What type of government philippine has

Now, many Filipinos declare East Asia's oldest democracy a failure. Moreover, ordinary Filipinos have little way to channel their interests through the electoral system.

This explains why crowds repeatedly flood into the streets to demand change, as they did in ousting President Joseph Estrada five years ago. Politics are frantic, with civic groups, research institutes and TV talk shows competing in a national shout-fest. But the ballast of a modern political system, a professional civil service, is lacking, and the feeble bureaucracy is easily buffeted by electoral turbulence. The majority of people would say democracy has largely failed.

Today, Philippine democracy is little more than a ruthless contest among rival clans with such names as Aquino, Arroyo and Marcos. Political parties are largely irrelevant, and most Filipinos are relegated to the role of spectators. The cost to the economy has been tremendous. The perpetual political crisis has scared off investment, both domestic and foreign, while national leaders have often been too preoccupied with their own survival to pursue long-term strategies of development.

Congress, with representatives elected from single-member districts. With suffrage initially limited to literate property owners, the new system allowed landed families in each district to monopolize local power. The clans used their access to public money, loans and patronage to consolidate their position. Political office became a family heirloom to be handed down. Hundreds of American educators streamed into the archipelago, setting up the public-school system and establishing English as the language of instruction.

In the ensuing decades, Philippine culture has echoed America's. Radio stations long played nothing but American music. Filipinos play basketball instead of soccer, rush home early from work to watch "American Idol" and are passionate about U.

Today, about two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives are from dynastic families, according to a recent study by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, only years ago, they were all uncivilized. Many of them are still semi-savages; others are savages pure and simple.

These facts are indisputable. If, then, we turn to history for assistance, we can not find a single instance of any real political evolution in any of the various divisions of the inhabitants of the Archipelago. The exception furnished by the debased Mohammedan sultanates of the great Island of Mindanao is only apparent.

The germ of fruitful growth is everywhere missing. Now, the Spaniards assuredly took no steps to teach their new subjects the art and science of government; there was every reason, from their point of view, why they should not teach this art and science. To crown all, we have given the Filipinos an elective legislature, an Assembly, all the members of which are native.

Students of the subject at first hand, impartial observers on the spot, declare freely that we have gone much too fast, and that we have granted a measure of political administration and government beyond the native power of assimilation and digestion. It is also a fact that the farther one removes from Manila the feebler becomes the cry for independence. One quality, imitativeness, is possibly neutral. It would appear that his virtues do not especially look toward thrift—i.

If the witnesses testifying be challenged on the score of incompetency. The picture may be overdrawn; but it is a Filipino picture, drawn by a Filipino hand. Let us now permit, the native press to speak again on the subject engaging our attention. Thus Vanguardia a bitter anti-American sheet, arraigns its wealthy fellow-countrymen for lack of initiative and fondness of routine. Constitution: There have been several previous constitutions; The latest was ratified under the Aquino government on February 2, , and became effective on February 11, The first constitution, based on the United States Constitution, was written in and amended in and When President Marcos declared martial law in , that constitution was replaced by another one providing for a head of state, a prime minister, and a unicameral legislature.

It gave the president power to dissolve the legislature, appoint the prime minister, and declare himself prime minister. The new constitution was approved in a national referendum in was similar to the constitution but included term limitations of Senators, Congressmen and the President. The Philippines has a long history of democratic constitutional development.

The Malolos Constitution of reflected the aspirations of educated Filipinos to create a polity as enlightened as any in the world. That first constitution was modeled on those of France, Belgium, and some of the South American republics.

Powers were divided, but the legislature was supreme. A bill of rights guaranteed individual liberties. The church was separated from the state, but this provision was included only after a long debate and passed only by a single vote.

The Malolos Constitution was in effect only briefly; United States troops soon installed a colonial government, which remained in effect until the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth in The constitution, drawn up under the terms of the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which created the Philippine Commonwealth, also served as a basis for an independent Philippine government from until The framers of the Commonwealth Constitution were not completely free to choose any type of government they wanted, since their work had to be approved by United States president Franklin D.

Roosevelt, but as many were legal scholars familiar with American constitutional law, they produced a document strongly modeled on the United States Constitution. In fact, the constitution differed from the United States document in only two important respects: Government was unitary rather than federal, local governments being subject to general supervision by the president, and the president could declare an emergency and temporarily exercise near-dictatorial power.

This latter provision was used by Marcos after September , when he declared martial law. The constitution seemed to serve the nation well. It gave the Philippines twenty-six years of stable, constitutional government during a period when a number of other Asian states were succumbing to military dictatorship or communist revolution. By the late s, however, many Filipinos came to believe that the constitution only provided a democratic political cloak for a profoundly oligarchic society.

A constitutional convention was called to rewrite the basic law of the land. The delegates selected to rewrite the constitution hoped to retain its democratic essence while deleting parts deemed to be unsuitable relics of the colonial past. They hoped to produce a genuinely Filipino document. But before their work could be completed, Marcos declared martial law and manipulated the constitutional convention to serve his purposes.

The constitution was a deviation from the Philippines' commitment to democratic ideals. Marcos abolished Congress and ruled by presidential decree from September until , when a parliamentary government with a legislature called the National Assembly replaced the presidential system. But Marcos exercised all the powers of president under the old system plus the powers of prime minister under the new system.

When Marcos was driven from office in , the constitution also was jettisoned. She claimed that she needed a free hand to restore democracy, revive the economy, gain control of the military, and repatriate some of the national wealth that Marcos and his partners had purloined.

Minister of Justice Neptali Gonzales described the Freedom Constitution as "civilian in character, revolutionary in origin, democratic in essence, and transitory in character.

The process took sixteen months. Although many Filipinos thought delegates to the Constitutional Commission should be elected, Aquino appointed them, saying that the Philippines could not afford the time or expense of an election.

On May 25, , she selected forty-four names from hundreds suggested by her cabinet and the public. The winner of the special election will serve the unfinished term of the previous district representative; this will be considered as one elective term.

The same rule applies in the Senate however it only applies if the seat is vacated before a regular legislative election. The judiciary branch of the government is headed by the Supreme Court, which has a Chief Justice as its head and 14 Associate Justices, all appointed by the president on the recommendation of the Judicial and Bar Council.

Other court types of courts, of varying jurisdiction around the archipelago, are the:. The Philippine Government. Executive Branch The executive branch is headed by the President who functions as both the head of state and the head of government. The Philippines is a republic with a presidential form of government wherein power is equally divided among its three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The government seeks to act in the best interests of its citizens through this system of check and balance.

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 enacts legislation, confirms or rejects Presidential appointments, and has the authority to declare war.

This branch includes Congress the Senate and House of Representatives and several agencies that provide support services to Congress. The Senate is composed of 24 Senators who are elected at large by the qualified voters of the Philippines.

The House of Representatives is composed of about members elected from legislative districts in the provinces, cities, and municipalities, and representatives elected through a party-list system of registered national, regional, and sectoral parties or organizations.

The party-list representatives shall constitute twenty per cent of the total number of representatives including those under the party list. For three consecutive terms after the ratification of this Constitution, one-half of the seats allocated to party-list representatives shall be filled, as provided by law, by selection or election from the labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, and such other sectors as may be provided by law, except the religious sector.

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. There have been 15 Presidents of the Philippines from the establishment of the office on January 23, , in the Malolos Republic.

President Emilio Aguinaldo is the inaugural holder of the office and held the position until March 23, , when he was captured by the Americans during the Philippine-American War. The Office of the President of the Philippines was abolished after the capture of Aguinaldo, and ceased to exist until the inauguration of the Philippine Commonwealth in After the first national elections were held on September 16, , Manuel L. Quezon was elected as the second President of the Philippines and the first President of the Philippine Commonwealth.

Originally elected to a six-year term, President Quezon would stay in office until , because the Constitution was amended in to allow reelection, but shortened the term of the President to four years. Quezon was elected again in —however, due to constitutional limitations, he would have not served the full four years—his term started on November 15, , and thus would end on November 15, In , however, President Quezon had to take an emergency oath of office, extending his term, because of the outbreak of World War II.

When World War II forced the Philippine Commonwealth into exile, a different government would be installed in the Philippines, which would later to be known as the Second Republic of the Philippines. Jose P. Laurel would lead this government as the third President of the Philippines and the only President of the Second Republic. Laurel stayed in office from to when the Second Republic was abolished.

At this point, the President of the Second Republic would overlap with the President of the Commonwealth. On September 17, , however, the laws of the Second Republic were declared null and void by the Supreme. President Roxas was elected in as the third President of the Philippine Commonwealth, first President of the independent Republic of the Philippines, and the fifth President of the Philippines.

He would usher in the end of the Philippine Commonwealth on July 4, , and the birth of the Third Republic. Garcia, and Diosdado Macapagal as the second, third, fourth, and fifth President of the Third Republic and the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth President of the Philippines, respectively. President Ferdinand E. Marcos became the first President of the Fourth Republic and the tenth President of the Philippines overall. Marcos stayed in office for 20 years—the longest serving President of the Philippines.

President Aquino served as the second and last President of the Fourth Republic at the beginning of her term. A transitional, Freedom Constitution was put into effect in the same year. When the Constitution was put into full force and effect, the Fourth Republic was ended and the Fifth Republic inaugurated.

She would be followed by Presidents Fidel V. Aquino III as the second, third, fourth, and fifth President of the Fifth Republic and 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th President of the Philippines, respectively. Besides the constitution, the powers of the President of the Philippines are specifically outlined in Executive Order No.

The following powers are:. The President of the Philippines has the mandate of control over all the executive departments, bureaus, and offices. This includes restructuring, reconfiguring, and appointments of their respective officials. The President of the Philippines has the power to give executive issuances, which are means to streamline the policy and programs of an administration.

There are six issuances that the President may issue. They are the following as defined in the Administrative Code of Executive orders — Acts of the President providing for rules of a general or permanent character in implementation or execution of constitutional or statutory powers shall be promulgated in executive orders. Administrative orders — Acts of the President which relate to particular aspects of governmental operations in pursuance of his duties as the administrative head shall be promulgated in administrative orders.

Proclamations — Acts of the President fixing a date or declaring a status or condition of public moment or interest, upon the existence of which the operation of a specific law or regulation is made to depend, shall be promulgated in proclamations which shall have the force of an executive order.

Memorandum orders — Acts of the President on matters of administrative detail, or of subordinate or temporary interest which only concern a particular officer or government office shall be embodied in memorandum orders. Memorandum circulars — Acts of the President on matters relating to internal administration, which the President desires to bring to the attention of all or some of the departments, agencies, bureaus, or offices of the government, for information or compliance, shall be embodied in memorandum circulars.

General or special orders — Acts and commands of the President in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines shall be issued as general or special orders. It is important to note that during the term of President Ferdinand E. Marcos, he used executive issuances known as presidential decrees as a form of legislation.