Powers of Congress

Notes by: Clifford Enoc1

The Powers of Congress may be classified generally into two categories:

 Legislative Power
 Non-Legislative Power

These powers are expressly conferred by the Constitution. From such express
powers may be derived some implied powers, such as the power to punish contempt
in legislative investigations. The Congress also possesses inherent powers, such as
the determination of its rules of proceedings and the discipline of its members.2

A.

Legislative Power
is the power of lawmaking, the framing and enactment of laws.
it includes the powers of appropriation, taxation, expropriation
no longer exclusive to the Congress as the people (under Section 32)
allowed the people through initiative and referendum to directly propose and
enact laws thereof passed by the Congress or local legislative body. This
procedure is now prescribed in R.A. No. 6735
the authority, under the Constitution to make laws, and to alter and repel
them.1
As vested by the Constitution in Congress, it is a derivative power and
delegated power. The Constitution is the work or will of the people themselves,
in their original, sovereign, and unlimited capacity. Law is the work or will of the
legislature in their derivative and subordinate capacity. The one is the work of
the Creator, and the other of the creature. The constitution fixes limits to the
exercise of legislative authority, and prescribes the orbit within which it must
move.2
the grant of legislative power to Congress is broad, general and
comprehensive. The legislative body possesses #plenary power for all purposes
of civil government. Any power, deemed to be legislative by usage and tradition,
is necessarily possessed by Congress, unless the Constitution has lodged it
elsewhere.3 Except as limited by the Constitution. either expressly or impliedly,
legislative power embraces all subjects and extends to all matters of general
concern or common interest.4
The power to grant immunity from prosecution is essentially a legislative
prerogative.xxx The exclusive power of Congress to define crimes and their
nature and to provide for their punishment concomitantly carries the power to
immunize certain persons from prosecution to facilitate the attainment of state
interests, among them, the solution and prosecution of crimes with high political,
social and economic impact.5 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.6

Law making under the Constitution is a joint act of the Legislature and of
the Executive. Cooperation and not separation was the operative principle.
Assuming that legislative veto is a valid legislative act with the force of law, it
cannot take effect without such presentment even if approved by both
#chambers of Congress.1

 Abakada Guro Party List v. Purisima, G.R. No. 166715, August 14, 2008
↩

Legislative power is vested in the Congress of the Philippines, consisting of

a Senate and a House of Representatives, not in a particular chamber, but in
both chambers. While the Constitution requires that the initiative for filing
revenue, tariff, or tax bills, bills authorizing an increase of the public debt, private
bills and bills of local application must come from the House of Representatives,
on the theory that, elected as they are from the districts, the members of the
House can be expected to be more sensitive to the local needs and problems,
and Senators, who are elected at large, are expected to approach the same
problem from the national perspective, both views on any of these subjects are
made to bear on the enactment of such laws.7 However, the Senate is allowed
more leeway in the exercise of its power to propose or concur with amendments
to the bills initiated exclusively by the House of Representatives.

When Separation of Power; violative

From the moment the law becomes effective, any provision of law that
empowers Congress or any of its members to play any role in the implementation
or enforcement of the law violates the principle of separation of power and is
thus unconstitutional.
 Under the principle of separation of powers, neither the Congress, the
President, nor the Judiciary may #encroach on fields allocated to the other
branches of government.1 This principle operates as an #implicit limitation on
legislative power as on the two other powers.2

 Philippine Coconut Federation, Inc. v. Republic, G.R. Nos. 17785758,

September 17, 2009, 600 SCRA 102 ↩
 Bernas, The 1987 Constitution, p. 677 ↩

The requirement that the implementing rules of a law be subjected to

approval by Congress as a condition for their effectivity violates the cardinal
constitutional principles of bicameralism and the rule of presentment.

Two Kinds of Legislative Power

 Original Legislative Power - this is the power belonging to the sovereign
people and this is supreme.
 Derivative Legislative Power - this is delegated by the sovereign people to
the legislative bodies and it is subordinate to the original power of the people.

Delegated Rule-Making Power

The principle of non-delegability should not be confused as a restriction to
delegate rule-making authority to implementing agencies for the limited purpose of
either filling up the details of the law for its enforcement (supplementary rule-
making) or ascertaining facts to bring the law into actual operation (contingent rule-
making)8.The conceptual treatment and limitations of delegated rule-making were
explained in the case of People v. Maceren9 as follows:

“ The grant of the rule-making power to administrative agencies is a relaxation of the principle
of separation of powers and is an exception to the non-delegation of legislative powers.
Administrative regulations or "subordinate legislation" calculated to promote the public interest are
necessary because of "the growing complexity of modern life, the multiplication of the subjects of
governmental regulations, and the increased difficulty of administering the law.

supplementary rule-making
filling up the details of the law for its enforcement
 contingent rule-making
ascertaining facts to bring the law into actual operation

Congress cannot pass irrepealable

laws
Judge Cooley explained the logic:

“ To say that the legislature may pass irrepealable laws, is to say that it may alter the very
constitution from which it derives its authority; since, in so far as one legislature could bind a
subsequent one by its enactments, it could in the same degree reduce the legislative power of its
successors; and the process might be repeated, until, one by one, the subject of legislation would
be excluded altogether from their control, and the constitutional provision that the legislative
power shall be vested in two houses would be to a greater or less degree rendered ineffectual.10

Related:

Non-Legislative Power
Congressional oversight
Separation of Powers

 Review Center Association of the Philippines v. Ermita, 583 SCRA 428, citing
Kilusang Mayo Uno v. Director-General, National Economic Development
Authority, 487 SCRA 623 ↩
 Vanhome's Lessee v. Dorrance, 2 Dall, 304, 308 U.S. 1795 ↩
 Vera v. Avelino, 77 Phil. 192, 212 ↩
 Ople v. Torres, 354 Phil. 948, cited in Datu Michael Abas Kida v. Senate of
the Philippines, 659 SCRA 270 ↩
 Mapa, Jr. v. Sandiganbayan, 231 SCRA 783 ↩
 Tanchanco v. Sandiganbayan, 512 Phil. 590, cited in Quarto v. the Honorable
Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, 658 SCRA 580. ↩
 Tolentino v. Secretary of Finance, 285 SCRA 630 1994 ↩
 Abakada Guro Party List v. Purisima, supra note 155, at 288. ↩
 169 Phil. 437, 447448 1977 ↩
 CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITATIONS 2467, cited in TAÑADA & CARREON,
POLITICAL LAW OF THE PHILIPPINES 24231962 ↩

B.
 Non-Legislative Power
The Congress may likewise exercise non-legislative powers. #BARA #MEMTIPS

 It may canvass presidential elections (Article VII, Section 4)

 Declare the existence of war (Article VI, Section 231])
 Confirm amnesties (Article VII, Section 19), and
 Propose amendments to or the revision of the Constitution (Article XVII,
Section 1)
 To impeach.(Article XI, Section 31])

#incomplete #draft #paksit #obsidian #lawdees

 First Year, Juris Doctor, University of San Jose Recoletos School of Law.
Personal website: www.cliffordx.com ) ↩
 Political Law, Isagani Cruz, page 269. 2014 Edition. ↩