Government of the Philippines

Government of the Philippines
Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas
Formation 1898 (official)
1987 (de jure)
Country Philippines
Website gov.ph
Legislative branch
Legislature Congress
Meeting place Batasang Pambansa Complex (House of Representatives/Lower Chamber)
GSIS Building (Senate/Upper Chamber)
Executive branch
Leader President
Appointment Election by popular vote
Headquarters Malacañang Palace
Main organ Cabinet
Judicial branch
Court Supreme Court
Seat Manila
Baguio City (summer)
Philippines
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The Government of the Philippines (Filipino: Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas) is the national government of the Philippines. It is a unitary state presidential, representative, and democratic republic where the President of the Philippines is both the head of state and the head of government within a pluriform multi-party system.

The government has three interdependent branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. The powers of the branches are vested by the Constitution of the Philippines in the following: Legislative power is vested in the two-chamber Congress of the Philippines—the Senate is the upper chamber and the House of Representatives is the lower chamber.[1]

Executive power is exercised by the government under the leadership of the President. Judicial power is vested in the courts with the Supreme Court of the Philippines as the highest judicial body.

Legislative Branch

The legislative power is vested in the Congress of the Philippines which consists of the Senate and House of Representatives. The upper house is located in Pasay City, while the lower house is located in Quezon City. Both are in Metro Manila. The district and sectoral representatives are elected for a term of three years. They can be re-elected but they may not run for a fourth consecutive term.

Senators are elected to a term of six years. They can be re-elected but may not run for a third consecutive term. The House of Representatives may opt to pass for a vacancy of a legislative seat, which leads to a special election. The winner of the special election will serve the unfinished term of the previous district representative, and will be considered as one elective term. The same rule also applies in the Senate, however it only applies if the seat was vacated before a regular legislative election.

The current President of the Senate is Aquilino Pimentel III, while the current Speaker of the House of Representatives is Pantaleon Alvarez.

Executive Branch

The executive power is vested in the President of the Philippines. The President is elected by popular vote. The principal workplace of the President is the Malacañang Palace in San Miguel, Manila. The executive branch is currently headed by President Rodrigo Duterte. The President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, The second highest official is elected separately from the President by popular vote. The current Vice President is Leni Robredo. The Vice President is first in line to succession if the President resigns, is impeached or dies. The Vice President is usually, though not always, a member of the president's cabinet. If there is a vacancy in the position of vice-president, the President will appoint any member of Congress (usually a party member) as the new Vice President. The appointment must then be validated by a three-fourths vote of the Congress.[2]

Judicial Branch

The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court of the Philippines and lower courts established by law. The Supreme Court, which has a Chief Justice as its head and 14 Associate Justices, occupies the highest tier of the judiciary. The justices serve until the age of 70. The justices are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the Judicial and Bar Council of the Philippines.[3] The sitting Chief Justice is Maria Lourdes Sereno, the 24th to serve in that position...

Other court types of courts, of varying jurisdiction around the archipelago, are the:
Lower Collegiate Courts:

Regular Courts:

Muslim Courts

Constitutional Commissions

Article 9 of the Constitution of the Philippines establishes three constitutional commissions: the Civil Service Commission, the Commission on Elections, and the Commission on Audit.

Office of the Ombudsman

The government and all three of its branches are independently monitored by the office of the Ombudsman (Filipino: Tanodbayan). The Ombudsman is given the mandate to investigate and prosecute any government official allegedly guilty of crimes, especially Graft and Corruption. The Ombudsman is assisted by six deputies: the Overall Deputy, the Deputy for Luzon, the Deputy for Visayas, the Deputy for Mindanao, the Deputy for the Armed Forces, and the Special Prosecutor.

Administrative divisions

Local government hierarchy. The dashed lines emanating from the president means that the President only exercises general supervision on local government.

The Philippines has four main classes of elected administrative divisions, often lumped together as local government units (LGUs). They are, from the highest to the lowest division:

  1. Autonomous regions
  2. Provinces (lalawigan, probinsiya, kapuoran) and independent cities (lungsod, siyudad/ciudad, dakbayan, dakbanwa, lakanbalen)
  3. Municipalities (bayan, balen, bungto, banwa) and component cities (lungsod, siyudad/ciudad, dakbayan, dakbanwa, lakanbalen)
  4. Barangays (also known as barrio)

Beyond these, the national government groups provinces and independent cities into regions, e.g. Metro Manila or Region VI. The President has the prerogative to create, abolish and determine the composition of regions, which is done so most often in consultation with the local government units affected, with the exception of autonomous regions, where the residents of the local government units have to ratify in a plebiscite their inclusion in such a setup.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Exec. Order No. 1987-292 Book II Chapter 1 Section 1 (25 July 1987; in English) President of the Philippines. Retrieved on 21 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Philippine Government
  3. ↑ Redden, R.K. 1984. Modern Legal System Cyclopedia - Asia Chapter 7(b) "The legal system of the Philippines" W.B. Hein, Buffalo NY
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