SCHOOL NAME

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

First Semester S.Y. 2020-2021

MODULE 14
PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND
GOVERNANCE

Name: _______________________________ Date :__________

Grade/Section: ________________________ Week : 14
Track/Strand: _________________________

Lesson 14 CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND

GOVERNMENT
WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?
This chapter concerns itself with a discussion of Philippine politics and government in
the contemporary era. To discuss such, the chapter is divided into three parts. The first part
shall dwell on the state level. In this light, the book shall talk about the government structure
(executive, legislative, and judicial branches) and the political institutions that we have. The
second part of the chapter shall deal with societal politics. Hence, this part shall deal with the
kind of political culture the Philippines has. The last part of the chapter shall tackle the relations
between state and society in contemporary Philippines. In this context, we are going to use the
state-society approach discussed to understand the dynamics between state and society in the
Philippines.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO LEARN?

Content Standard:
 The learners demonstrate an understanding of contemporary Philippine
politics and government.
Performance Standard:
 The learners explain the roles of different political institutions.
Objectives:
After the lesson, the learners should be able to:
1. articulate definitions of politics and government in contemporary era;
2. differentiate the various views on politics;
3. discuss the nature of Philippine Government; and
4. evaluate the effect of the previous era to the Contemporary government.

PRELIMINARY ACTIVITY
Make a caricature about the description of the contemporary government of the
Philippines. Use the space provided below.
 THE PHILIPPINE STATE AND GOVERNMENT

Let us first tackle the form of government the Philippines has. Using the different forms
that we tackled in the previous lesson, let us identify the Philippine government.

ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF RULERS

The Philippines is a democratic and republican state (1987) Constitution, Article L, and
Section 1). We are a democratic government because "sovereignty resides in the people." This
would mean that the supreme power of the state comes from its people. Hence, the most
powerful entity in the country is its people. More particularly, the state is ruled by majority of
its people. However, it should be noted that it does not mean that the people shall govern
themselves. Apparently, we are also a republican state. Being a republican state would mean
that we must vote for our representatives in government. Thus, these representatives that we
vote should represent our interests not their own. The logic is that they were voted to represent
the Filipinos and not themselves. In this lieu, it can be discerned that the most important
political process in the Philippines is the elections. Basically, this is where we can witness direct
political participation because this is the time wherein we choose our leaders. Analogously, this
is where the power of the people is transferred to the elected officials thru CONSENT. With
this process, the Philippines has a democratic government in light of Aristotle's typology.

ACCORDING TO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE

The Philippines has a presidential form of government. The reason is that the executive
and legislative branches are independent of each other. Thus, the executive branch - the one in
charge of rule implementation works without the intervention of legislators. The same can be
said for the legislative branch when it comes to its rule making duty. The executive branch of
the government is composed of the President and the Cabinet members and secretaries (for the
national level) and the Chief Executives like Governors, Mayors, and Barangay Chairmen (for
the local level). The legislative branch in the Philippines refers to the members of the Congress
(Senate and House of Representatives) and the local legislators from the Sangguniang
Panlalawigan, and Panglungsod.

The basic idea of separation of powers is to promote checks and balances among the
different branches of government. This is to avoid any abuse of power from a particular branch.
However, this is only true in theory. In reality, the President - part of the executive branch is
considered to be the most powerful in the context of the Philippines. The reason is that he/she
has certain control mechanisms and influence that no one would dare defy the President's
prerogative and decision. This is the reason why, after elections, most of the legislators would
transfer immediately to the political party of the Winning Presidential candidate. This is to
allow them to receive favors from the President.

Even if this is the true, there are still political mechanisms that allow the legislative
branch to check and balance the President. One this is their power to override the veto power
of the President. Essentially, when the Congress enacts laws, they need the signature of the
President so that the bill will become a law. If, unfortunately, the President did not like at least
one word from the bill, he/she can veto the bill. Once the bill gets vetoed, it will go back to the
Congress. This is where they will decide to change the bill to the liking of the executive or they
can override the veto by 2/3 vote. If they decide to override the veto, there will be an election
whether to override the President's veto or not. If 2/3 of the members of the Congress the
Senate and the House of Representatives must vote separately here decided to override the
veto, then, the vetoed bill will become a law even if the President does not like it. If they fail to
reach the required number of votes, then, the bill will not become a law. Hence, this process
shows you the value of the separation of powers.
ACCORDING TO THE DISTRIBUTION OF AUTHORITY

Generally, the Philippines has a unitary form of government in light of this category.
The reason is that the powers are still centralized in the national government. This means that
the national government can still meddle with the affairs of the local government even if it
would just be supervisory in nature. However, because of the Local Government Code of 1991,
there are already federal elements in the Philippines. The autonomy given to the local
governments allow them to decide for themselves with certain issues. For example, local
governments are allowed to find their own means to increase their finances. Moreover, the
existence of an autonomous region in the Philippines (ARMM or Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao; this will become the Bangsamoro once the Bangsamoro Bill is passed) shows
attempts at federalism, Technically, then, the Philippines can be considered to be a combination
of unitary and federal elements when it comes to this category of the different forms of
government. Hence, the term pseudo-Federal was coined to describe the Philippines.

ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF LEGISLATIVE CHAMBERS

The Philippines has a bicameral legislature. Basically, the legislature is composed of

two chambers the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate is considered to be the
upper house between the two because it has national constituency. They are voted nationally.
The Senate is composed of 24 Senators. Each senator would serve six (6) years per term of
election and they can serve for two consecutive terms. The members of the House of
Representatives can be categorized into two. The first group is composed of the district
representatives. These district representatives are voted from each legislative district in the
Philippines. The second group is composed of the sectoral representatives or the party-list
representatives. They represent the marginalized sector in society. The members of the House
of Representatives serve three (3) years per term of election and they can serve for three
consecutive terms.

In light of policy-making, the proposal must be done simultaneously. This means that a
certain bill must have similar, or at least almost similar, versions in each of the houses. It will
undergo three readings from each chamber. Then, after the readings from each house, there will
be a bicameral committee to assure that the two versions are consistent with each other. The
final version will now be submitted to the President for signature. This is when the President
will decide if the bill will become a law. Apparently, the problem here is that there is a
possibility that law making will be slow. The reason is that there is a need for both chambers to
be finished before a bill can be examined by the bicameral committee. However, even if this is
the case, the advantage of this kind of bicameral system is that the laws will be examined well
since there are two chambers.

ACCORDING TO LEGITIMACY

In light of this category, the Philippines is a de jure government. The reason is that the
Philippine government is established in a legal or constitutional manner. The government
officials are all elected legally. However, the government established after the EDSA People
Power in 1986 can be considered a de facto government. The reason is that the government was
established by thru an extra-judicial mean.

ACCORDING TO POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

The Philippines is a liberal democracy. It follows the ideology of liberalism (Read

Chapter 3 for a better understanding). The main characteristic of this kind of government is the
existence of a free, fair, and regular election. Aside from elections, the Philippine government
also emphasizes freedom, human rights, and rule of law. In this light, the Philippines just
followed the trend of democratization of the world. As Francis Fukuyama has remarked, liberal
democracy (and capitalism) has triumphed"- it is the end of history.
THE DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

As discussed, the government has three (3) branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.
Each branch has a specific function different from the others. The executive branch is in charge
of rule-implementation. The legislative branch is tasked with rule-making. The task of the
judicial branch is rule-adjudication or rule-implementation. Theoretically, they are considered
to be co-equal branches. Hence, there is no one branch who must dominate the others.
Apparently, this is the principle of separation of powers which aspires for checks and balances.
This part of the chapter shall tackle the different branches of the government 'in the Philippines.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

In the national level, the executive branch is composed of the President and the Cabinet
members and secretaries. They are in charge of implementing the laws and policies of the state.
For the Cabinet members do not have any clear qualification since they are appointed by the
President. However, in the case of the President, here are the qualifications:

1. Natural-born Filipino.

2. At least 40 years of age on the day of the election.

3. Registered Voter.

4. Able to Read and Write.

5. Resident of the Philippines for ten (10) years preceding elections.

These same qualifications also apply for the Vice-President. Both of them will serve for
six (6) years. However, they cannot run again for the same position once they are voted. In case
of death or incapacity of the President, the one who should replace him/her is the Vice-
President. If this happens, the replacement President must appoint someone who can replace
the vacated post of the Vice-President. The replacement President is just assumed to finish the
term of the previous one. Thus, he/she can still run for the position unless he/she has served
for four (4) years.

Let us take for example the case of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The
former was ousted by the infamous EDSAA People Power II. He has served for three (3) years
from 1998-2001. The current Vice-President at that time is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She
replaced Estrada and finished the remaining three (3) years of the term. Arroyo was still able to
run for another term for presidency in 2004 because she only served for 3 years. Thus, they just
followed the Constitution.

In case of Estrada running in 2010, there are two perspectives. On one hand, the pro-
Estrada lawyers interpreted his ouster as a disruption of his term. Consequently, he must be
allowed to run because he did not finish his term. On the other hand, the anti-Estrada lawyers
exclaimed that the removal of Estrada does not mean that the term was disrupted. It just
happens that Arroyo finished the term of Estrada. Hence, it was not yet the term of Arroyo but
it is just the continuation of Estrada's term.

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

The legislative branch of the Philippines is the Congress. The Philippine Congress is
bicameral in nature. In this context, it has two chambers: the Senate and the House of
Representatives. The Senate is considered to be the upper house because they are voted
nationally. There are twenty-four (24) senators who will serve six (6) years per term per election.
They can only serve for two (2) consecutive terms. The following are the qualifications for a
Senator:

 Natural-born Filipino.
 At least 35 years of age on the day of the election.
 Registered Voter
  Able to Read and Write.
 Resident of the Philippines for at least two (2) years immediately preceding the
elections.

The lower chamber of the legislative branch is the House of Representatives. There is no
exact number of members because it depends on the number of legislative districts and the
number of party list representatives who will get their seats. Each member of the house shall
serve for three (3) years and three consecutive terms. The following are the qualifications for a
member of the House or Representatives:

1. Natural-born citizen.

2. At least 25 years of age on the day of the election (if the representative comes from the
youth, the 25 years of age requirement does not apply).

3. Registered voter

4. Able to Read and Write (does not apply for the party-list representatives).

5. At least 1 year residence preceding the elections.

As already been discussed, the main duty of the legislative branch is to make laws. This
is a summary of the law making process - how a bill becomes a law:

1. A proposal can come from any of the two chambers.

2. It has to undergo three readings (it must be noted that the three readings must happen
simultaneously in the two houses). The first reading basically introduces the proposal.
The title is read and it will undergo scrutiny. The second reading is seen as the most
crucial part. This is the part wherein all the possible discussions and debates happen.
During this phase, the bill is scrutinized by the members of Congress. The third reading
is when the bicameral committee comes in. The two versions - one from the House and
one from the Senate is put together and consistency must be checked.

3. Once both versions have been synthesized, the bill is passed to the President for his
perusal. Once the President signs the bill, it becomes a law. The President also has the
option to veto or reject the bill. Once it is rejected, it will go back to the Congress and
they have the option to change it, disregard it, or override the veto by a 2/3 vote. If the
veto is overridden, the bill automatically becomes a law, it the President did not act
upon the bill, it will become a law after ten (10) days of inaction.

Aside from law-making, the legislature has other powers and functions. The following
are the other functions of the Congress:

 Approving of appointments
 Settlement of electoral protests
 Approval of Martial Law (Thru a 2/3 vote)
 Investigation (for as long as it is in the aid of legislation)
 Pseudo-judicial powers (eg. Impeachment)
 Parliamentary Immunity

JUDICIAL BRANCH
 The judicial branch in the Philippines is composed of the different courts. Arguably, the
judicial branch is expected to be the most independent among branches. In fact, this is the only
branch of government that does not find itself in fusion with the other two branches. The duty
of this branch of government is rule-adjudication or rule-interpretation. Essentially, the
judicial branch is in charge of determining the constitutionality of the law. Also, in case of
conflicts of law, it is the one that decides on which one is correct. The highest court in the
country is known as the Supreme Court. It is composed of one (1) Chief Justice and fourteen
(14) Associate Justices. All of them are appointed by the President from a short-list is given by
the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

Here are the qualifications for you to be part of the Supreme Court:

1. Natural-born Filipino citizen.

2. At least 40 years of age.

3. Must have 15 years or more experience as judge or law practice in the Philippines.

4. A person of proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence.

These branches of government in the Philippines work independently. However, it

should be recognized that they still interact to make sure that there is a proper functioning of
government. In this case, a deadlock among and between these branches would not be good
because it might hinder the progress of the Philippines. Let us now move on to the discussion
on the different political institutions that we have.

ASSESSMENT

Complete the table. Write the concept on the proper column.

 Branch of the
Qualifications Components Power Responsibilities
Government

1. 1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2. 2.

Executive
3. 3. 3. 3.

4. 4. 4. 4.

1. 1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2. 2.

Legislative 3. 3. 3. 3.

4. 4. 4.

1. 1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2. 2.

Judiciary
3. 3. 3.

4. 4. 4.

TEACHER’S FEEDBACK
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REFERENCE

Francisco, P. & Francisco, V. (2016). Philippine Politics and Governance for Senior High School.
Mindshappers Co., Inc., Intamuros, Manila.