University of the Immaculate Conception

Philippine Politics and Governance

Members:
Paolo Macasero
Peter Tan
Norbea May L. Rodriguez
Steffi Alex Monique Andaya

Our reflection about the discussion which is legislative is it is related to making of

the law or having the power to make a law. We learned that there are two houses
under legislative which is the senate and the house of representative in which they
have different qualifications, composition of members, and etc. The senate is
composes of 24 senator and the limit their terms with no more than two terms while
the House of the representatives has three terms.

We also reflect that qualifications of the senate and the House of representatives
has differences and similarities, the difference of their qualifications is the members
of the senate must be At least 35 years old on the day of election and resident of the
Philippines for not less than 2 years immediately coming before the day of the
election, while the members of the house of the representative must be at least 25
years of age on the election day and a resident thereof, for a period of not less than
one (1) year preceding the election day. The similarities of the qualification between
the two is a natural born citizen of the Philippines, able to read and write, and a
registered voter.

Aside from that, we also reflect that making law is not easy as what we think
because it has many procedures to follow and it is called a bill. A bill is a draft which
needs to be approve by the President after three (3) readings. The bill is contain of
title, preamble, enacting clause, body of the statute, and effectivity clause which is
passed to the legislature for enactment. Every reading has different process wherein
the first reading is the title of the bill is read and the Speaker refers it to the proper
committee for consideration, second reading is the entire bill is read before the
chamber and it is at this stage that the bill will be debated and amended and third
reading is only the title of the bill is read. No amendment is allowed at this stage. If
the bill is approved, it shall be transmitted to the President for his approval.

We also learned that the two houses is also granted the power of the congress
which is Power of Legislative Investigation in which The two houses of the congress
and their respective committees are authorized by the constitution to conduct
investigations, Power of Appropriation sometimes referred to as the power of the
purse, is exercised by congress through the enactment of an appropriation law,
Power of Taxation is the power to impose taxes and lastly, Non-legislative powers in
which the congress is also vested under the constitution such other powers,
non-legislative in nature such as the power to declare the existence of war (section
23 (1), the power to concur in presidential amnesties (section 21) and the power to
impeach the President.

To conclude, we have learned a lot about Legislative power and reflected that
this power is not easy to handle.