CONGRUENCE BETWEEN LEGITIMACY AND PUBLIC TRUST WITH

THEIR EFFECTS ON THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT

A term paper submitted in partial fulfilment for the Course requirement in PSCI 6101:
Fundamentals of Political Science

Submitted by:
<name of student>
<student number>
<course>

Submitted to:
Don Emmanuel L. Nolasco
Political Science Mentor

<date>

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION

The section 1 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that the executive power shall be
vested in the President of the Philippines. Following the 1935 Charter, Section 1 vests the
executive power in one person alone – the President of the Philippines. The president is purely
an executive. He is not merely a Chief Executive though the government and the people can call
him that, but it is only accurate to refer to him as the Executive. The executive power means
carrying the laws into practical operation and enforcing their due observance.

Our government, being democratic, follows the law of our constitution. The government
was provided a law which will help the country be in order. The government, being governed by
one person – the Executive or the President – puts the country in order. He is also to follow the
law which was made. He will only become a legitimate president if he wins the election. Thus, the
president also undergoes the system of direct voting.

The Constitution retains the system of direct popular election of the President despite criticism for
abetting massive vote buying and other undesirable practices. This is considered more
democratic and more in keeping with the Filipino culture and tradition that the public individually
vote for their leader. The citizen must not be deprived of the privilege of choosing the person they
want to become their leader. This has made people feel significant. It is also their way of
expressing and voicing out what they feel. On the part of the President, the fact that he has
popular support would enable him to muster the necessary courage to the greater good despite
his own interests. The President must be a strong national executive to who can deal effectively
with the problems and issues around the country, may it be political, economical, and social
problems, as long as it is involving the country. If a President becomes subservient or too
submissive to its members, he will only be in a position of second importance and will only be a
support to his members. He will lose the power and authority to command his forces with no
difficulty. It will be difficult to command people who only see him nothing but a puppet to their
works.

It is a good use if a person has built a nice and excellent impression on the public. Putting aside
that he could use it in the election, he could also gather up strong alliances and troops. A strong
alliance with famous or popular people has more chance of winning than those who are excellent
in the lawmaking but is not well-known. The public tend to believe to what they think is right. It’s
more like blaming a fault at an object when couldn’t find a reasonable excuse that will fit the
problem.

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As the President becomes legitimate, he will take over the governing of the country and lead it to
its development. He will use his power to execute laws. He must also work with the two other
branches of the government, the legislative and the judiciary. These branches of government
have equal power. It is more like a triangle which will not be able to stand if the other part is
missing or not functioning well. But that is not the start of the real battle of a President. If the other
part of the base falls off, the triangle will not be able to stand, therefore, the government will
immediately experienced its downfall. Once the news of the decreasing power and weak defence
of the government spread, people (could be the public who opposes the administration or other
organization or country) outside the government may take advantage of it. It might even be a start
of a spark of rebellion or worse, a war. People might use times like this to make agreements with
the President that will benefit the country temporarily and might even be the cause of its downfall
afterwards. Such times will be dangerous for the President so as the country. But if the president
could rebuild the other branches of the government, it might lead to good outcomes. It would help
other countries to realize the worth and excellence of the President which will lead to helping him
and swearing to become allies.

DISCUSSION

Under presidential system of government having three equal branches, in which the executive is
one, several conflicts would have been vital to the immediate decay of all three in just one
misinterpretation in the rule of law. Checks and balances are the main concern of this kind of
government; thus, the executive in particular has its own executive power. In contrast, loop holes
(legally) to consider by the two other branches. Legislative and the judiciary branches are the
other backbones of a democratic setting of governance in which bureaucratic flow of authoritative
policy comes in, similar on both branches. In this sense, executive branch has far less extensive
concentration in terms of bureaucratic governance. On the other hand, upon this lesser pressure
coming from rules and regulations, issue on legitimacy became vital to the executive’s nature of
leading a state.

In the field of political science, legitimacy is defined as the acceptance of the masses or by the
public on a political leader, the President in particular. It is how he or she and his or her projects
are being liked and supported by the citizens of the nation in totality. This also ‘measures’ how
people trust one’s regime. This is different on the meaning of authority – acknowledge right to
influence, and power – capacity to control. The President, who has the executive power in a
democratic nation like Philippines should always have the authority and power, but the success

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of his or her regime depends upon the ‘likeness’ of the people in a nation in which he serves – it’s
legitimacy that sets the success through the masses’ cooperation on his or her projects.

Democratic government requires the supreme power be bounded to the people on which they
can participate directly or indirectly through regular elections based on near universal suffrage.
This power vested to the public give them the qualification to vote and support their candidates
having the most legitimized characteristics. A popular president does not have problems on
legitimacy issues.

Let’s take the present situation of it in the Philippines. President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco
Aquino III, who is also known as PNoy, is one the most well-known president of the Republic of
the Philippines. Triggered by the death of his mother and also “The Mother of Philippine
Democracy” Former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino; he ran as President during the 2010
National Elections in which he got the sympathy of most Filipinos and had a number of votes
which totalled to 15,208,678 with 42.80 per cent of the total votes for presidency. It has been his
advantage that he got the hearts of the Philippine population for he can have their support in each
and every step he would be doing as the President. Recently, he criticized the Supreme Court
Chief Justice Renato Corona about being a midnight appointee of the Former President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo. The public supported him and led in filing impeachment case against Corona,
which is now under trial.

During the 1992 National Elections, Fidel Valdez Ramos, who is also known as FVR, has
garnered only 5,342,521 votes or 23.58 per cent of the total votes, but he was the one, among
the candidates, who got the highest number of votes and so he was proclaimed as the President.
The summation of votes for him does not comprise the majority of the voters; as a result, there
had been a series of coup-d’états and strikes against him, delayed payments of taxes in which
the budget of the government comes from, and failure of his major project – to start
telecommunication services which gave way to the possible boom of telecommunication
companies like Globe and Smart and a faster way on communicating with other people. These
failed because majority of the Filipinos did not vote for him and so he was not able to get the
support from them in his projects; rather, they took all of these against him in forms of revenge.

Legitimacy of a President is very essential to be effective. If he or she is being accepted by the

public, the chance is that people will listen to what he would say or implement and follow these
rules and regulation made by the legislative department, by signed by him as the executor of
such. Moreover, it would provide lesser force for the military, which will protect the executive

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department from any harm or threat from those people who oppose him or her and his or her
performance as the executive officer.

There is what we call charismatic legitimacy. In this type of legitimacy, from the word itself, a
person or a political figure to be politically specific has this personal charisma that causes the
masses to like what he or she is doing as a public servant; thus, it would give him the cooperation
of his or her fellow countrymen. However, charismatic legitimacy may bring out both positive and
negative effect to nation. How? It usually features weak political and administrative institutions
because they only derive authority from the persona of the leader and usually disappear without
him or her in power; in contrary, a government derived from charismatic legitimacy might continue
if the charismatic leader has a successor. This happens for example, a charismatic president will
not anymore be qualified to be in service, if he or she has let his or her daughter or son to follow
his or her steps and would have the chance for them to continue what project had the earlier
started but unfinished.

Public office is all about public trust. This means that the government, which is a public institution,
excels or performs according to what extent or how the citizens trust the officers that are currently
in office, most especially to the President. People’s perspective on the effectiveness of a president
does not merely lie on the constitutional basis. It is not included or mentioned neither in the
Constitution nor under its laws and regulations that the public trust must always be present in
each and every president-elect of The Republic. Public trust is being determined by the people;
so the power of a president in a democratic nation like Philippines lies on it. Because power is all
about control, a president won’t be able to have the power over his or her fellow people if they
don’t possess any trust on him; therefore, he cannot control these people with his words.

All presidents being elected by the people in a democratic government have the same
qualifications and rights but differ when it comes on the aspect of legitimacy capacity. If you were
to compare the legitimacy capacity of the present President, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino
III and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, you would be able to see the effect of
legitimacy on one’s regime. PNoy presently receives positive 70 percent of trust rating from the
Filipino public while during GMA’s term the last statistics recorded by the PulseAsia was negative
50 per cent. PNoy’s administration receives outmost support from the people because they lay
their trust on him. On the other way around, people don’t trust former President Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo’s administration anymore and so it becomes hard for her to successfully gain the support
she need in each and every thing she implemented; in fact, most of her project were being
contradicted by the people because they already put on their minds they don’t trust her and

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everything that she does was all wrong. In our case here in the Philippines, a democratic country,
the issue concerning legitimacy is very crucial. Unlike authoritarian-type government in which all
are being mandated by the leader, in democratic countries it is very impossible for the constitution
to dictate legitimacy. It depends upon the personal view of a person whether they would offer
support or not on him and his regime.

The executive branch intervening the legislative branch is a normal scene on political angle in a
democratic way and maybe offending but have enough weight on constitutional support, for
instance the executive order is a prerogative power only present in the office of the president. In
line with this intertwining role on both branches, it is still a need to have such overwhelming
authority to enable the president to counter any legislative measures that seemed to be offending,
in that manner, the president had exercised his power to defend his citizens because for the
public, the president is the highest and most authoritative official in the land and this view should
be given importance.

CONCLUSION

Legitimacy of the president is one of the most important thing for them to be more effective being
a leader in his own nation. It has the need of public trust, in which it enables our fellow men to
give their trust for the president to be a responsible leader of our country. A part of the social
responsibility of the president is to do a lot of hard work for the good of all citizens. From defending
and give his best for his nation. In return of the trust of the public itself. For those citizen who give
their overwhelming support for the president. As a democratic country, it is not easy to gain public
trust, it’s obviously that it will help him to be success with his project that he will do. By the help
of course of the likeness of the fellow men. We are known to have the freedom to do everything
we want because we are democratic. Like doing strikes against the president and it is very
important in our country to build the public trust. This can help the president to become more
powerful and effective. In a democracy, government legitimacy derives from the popular
perception that the elected government abides democratic principles in governing, and thus is
legally accountable to its people. Legitimacy accept what the president would likely to do for the
sake of his country most especially the fellowmen. He must continue to retain the public trust and
to continue to do his responsibility right and accurate. According to the charismatic legitimacy,
this maybe a man or woman whose authoritative persona charms and psychologically dominates
the people of the society to agreement with the government’s régime and rule. A charismatic
government usually features weak political and administrative institutions, because they derive
authority from the persona of The Leader, and usually disappear without him or her in power. Yet,

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a government derived from charismatic legitimacy might continue if the charismatic leader has a
successor. It can also be a weakness or strength depending on how people would lay it on the
president of the nation. They would probably support or can be against the president, like creating
a group that would be against the president. On the other hand, they would continue to support
all throughout his regime. One of the things that can show the importance of public trust is by
universal suffrage, the larger the number of voters that you will get the higher the possibility for
you to be elected as the president of the Philippines. You will become the most influential and
powerful official of our nation. “Public office is a public trust” is a worthy maxim, can be used as a
touch-stone for judging actions of those who claim to be public servants or who talk high to serve
the people, the community and the nation. The higher is the office, the greater is the authority or
power derived from the office. Misuse of power or abuse of authority is not only breach of trust
but also a public crime and a moral slur.

RECOMMENDATION

It wasn’t easy to be in a certain position, especially being the president of a country. You need to
use up all your resources wisely, and make an impression to the people that will make them
remind you of what kind of person, or leader you have been. As of today, the quality of service is
not the one being considered by most of the people, they focus more on popularity, or on how
they often hear or see the name of the candidates. We do know that there are really people who
has strong charisma, but being involve in governing people wouldn’t always get better if you only
have charisma, you should also have the skills, and kind of thinking that would really help solve
issues or things that our country is experiencing. Just like in our example, our current president,
President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, who had the sympathy of the Filipino people
because of the death of his mother. By that time we do all know that candidate Gibo Teodoro is
one of the potential leader of our country, but he lacks sympathy to the people. It wasn’t easy to
accept that just because you have lesser ads, and your opponents family was known for making
a mark in the history would be the reason for you to lose.

As a group we do think that it would be better that people wouldn’t rely on the popularity side of a
person, they should also consider thing he had done for our country and his vision. We also think
that people should also think not just twice but a lot of times before voting, and trusting the future
of our country to someone. We do all know that not all of us has this charisma, we also suggest
that, when leaders of our country present proposals or projects to the people, they should make
sure that it would be transparent, and there is a communication between the leaders and his
people. If they just simply tell their side without knowing or hearing what the people say, this might

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cause a big misunderstanding between two parties, and it isn’t easy to fix problems when the
people loses trust to the leaders of our country. Another suggestion that we could make is maybe,
our leaders should make the people feel that they are really there for them. We know some uses
the power of media to show the things that they have done for the country, but isn’t it more
relieving to see a leader being he and helping others without the influence of the media. In this
way the trust of the people will be stronger than to see leaders trying to sell their names and their
actions to the media. We are living in a democratic country, and we have the freedom to vote
whoever candidate that we want to, but remember, a single vote has a big effect; a single vote
could either improve or worsen the current situation of the country. Be a wise voter, don’t depend
on his fame, but depend on his capacity as a leader, and know what will be his vision for our
country. That way there would still be balance in our government, is a way that we have a leader
that could lead us to a better tomorrow.

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REFERENCES

http://www.rpdev.org/Default/Ramos_Legacy/About_Fidel_V_Ramos
http://www.law.upd.edu.ph/plj/images/files/PLJ%20volume%2061/PLJ%20Volume%2061%20se
cond%20quarter%20-02-%20Agnes%20H.%20Maranan%20-
%20The%20Dilemma%20of%20legitimacy.pdf
http://www.pulseasia.com.ph
Congress and the Presidency: Their Role in modern Times by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. And
Alfred de Grazia
The American Chief Executive the Presidency and the Governorship by Joseph E. Kallenbach

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