not binding.

CHECK AND BALANCE

The national government is divided into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. These three branches are not independent of one another because the Constitution set up a system of checks and balances to help ensure that no one branch became too powerful. Each branch has powers that it can use to check and balance the operations and power of the other two branches. Following is a look at the specific checks that each branch has been given. Checks and Balances of the Legislative Branch The Legislative Branch is given the powers to make the laws. It has the following checks over the Executive Branch:

DOCTRINE OF SEPARATION OF POWERS Originally suggested by Aristotle in his treatise on Politics, and later on recognized by Marsiglio of Padua, Cromwell, Locke and Montesquieu, the doctrine of separation enunciates the idea of grouping the powers of government into three classes and of their apportionment among three coordinate departments, separate from and independent of each other.

May override presidential vetoes with a two-thirds vote Has the power over the purse strings to actually fund any executive actions May remove the president through impeachment Senate approves treaties Senate approves presidential appointments

The Legislative Branch has the following checks over the Judicial Branch:

Creates lower courts May remove judges through impeachment Senate approves appointments of judges

overridden or appointees have been rejected, these occasions are rare. The system was meant to keep the three branches in balance. Even though there have been times when one branch has risen preeminent, overall the three branches have achieved a workable balance with no one branch holding all the governmental power. Checks and Balances Understanding that a government's role is to protect individual rights, but acknowledging that governments have historically been the major violators of these rights, a number of measures have been derived to reduce this likelihood. Checks and Balances is one potential method. Checks and Balances is a system where people in the government are able to impede the work of others in the government if they believe the work to be a violation of rights. In the US government, if one branch of the government becomes irresponsible, the other two branches have the ability to remove members of the first from office. This is called impeachment. Another form of Checks and Balances is requiring two branches to work together to enact certain decisions. Treaties, for instance, require the President and the Senate to both agree. One group may prevent another group from acting by withholding support. This is easier in practice then trying to undo the actions of a rogue party. The Checks part of the Checks and Balances is pretty straightforward. The Balances, on the other hand, is a little more difficult to grasp. Essentially, it is an attempt to keep the power of the government evenly divided into many hands, to prevent one group from becoming dominant. Since all three branches have checks on each other, the checks are used as a way of balancing the power. The branch that is grabbing too much power is limited via the actions of the others. Checks and Balances are created to limit the power of the government. It achieves it by splitting the government into competing groups that can actively limit the power of the others. This is more likely to be done when a group is trying to use its power illegitimately. Depending on how they are enacted, though, the Checks and Balances scheme can conflict with a Separation of Powers system. By allowing the other branches to have undue influence on the actions of the first group, they will expand their own power. Also, when a sharing of responsibilities occurs, the groups have incentives to work with each other to gain power, instead of against each other to limit power. The Presidential veto in the US is an example. The President has such significant power over the Legislature that he is able to demand certain provisions in the bills they pass or he will veto. The result is that the President works closely with the Legislative to increase Federal Power, and the alleged "check" on the Legislature did nothing to prevent an increase of power.

Checks and Balances of the Executive Branch The Executive Branch is given the power to carry out the laws. It has the following checks over the Legislative Branch:

Veto power Ability to call special sessions of Congress Can recommend legislation Can appeal to the people concerning legislation and more

The Executive Branch has the following checks over the Judicial Branch:

President appoints Supreme Court and other federal judges

Checks and Balances of the Judicial Branch The Judicial Branch is given the power to interpret the laws. It has the following checks over the Executive Branch:

Judges, once appointed for life, are free from controls from the executive branch

Courts can judge executive actions to be unconstitutional through the power of judicial review The Judicial Branch has the following checks over the Legislative Branch:

Courts can judge legislative acts to be unconstitutional.

The American system of checks and balances has worked well over the course of America's history. Even though some huge clashes have occurred when vetoes have been