a. What is politics?

Politics has to do with policies or expressions of the state will. Politics (meaning “affairs of
the cities” in Greek) is the process of making decisions that apply to members of a group. It refers to
achieving and exercising positions of governance and is the study or practice of the distribution of
power and resources within a given community. The idea of politics dates to the Hellenistic period
and has undergone many different interpretations over the ensuing centuries.

Politics, according to Aristotle, is primarily the study of morals, ethics, what is good and
wrong, as well as what should and could be. Any conversation between two individuals, he claimed,
hinges on those issues and is therefore political in character. Aristotle believed that politics is the
master science because people are naturally political beings who engage in politics in all of their
actions, no matter how small or trivial they may appear to be.

b.Is politics dirty?

Politics itself is beautiful. The purpose of politics itself is essential. So, can we say that it is dirty?
According to Goodnow's book, a man's humanity and his status as a human being heavily influence his
political existence. Of course, at different stages of his development, his level of intelligence and his
concepts of good and wrong are by no means the same, and the type of government chosen at one
point in his development may have a significant impact on his eventual state. However, even where the
exterior forms of governance appear to be highly different, it is thought that the true political institutions
of many peoples at the same level of morality and intelligence will exhibit a considerable deal of
similarities. This similarity is due, as has been said, to the fact that after all man is always man
everywhere and, and that all political organizations of men must therefore have ultimately the same
ends and must adopt in a general way the same methods for their satisfaction. Sometimes it may be that
these political organizations will be adequately reflected in the formal governmental organization. At
other times, and indeed most frequently, they will not be. Political life as a whole must be taken into
account. It is easy to think of the state as an abstraction because of this similarities between the actual
political systems of many states. If concrete horses and states did not resemble one another, we would
find it impossible to think of a horse in the abstract, just as we would find it impossible to think of a state
apart from the concrete instances of the states we are familiar with.

c. What is Public Administration?

refers to an activity with which the government is involved. So it can be said that the word public
administration has got more significance in the background of government functions.

It is fundamentally a cooperative activity that requires coordination to attain desired outcomes

or goals. This implies further there is some sense in that administration. the administration
consequently, sensible behavior would be an effort to maximize success by a group of people, of goals or
objectives.

Public administration is a field in which leaders serve communities to advance the common good
and effect positive change. Public administration professionals are equipped with skills to manage at all
levels of government (local, state, and federal) as well as nonprofit organizations.
 In Political Science Quarterly, 1887, the famous line given by Woodrow Wilson is that public
administration as “detailed and systematic execution of public law. Every particular application of general
law is an act of administration”. According to L.D White, Public administration is the activity required for
the implementation of public policy.

Felix A. Nigro defines public administration as-

a. Co-operative group efforts in a public setting,

b. Covers all the three branches of the government that is executive,
c. The legislative and judicial branch of the government,
d. Public administration has an important role to make public policy and its implementation,
e. It also associated with various private groups and providing public services to the people.

According to Luther Gullick “Public Administration is that part of the science of administration
which has to do with Government and thus concern itself primarily with the executive branch where the
work of the Government is done.”

In a simple way we can say that public administration is the administration in which public
policies are implemented. It is the action part of the government.

d. Is there such a system known as Philippine Public Administration?

Technically, the answer is yes. In the Philippines, there is a public administration. However, what
he possesses is not comparable to the fundamental characteristics of the type of public administration
required to raise the level of our government. What we currently have might be the remnants of a
system that was created when we were still under Spanish or, if not, American colonization. Regarding
Americans, this may be the kind of system that is thought to have already been abandoned but is
nevertheless accepted and accepted by many up to this point.

Among the basic references we have been using in the general introductory course in Public
Administration at both the graduate (PA 201) and undergraduate (PA 11) levels are essays by the
aforementioned eminent scholars of Philippine Public Administration (Dr de Guzman and Dr Corpuz).
These essays were published in a special issue of the Philippine Journal of Public Administration in 1986
(PJPA). 3 While de Guzman and Corpuz both assert that there is a Philippine Public Administration, both
also suggest that the question be properly contextualized. There is a Philippine Public Administration
as far as there is an American, French and Thai public administration. There is a Philippine public
administration as far as there are institutions of public administration addressing specific sectoral
concerns. There is a Philippine public administration as far as it being a field of study is concerned. There
is a Philippine public administration considering the massive role of the bureaucracy in Philippine public
administration. There is a Philippine public administration when we consider its major institutions in
education, politics and government. Yes we have basic public administration structures and processes.
We have an executive branch with the bureaucracy at its core. We have a Philippine legislature. We have
a Philippine judiciary. We have Philippine electoral processes and procedures. We have Philippine sub-
national institutions and local governments, together with decentralization processes and procedures. It
is within this context that we argue that indeed, we have a Philippine public administration characterized
by the presence of administrative structures and processes operating within a unique Philippine context.
 e. What are the branches of the Philippine Government? Enumerate them and discuss their
functions.

The Philippines is a republic with a presidential form of government wherein power is equally divided
among its three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

One basic corollary in a presidential system of government is the principle of separation of powers
wherein legislation belongs to Congress, execution to the Executive, and settlement of legal
controversies to the Judiciary.

The Legislative branch is authorized to make laws, alter, and repeal them through the power
vested in the Philippine Congress. This institution is divided into the Senate and the House of
Representatives. The legislative branch, which has the authority to make, alter or repeal laws (see also
the definition of “legislative power”), is the Congress. “Congress is vested with the tremendous power of
the purse, traditionally recognized in the constitutional provision that ‘no money shall be paid out of the
Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law.’ It comprehends both the power to
generate money by taxation (the power to tax) and the power to spend it (the power to appropriate).
The power to appropriate carries with it the power to specify the amount that may be spent and the
purpose for which it may be spent.

Under a bicameral system, the Congress is composed of the Senate and the House of
Representatives. The Senate is composed of twenty-four (24) Senators, who are elected at large by the
qualified voters of the Philippines. The term of office of the Senators is six (6) years. The House of
Representatives, on the other hand, is composed of not more than two hundred and fifty (250)
members, unless otherwise fixed by law, who are elected from legislative districts apportioned among
the provinces, cities and the Metropolitan Manila area, and those who are elected through a party-list
system of registered national, regional and sectoral parties or organizations. The term of office of
members of the House of Representatives, also called “Congressmen,” is three (3) years.

The Executive branch is composed of the President and the Vice President who are elected by
direct popular vote and serve a term of six years. The Constitution grants the President authority to
appoint his Cabinet. These departments form a large portion of the country’s bureaucracy. It represents
the government as a whole and sees to it that all laws are enforced by the officials and employees of his
department. He has control over the executive department, bureaus, and offices. This means that he has
the authority to directly assume the functions of the executive department, bureau and office or
interfere with the discretion of its officials. Corollary to the power of control, the President also has the
duty of supervising the enforcement of laws for the maintenance of general peace and public order.
Thus, he is granted administrative power over bureaus and offices under his control to enable him to
discharge his duties effectively.

The President exercises general supervision over all local government units and is also the
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Under the existing Presidential form of
government, the executive and legislative branches are entirely separate, subject only to the
mechanisms of checks and balances. There were attempts to amend the Constitution in order to shift to
a parliamentary system, but these moves were struck down by the Supreme Court.
  The Judicial branch holds the power to settle controversies involving rights that are legally
demandable and enforceable. This branch determines whether or not there has been a grave abuse of
discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part and instrumentality of the government.
It is made up of a Supreme Court and lower courts.

The Constitution expressly grants the Supreme Court the power of Judicial Review as the power to
declare a treaty, international or executive agreement, law, presidential decree, proclamation, order,
instruction, ordinance or regulation unconstitutional.

While Congress has the power to define, prescribe and apportion the jurisdiction of the various
courts, Congress cannot deprive the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction provided in the Constitution. No
law shall also be passed reorganizing the judiciary when it undermines the security of tenure of its
members. The Supreme Court also has administrative supervision over all courts and the personnel
thereof, having the power to discipline or dismiss judges of lower courts.

The Supreme Court is composed of a Chief Justice and fourteen Associate Justices. It may sit en
banc or, in its discretion, in divisions of three, five or seven members. A member of the Supreme Court
must be a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, at least forty (40) years of age and must have been for
fifteen (15) years or more a judge of a lower court or engaged in the pratice of law in the Philippines.
Justices hold office during good behavior until they reach the age of seventy (70) years or become
incapacitated to discharge the duties of their office.

References

Goodnow, Frank J., 1990, Politics and Administration, p. 7-8

Goodnow, Frank J., 1990, Politics and Administration, p. 18-19

Matthew, Feb. 2018, What is Politics?, OurPolitics.net

Public Administration in the Philippine Essay, Public Administration In The Philippines Essay | ipl.org

Philippine Government | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

Atty Fred, January 2008, BRANCHES OF THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT: SEPARATION OF POWERS,
Branches of the Philippine Government: Separation of Powers » Philippine e-Legal Forum (pnl-law.com)

Fernandez, Maricel, Brillantes, Alex , January 2008, ‘Is There a Philippine Public Administration? Or
Better Still, For Whom Is Philippine Public Administration?, (PDF) ‘Is There a Philippine Public
Administration? Or Better Still, For Whom Is Philippine Public Administration?’ (researchgate.net)

What Is Public Administration? - MPA@UNC

 Avijit Biswas, October 2020, Public Administration: Meaning, Nature, 2 Scope, And Significance