1.

We have learned that a working democracy should have four elements: (1) Competition
and Separation of powers; (2) Participation of the citizens; (3) Rule of Law; (4)
Upholding the rights of the citizens. Assess whether or not each element is present in the
Philippines right now and provide examples to support your claims. 
          Democracy according to Christiano refers to the method in which the decision
making is made by group and it’s identified by the equal treatment among participants at the
crucial stage of making decision (2018). Philippines is a democratic country in its nature. It
shows the freedom of all Filipino citizens and the rights they all have to preserve their human
rights. Is Philippines possess a functional democracy? In order to do that Philippines must
possess its four elements namely: competition and separate powers, participation of the
citizens, having rule of law, and upholding the rights of the citizens. 
          To maintain the fairness and equality, the power must be separated where authority
would not easily controlled but if it happens, the nature of democracy of the country would
be criticize. The formation of executive, legislative, and judicial shows that powers are
distributed to this branches where there's no power ranking and equality of authority was
presented among them but they have the same goal of providing protection to its citizen.
Moreover, these constitutions have their own duties and powers. For instance, the revival of
death penalty in Philippines. According to Galvez (2020), the president asks the congress to
re-impose the capital punishment due to increasing rate of crimes related to drugs but the
senate rejected it because it violates the International Law. The power of decision must
approve by all in order to pass the death penalty bill however the rejection of legislative
(senate) to impose it will be matter since they have the power to decide on their own which
will be based on the possible outcome that would conflict with other law.  
          The democracy of the state is mainly focus on the freedom and authority came from its
citizen to decide fairly that would benefit them and the state. Therefore, the participation of
all the Filipinos in the Philippines is important in making decision for the state. The voice and
action of all the Filipinos is important by providing their opinion and the rights to accepts
or rejects the bill that the house release that could affects the final decision of executive
constitution. As stated in Article 5 Section 2 of 1987 Constitution or the rights of every
Filipinos to vote when they reached the legal age. The participation of citizens in the election
will contribute to the well-being of the state in the future. Their freedom to choose whose
personnel they would select to seat in the government will be the basis on what path way of
the country they trying to make. On the other hand, in terms of their expressing of opinion,
according to the Asian Parliamentarians for Human Right (2020), Students in Manila are
protesting about the abolishment of death penalty in the Philippines. The freedom of speech
is shown as they are protesting about the rejection of the re-imposition of death penalty in
Philippines. 
          Rule of Law promotes justice, fairness, and freedom individually. The state is creating
a better place that is safe and secured. The law give justice to any wrong-doings act
and balance the power in the state that supported by it. According to Inquirer Research
(2019), Janeth Lim-Napoles was accused of plundering for 10 years using the fake non-
government organizations. In this case Napoles is said to be the mastermind of pork barrel
scam where billions of funds were missing. Judicial investigate the case of Napoles which
result to the verdict of an estafa case. The rule of law was applied to her as she receive what
punishment she deserve in order to achieve justice and truth about the allegation.  
          Upholding the rights of the citizens or Article III - Bill of Rights. This is the rights of
every citizen in the country. They are protecting the personal/private space of every Filipino
by making law. An example of this, is searching of the houses without search warrant is a
violation of human rights. As stated in Article 3, Section 2 in 1987 Philippines
Constitution or the no arrest or search without any legal/valid warrant. Any action on
invading the personal property of a person is a crime without his/her permission. This law
upholding the rights of everyone and they should know what rights they have in order to
protect themselves.  
          In conclusion, the Philippines is a functional democracy because it possess all the
elements such as the separation of powers, participants of citizens, rule of law, and the
upholding the rights of the citizens. The law provides justice to any wrong-doings acts and it
also protects everyone by implementing this law and punish all the people who deserved to
be punished. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

References: 
Author Unknown (ND). The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines. Official
Gazette. Retrieved from https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-
constitution/#article-iii 
Author Unknown (ND). The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philppines –Article
V. Official Gazette. Retrieved from
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/the-1987-constitution-of-the-
republic-of-the-philippines/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-philippines-
article-v/ 
Author Unknown (2019, April 2). In the Know: Janet-Lim Napoles and the pork barrel
scam. Inquirer.Net. Retrieved from https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1102082/in-the-
know-janet-lim-napoles-and-the-pork-barrel-scam 
Christiano, T. (2018). Democracy. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (fall 2018 Edition). Retrieved from
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/democracy/ 
Galve, D. (2020, August 5). After Duterte push, House tackles death penalty bills amid
pandemic. Inquirer.Net. Retrieved from https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1316941/after-
duterte-push-house-tackles-death-penalty-bills-amid-pandemic