THIRD YEAR MAJORSHIP QUALIFICATION EXAMINATION

REVIEWER

The Philippine Government and Politics **MA’AM MYLETTE NOTES**

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.
 The Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Sovereignty resides in the people and all
government authority emanated from them.
 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.
 Election – direct popular vote
 Republican – voting/election. Representatives of the people (direct democracy)
 Presidential – the head of the state is a president as well as the government
 Veto – Returning the unsigned bill to Congress constitutes a veto. If the Congress overrides the
veto by a two-thirds vote in each house, it becomes law without the President's signature.
 Three branches of government
o Executive
 The executive branch carries out and enforces laws. It includes the president,
vice president, the Cabinet, executive departments, independent agencies, and
other boards, commissions, and committees.
o Legislative
 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.
o Judiciary
 The judicial branch interprets the meaning of laws, applies laws to individual
cases, and decides if laws violate the Constitution. The judicial power shall be
vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by
law.
 Executive Branch (the law-enforcing body)
o 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.
o The executive branch carries out and enforces laws. It includes the President, Vice
President, the Cabinet, executive departments, independent agencies, boards,
commissions, and committees.
 o The President leads the country. He or she is the head of state, leader of the national
government, and Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines. The
President serves a six-year term and cannot be re-elected.
o The Vice President supports the President. If the President is unable to serve, the Vice
President becomes President. He or she also serves a six-year term.
o Cabinet members serve as advisors to the President. They include the Vice President
and the heads of executive departments. Cabinet members are nominated by the
President and must be confirmed by the Commission of Appointments.
 Legislative Branch (the law-making body)
o 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.
o 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.
o The Senate is composed of 24 Senators who are elected at large by the qualified voters
of the Philippines.
o The House of Representatives is composed of about 250 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.
o 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.
 Judiciary/Judicial Branch (the law-interpreting body)
o 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.
o The judicial branch interprets the meaning of laws, applies laws to individual cases, and
decides if laws violate the Constitution. The judicial power shall be vested in one
Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law.
 Each branch of government can change acts of the other branches as follows:
o The President can veto laws passed by Congress.
o Congress confirms or rejects the President's appointments and can remove the
President from office in exceptional circumstances.
o The Justices of the Supreme Court, who can overturn unconstitutional laws, are
appointed by the President. 
  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.
 Executive power is exercised by the government under the leadership of the president.
Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two-chamber congress—the Senate
(the upper chamber) and the House of Representatives (the lower chamber). Judicial power is
vested in the courts with the Supreme Court of the Philippines as the highest judicial body.
 The constitution is the supreme law of the land. Any bill or law that goes against the constitution
are considered null and void.

POLITICAL THEORY

 Political theory is the study of political ideas and values like justice, power and democracy that
we use to describe, understand and assess political practices and institutions.
 Descriptive or Empirical Theory
o Describes the way reality is, based on empirical evidence.
o “Empirical” refers to things that can be experienced through the five senses of
seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or (in the case of political corruption) smelling.
“Theory” basically means explanation.
o An empirical theory of politics, then, is an explanation of why people behave the way
they do politically.
o Political behavior of people.
 Normative Theory
o Tells you how things should be so that other things happen.
o Normative Political Theory & Philosophy interprets, critiques, and constructs philosophical
conceptions and arguments concerning morally appropriate and prudent standards and
purposes for political actors and regimes.
o Normative theory seeks standards for judging how we ought to behave. Examples include
just war theory and theories about the equitable distribution of wealth, power, or other
resources.
PARALEGAL STUDIES!!!!

. This would prepare me for the job that I want to pursue. Not everyone has the luxury to immediately
continue to law school, there are duties and obligations that calls for my attention which I cannot ignore
but that does not erase the fact that I still want to work in the legal field as a lawyer, something that I
cannot do without further and in-depth knowledge about the law. Having to work as a paralegal will
expose me to various legal jargons and would constantly refresh me about the law while I’m still saving
up for law school. Pursuing paralegal studies will greatly help me have a better understanding on what it
really is to be a paralegal.

I’m a victim of receiving little to no child support from an estranged parent whom I haven’t met for
years, earning money to make ends meet is something very dear to my heart but the need to help
others who are experiencing the same thing I experienced are both my priority. As I have said,
immediately continuing to law school is a luxury I still cannot afford, and I don’t want to get lost in the
need to earn money and forget my passion to help others receive what they deserve, something that I
haven’t properly received from law professionals. Working as a paralegal would let me hit two birds with
one stone, earning and saving up money while still learning about the law along the way, which I believe
having paralegal studies as my major will help me be prepared. Child support is still somewhat a taboo
to this day, parents would rather go to Tulfo and treat it as their court just so they could receive
monetary aid in raising their kids but tulfo is not the law. Child support is a public interest which I
believe deserves more attention from the public as well as the higher authorities. These kids are the
future leaders of the land, imagine not being able to help them have better education just because no
one is really aware of child support or that victims turn to a different and unreliable institution.

I know that I can also learn this from other majors but majoring in paralegal studies would somehow
give me an upper hand on how to be a paralegal, or what a paralegal does.

We take on different roles but still as important as the others.

The paralegal plays an important role on any legal team. They help support lawyers during
trial and to prepare for cases. The paralegal is the heart of a law firm as they are taking on
more duties formerly given to legal secretaries and entry-level lawyers.
[1] In many states, paralegals are deemed an essential service provider and continue to work
in-office for firms and government agencies that have remained open. In some
instances, paralegals and support staff maintain in-office workstations for others who are
working remotely

Due process – course of legal proceedings.