THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH

Prepared by: Allan W. Luartes &

Ma. Verde Sison

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

It is a political organ of government charged with carrying out the laws enacted by the legislature. (in the Philippines, as the repository of executive power, is the chief executive officer of government & the highest officer of the land). The President of the Philippines is the Executive Branch of Government and no other and that all executive authority is thus vested in him. “article VII section 1 of the constitution provides that “The executive power shall be vested in the President of the Philippines”

QUALIFICATIONS OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT Natural-born citizen. Registered voters. Able to read and write. 40 years of age. 10 years residency.

The President cannot reappoint members of the Constitutional Commissions. Appointment to any vacancy shall only be for the unexpired term of the Predecessor. In no case shall any member be appointed or designated in a temporary or acting capacity. However, of those who were first appointed by the President under the 1987 Constitution, the Chairman shall hold office for seven years, a Commissioner for five years, and another Commissioner for three years, without reappointment.

TERMS OF OFFICE The President shall not be eligible for any

reelection. However, a person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for not more than four (4) years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time.

Query: Can Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo run at the 2004 Presidential Election?

Answer: Yes. Since Madam Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who succeeded former President Joseph Estrada for more than (4) years, she is qualified to run for President at the 2004 Election.

Vice-President and Senators shall not serve for more than two (2) succesive terms, and Members of the House of Representatives for more than three (3) succesive terms. Voluntary renunciation of office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of his/her service for the full term for which he/she was elected.

Query: Raul S. Roco was elected senator in 1992 and re-elected in 1995. Prior to the end of his term on June 30, 2001, he resigned as senator and accepted his appointment by President Arroyo as Education Secretary. Was he qualified to run for senator at the 2001 election?

Query: Raul S. Roco was elected senator in 1992 and re-elected in 1995. His second consecutive term ended in 2001. Can he again run in 2004 elections?

Query: Yes. The Constitution prohibits a senator from serving as such for more than two succesive terms. Thus, a senator may serve for more than two terms as long as it is not succesive.

EXECUTIVE/RULES ON SUCCESSION The rules on presidential succession occurring before

or the beginning of the President’s term are as follows:

1. If the President-elect fails to qualify, the Vice-President-elect shall act as President until the President-elect shall have qualified.

Congress sitting as board of canvassers proclaims a candidate as elected President for having received the highest number of votes, he will not automatically become President. As President-elect he must first assume his office by taking the oath of office and entering into the discharge of his duties. The term of the President shall begin at noon on the thirtieth day of june next following day of the election. If he fails to assume his office after that date, the Vice-President shall temporarily act as President

EXECUTIVE/RULES ON SUCCESSIONo 2. If a President shall not have been chosen, the

Vice-President-elect shall act as President until a President shall have been chosen and qualified.

o If the congress sitting as a board of canvassers fails to proclaim an elected President after aforesaid date, the Vice-President-elect shall temporarily act as President.

o 3. If at the beginning of the term of President, the President-elect shall have died or shall have become permanently disabled, the Vice-President-elect shall become President.

o The Vice-President-elect under any of this situation will not merely act as President in a temporary capacity. He shall become a President

EXECUTIVE/RULES ON SUCCESSION 4. Where no President and Vice-President

shall have been chosen or shall have qualified, or where both shall have died or become permanently disabled, the president of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall act as President or a Vice-President shall have been chosen and qualified.

The Senate President or Speaker of the House under any of the situation will not become a President. He will merely act as President in a temporary capacity.

EXECUTIVE/RULES ON SUCCESSION 5. The Congress shall, by law, provide

for the manner in which one who is to act as President shall be selected until a President or a Vic-President shall have qualified, in case of death, permanent disability, or inability of the officials mention in the next preceding paragraph.

RULES ON PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION OCCURING

DURING THEIR TERMS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Vacancy in the office of the President- in the case of death, permanent disablity, removal from office, or resignation of the President, the Vice-president shall become the President to serve the unexpired term.

Vacancy in the office of the Vice-President – Whenever there is vacancy in the Office of the Vice-President during the term for which he/she was elected, the President shall nominate a Vice-President from among the members of the senate and the House of Representative who will assume office upon confirmation by a majority vote of all the members of both houses of congress, voting separately.

RULES ON PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION OCCURRING DURING

THEIR TERMS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Vacancy in the Office of the President and the Vice-President – In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of both the President and Vice-President, Congress shall immediately enact a law calling for a special election to elect a President and a Vice-President. However, no special election shall be called if the vacancy occurs within eighteen (18) months before the date of the next presidential election.

Until the President or Vice-President shall have been elected in a special or regular election and qualified, the Senate President or, in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall then act as President. Congress shall, by law, provide who shall srve as President in case of death, permanent disability, or resignation of the acting President.

POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT Executive Power- is vested in the President of the

Philippines. In addition to the power of the President to execute laws, the Constitution vests in him/her specific and express powers. He/She may also exercise those necessarily implied and included in these express powers. The president, upon whom executive power is vested, has unstated residual powers which are implied from the grant of executive power and which are necessary for him/her to comply with his/her duties under the Constitution. The powers of the President are not limited to what are expressly enumerated in the article on the Executive Department and in scattered provisions of the Constitution.

APPOINTING POWER Section 16, Article VII provides: “The President shall nominate and, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, appoint the heads of the executive departments, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, or officers of the armed forces from the rank of colonel or naval captain, and other officers whose appointments are vested in him in this Constitutions. He shall also appoint all other officers of the Government whose appointed are not otherwise provided by law to appoint.

The Congress may, by law, vest the appointment of other officers lower in rank in the President alone, in the courts, or in the heads of the departments, agencies, commissions, or boards. The President shall have the power to make appointments during the recess of the Congress, whether voluntary or compulsory, but such appointments shall be effective only until disapproval by the Commission on Appointments or until the next adjournment of the Congress.”

REMOVAL POWER power of removal is implied from the express power of appointment conferred to the President. The President is accountable to the people with regard to irregularities and abuses of his/her appointees in the discharge of their executive duties. On the other hand, presidential appointees are accountable directly to the President. Because of the responsibility of the President for acts not done by him/her personally, it is only appropriate for him/her men. Executive appointees serve at the pleasure of the President.

Their term is co-terminus with the President. With or without cause, the President may remove them. The President fixes the term of his/her appointees as he/she may see fit. Technically speaking, if the President sacks an appointee the latter will cease to hold office not due to removal but by reason of expiration of term. The President, in axing an appointee simply decides to fix the end of his/her term on the day of the termination of his/her service.

POWER OF CONTROL Section 17, Article VII provides: “The

President shall have control of all executive departments, bureaus, and offices,” Due to the President’s multifarious administrative and executive functions, executive officials discharge executive duty in behalf of the President. Since the President is accountable to the people with respect to the performance of executive and other powers, it is only proper for the President to have the power to control over acts of his/her men.

The power of control is the power of an officer to alter, modify, nullify or set aside what a subordinate officer had done in the performance of his duties and to substitute the judgement of the former for that of the latter. In one case, the Supreme Court held that a statue making decisions of the department secretaries final and unappealable would nevertheless not prevent the President from reviewing and if necessary reversing such decisions by virtue of his/her constitutional power of control over the members of his Cabinet.

POWER OF SUPERVISION Section 4, Article X provides: “The

President shall exercise general supervision over local governments.” The control power of the President is limited to executive departments, bureaus and offices, and does not extend to local governments. In sum, the Presidents cannot alter or modify or set aside what a local officer had done in the performance of his/her duties and to substitute the judgement of the former for the latter.

MILITARY POWER As an implement of the doctrine of civilian

supremacy over the military, the Constitution grants military power to the President. Section 18, Article VII provides: “The President shall be the Commander in Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines.” As Commander in Chief, the President has power to regulate the movements of the army and their stationing at various posts. He may direct the movements of the navy, sending them whenever in his judgement it is expedient. In theory, he plans all campaigns, establishes all blockades and sieges, directs all marches, and fights all battles. The President usually exercises military power through the Department of National Defense.

POWER OF EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY Section 19, Article VII provides: “Except in cases of

impeachment, or as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the President may grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons, and remit fines and forfeitures, after conviction by final judgement. He shall also have the power to grant amnesty with the concurrence of a majority of all the Members of the Congress. Every civilized country recognizes, and has therefore provided for, the pardoning power to be exercised as an act of grace and humanity in proper cases. Without such power of clemency to be exercised by some department or functionary of a government, a country would be most imperfect and deficient in its political morality and in that attribute of Deity whose judgements are always tempered with mercy.

FOREIGN RELATIONS POWERS The President as head of state is the

representative of the Philippines in dealing with other states. In sum, the Philippines maintains foreign relations with other states through the President.

Power of Recognition. Power to Send and Receive Diplomatic

Missions. Power to Deport Aliens. Power to Enter Treaty or International

Agreement.

BUDGETARY POWER Section 22, Article VII provides: “The

President shall submit to the Congress within thirty days from the opening of every regular sessions, as the basis of the general appropriations bill, a budget of expenditures and sources of financing including receipts from existing and proposed revenue measures.” Congress, in passing an appropriation law, cannot increase the budget submitted by the President to it.

BUREAUCRACY Is the collective organizational structure,

procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government. It is represented by standardized procedure (rule-following) that guides the execution of most or all processes within the body; formal division of powers; hierarchy; and relationships, intended to anticipate needs and improve efficiency.

BUREAUCRACY A bureaucracy traditionally does not

create policy but, rather, enacts it. Law, policy and regulation normally originates from a leadership, which creates the bureaucracy to put them into practice. In reality, the interpretation and execution of policy, etc. can lead to informal influence.

FOUR STRUCTURAL CONCEPTS ARE CENTRAL TO ANY DEFINITION OF BUREAUCRACY: 1. a well-defined division of

administrative labor among persons and offices.

A personnel system with consistent patterns of recruitment and stable linear careers.

A hierarchy among offices, such that the authority and status are differentially distributed among actors, and

Formal and informal networks that connect organizational actors to one another through flows of information and patterns of cooperation.

SIX CHARACTERISTICS OF BUREAUCRACY. 1. A formal hierarchical structure 2. Management by rules 3. Organization by functional specialty 4. An “up-focused” or “in-focused”

mission 5. Purposely impersonal 6. Employment based on technical

qualifications

EXAMPLES OF EVERYDAY BUREAUCRACIES INCLUDE Governments Armed forces Corporations Non-government organizations (NGOs) Hospitals Courts Ministries Social clubs Sports leagues Professional associations Academic institutions

BUREAUCRACY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Bureaucracy refers to administrative instrument or organization which exists in each modern political community for the attainment of the community’s social objective (public policies). Broadly viewed, the bureaucracy is equivalent to the entire governmental institution. More restrictively interpreted, the following current usage, it refers to the civil service.

IMPORTANT PHASES IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE BUREAUCRACY IN THE PHILIPPINES A.The Pre-Spanish period- a period of cultural

inadequacy, during which the social and economic foundations for bureaucratic organization and bureaucratic action had not been developed.

B.The Spanish Regime- centralized the political life of the numerous native communities in the archipelago.

C.The Philippine Revolution of 1896- an attempt by the leaders of the Filipinos to practice the principles of government which the Spanish regime consistently professed but could not execute.

D.The American Regime- continued what the Philippine Revolution started. Thorough reorganization of the bureaucracy was in fact easily accomplished.

CONTINUATION E. Japanese Wartime Occupation- conditions during

this time disrupted and corrupted the bureaucracy. F. The Philippine Republic 1946-1972 A strong president, a bicameral legislature and an

independent judiciary comprised the tripartite democratic structure ordained by the Philippine Constitution of 1935, and carried over into the new Philippine Republic of 1946.

The US continued to intervene in Philippine affairs. The bureaucracy assumed the major responsibility for these programs; the civil service continued to regard itself as an arsenal of means and not the articulator of values.

The Philippine civil service could be characterized as highly trained and professionalized even though it continued to be inefficient and ineffective.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PHILIPPINE BUREAUCRACY Vulnerability to Nepotism Perpetuation of the Spoils System Apathetic Public Reaction to

Bureaucratic Misconduct Availability of External Peaceful Means

of Correcting Bureaucratic Weaknesses Survival of Historical Experience Non-special Typing of Bureaucracies Lack of Independence from Politics An Instrument of Social Change and

Innovation