SECTION 15.

The Congress shall convene once every year on

the
fourth Monday of July for its regular session, unless
a different
date is fixed by law, and shall continue to be in
session for such
number of days as it may determine until thirty
days before the
opening of its next regular session, exclusive of
Saturdays,
Sundays, and legal holidays. The President may call
a special
session at any time.

Sessions of Congress
(1) Regular Session - Congress shall convene
once every year on the fourth Monday of July for its
regular session unless a different date is fixed by law.
Once it is convened, the session shall continue for such
number of days as it may determine until 30 days before
opening of its next regular session, exclusive of Saturdays,
Sundays and legal holidays. There is, however, no
prohibition from holding sessions on Saturdays, Sundays,
and legal holidays.
Congress shall be virtually in session for the entire
year. It is only proper that it be on the job throughout the
year. Law making is a full-time obligation and not a mere
sideline. Members of Congress receive fixed yearly
income.
During a regular session, the Congress may legislate
on any matter it deems fit.

(2) Special Sessions - It takes place when the

President calls
Congress, during the time that it is in recess, to session to
consider such subjects or legislations as he may
designate. Its duration is not limited by the Constitution.
The President may designate the subjects in his
proclamation or special message calling Congress to a
special session, but the power of Congress is not limited to
the subjects specified. It may enact Iaws relating to other
subjects. The President may also limit the duration of the
session but once it is already in special session, Congress
may determine the duration in accordance with the needs
and exigencies of the business before it.
Secret meetings of Congress or any of its committees
are called executive sessions. A closed session is held if
the issue to be discussed involves national security.

SECTION 16.
(1) The Senate shall elect its President and the
House of Representatives its Speaker, by a majority
vote of all its respective Members.
Each House shall choose such other officers, as
it may deem necessary.

Officers of Congress
1) Congress shall, by a majority vote of all its
respective members, elect the Senate President and
Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Senate
President and the Speaker hold their office at the pleasure
of the respective member of both Houses.
2) Each House is authorized to choose such other
officers as it may deem necessary, such as Senate
President/Speaker Pro-Tempore, a floor leader, a secretary,
a sergeant-at-arms, a disbursing officer, technical
assistants, etc. The rules of the present House of
Representatives provide for the election of three (3)
Deputy Speakers in place of one (1) Speaker Pro-Tempore.
It is important that the officers of both Houses be
elected at the earliest possible time so that they can get
organized into a working body to perform their
constitutional duties and functions.

Powers and functions of Senate President and

House Speaker
The Constitution does not define the powers and
functions of the Senate President and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives. They are, however, implied
from their position as administrative heads and presiding
officers of their respective chambers. As such, they
preside over their sessions, preserve order and decorum,
decide all questions of order, sign acts, resolutions, orders
and warrants, issue subpoenas, and appoint personnel,
and discipline them.
Other powers may be given to them by the rules of
their respective Houses for purpose of efficient staff
services of legislative work.

(2) A majority of each House shall constitute a

quorum to do business, but a smaller number may
adjourn from day to day and may compel the
attendance of absent Members in such manner, and
under such penalties, as such House may provide.

Meaning of quorum
- A number of the membership of an assembly or
collective body as is competent to transact its
business; or it is that number that makes a lawful
body and gives it power to pass a law or ordinance
or do any other valid corporate act.

Basis of quorum in each House

- The basis of the quorum is not the number of all
the members who constitute the entire
membership of each House. Members suspended
or otherwise prevented from participating in the
functions of either House or who for the time being
may be outside the Philippines and on whom
Congress has, therefore, no coercive power to
enforce its authority and command, should not be
counted.

Adjournment in absence of quorum

- In the absence of a quorum, a smaller number may
adjourn from day to day and may compel the
attendance of absent members in such manner,
and under such penalties, as each House may
provide. This smaller body is competent to issue
 orders for the arrest of the absent members and to
choose an acting Senate President or Acting
Speaker as an emergency measure. Without the
above power of each House, members who refuse
to attend its sessions could obstruct legislative
work.

(3) Each House may determine the rules of its

proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly
behavior, and, with the concurrence of two- thirds
of all its Members, suspend or expel a member. A
penalty of suspension, when imposed, shall not
exceed sixty days.

Meaning and function of rules of procedure

Rules of procedure are the rules made by any
legislative body to regulate the mode and manner of
conducting its business. The procedure and rules to be
observed in its deliberations; election of officers; penalties
to be imposed upon erring members; and many other
kindred matters, are proper subjects of the rules of
procedure.

Limitations on power to determine rules

The rules promulgated should not ignore
constitutional restraints or violate fundamental rights.
They cannot repeal or alter statutes. The reason for this is
that the Constitution and statutes are superior to the
internal rules of Congress.

Nature of power of each House to punish its

members
It is a power of protection. A member may be
physically, mentally, or morally unfit, or afflicted with
contagious disease, or insane, or noisy, or violent and
disorderly, or in the habit of using profane, obscene and
abusive language. Even in the absence of parliamentary
customs and practices, legislative bodies have the power
to protect themselves by the punishment and expulsion of
a member.
The fact that the Constitution expressly gives each
House the power to punish its members for disorderly
behavior does not imply that it has no power to punish for
contempt any other person.
Punishment may take the form of reprimand, fine,
forfeiture of salary, imprisonment, suspension, and
expulsion.

Votes required
To suspend or expel a member, the concurrence of
two-thirds of all the members of each House is necessary.
If the penalty is suspension, this shall not exceed 60 days.

Each House sole judge of disorderly behavior

The courts are not authorized to control, revise, or
forbid the exercise by Congress of its power to punish a
member for disorderly behavior. It must necessarily be the
sole judge of what constitutes disorderly behavior not only
because the Constitution has conferred jurisdiction upon
it, but because the matter mainly depends on factual
circumstances of which said body knows best.

(4) Each House shall keep a Journal of its

proceedings, and from time to time publish the
same, excepting such parts as may, in its judgment,
affect national security; and the yeas and nays on
any question shall, at the request of one-fifth of the
Members present, be entered in the Journal.
Each House shall also keep a Record of its
proceedings.

Meaning of legislative Journal

- official record of what is done and passed in a
legislative assembly. It is so called because
proceedings are entered therein in chronological
order as they occur from day to day.

Purpose of journal-keeping requirement

- to ensure publicity of the proceedings of Congress,
and a corresponding responsibility of the members
to their respective constituents.

Matters to be entered in the journal

 1) The yeas (affirmative votes) and nays (negative
votes) on any question, at the request of one-fifth of the
members present.
2) The yeas and nays on the passage of a bill upon its
last reading. Even in the absence of a request to that
effect as it is of great importance that such vote be
recorded so that the people may know the stand of their
representatives on a particular measure;
3) Such other matters which ech House in its
discretion may direct to be so entered in the journal;
4) The yeas and nays on the repassage of a bill
vetoed by the President and the names of the members of
each House voting for or against; and
5) The vote of each member of the House of
Representatives in impeachment cases.
Matters that in the judgment of each House affect
national security shall also have to be entered in the
journal but they shall ne excepted from publication.
Each House shall also keep a Record of its
proceedings.

(5) Neither House during the sessions of the

Congress shall, without the consent of the other,
adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other
place than that in which the two Houses shall be
sitting.

Adjournment by either House without consent of

the other
During the sessions of Congress, either House may
adjourn for not more than 3 days. Without the consent of
the other, it cannot adjourn for a longer period or to some
other place than that in which the two Houses shall be
sitting.
Without the rule on adjournment, a House can delay
or hold up the work of legislation. Every bill passed by
either House has to be voted upon by other before it is
presented to the President for approval.
SECTION 17
The Senate and the House of Representatives
shall each have an Electoral Tribunal, which shall be
the sole judge of all contests relating to the
election, returns, and qualifications of their
respective Members. Each Electoral Tribunal shall
be composed of nine Members, three of whom shall
be Justices of the Supreme Court to be designated
by the Chief Justice, and the remaining six shall be
Members of the Senate or the House of
Representatives, as the case may be, who shall be
chosen on the basis of proportional representation
from the political parties and the parties or
organizations registered under the party-list
system represented therein. The senior Justice in
the Electoral Tribunal shall be its Chairman.