Duterte's Unconstitutional Legislative Agenda

The clock is ticking, counting down the remaining months in Duterte's final term as President of the Philippines. His final State of the Nation Address received high marks from LGUs and nationally elected officials. For their part the House of Representatives says they are ready to pursue Duterte's legislative agenda.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148432

The leadership of the House of Representatives has expressed readiness to pass the priority legislative measures mentioned in President Rodrigo Duterte’s final State of the Nation Address.

In a statement Monday, Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said the chamber is committed to pursue the remaining measures in the President’s legislative agenda with focus on strengthening the country’s health care system and restoring jobs lost to the pandemic.

“The House of Representatives is ready to help and cooperate with President Duterte in pushing for pieces of legislation that will help navigate the country and the economy amid the ongoing pandemic,” he said.

Velasco said the government must not only ensure that it is ready to reopen the economy, but also prepare the people for this reopening.

“We must heed the call of the President in order to bring back normalcy in the lives of our countrymen and help our economy recover and flourish again following a severe beating from the global health crisis,” he said.

Duterte asked the 18th Congress during his SONA to pass several priority bills, some of which are aimed at helping the country recover and build resilience from crises such as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The priority bills are the proposed amendments to the Public Service Act, Foreign Investments Act, and Retail Trade Liberalization Act; e-Governance bill; bills creating the Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the Virology Institute of the Philippines; Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) modernization bill; bill establishing evacuation centers; bills creating the department for overseas Filipinos and disaster resilience department; military and uniformed personnel pension reform; and measure providing free legal assistance to any officer or enlisted personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Now, most people might read this and not think twice about it. But there are many problems here. What should be glaringly obvious is that the President is head of the Executive branch while the House is one branch of the Legislature. The President should have no legislative agenda. His only job is to execute the laws the land.

Article 7 SECTION 17. The President shall have control of all the executive departments, bureaus, and offices. He shall ensure that the laws be faithfully executed.

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/

There is nothing in Article 7 of the Constitution, which delineates the powers of the executive branch, about him being able to craft legislation. That power lies solely with the Legislative branch, House and Senate.

Some might ask, "What's the problem here? The executive and the legislative work together."

The problem is this confuses the branches of government and grants authority to the President which is not his. It transforms him into an autocrat because instead of the House and Senate checking the President, the President is leading the House and the Senate and they are essentially doing his bidding. We have seen this all throughout the Duterte administration as the House and Senate have effectively been a rubber stamp for his pet projects. The shutting down of ABS-CBN comes to mind as well as the selection of the House Speaker. In the latter matter not only does Duterte have an influence on who will be the Speaker of the House but so does his daughter.

This problem is not confined to the Philippines. In the USA the presidency has also been compromised. Every four years each candidate gives his plans for the nation which include tax programs and immigration reforms. Those are not his job. His job is only to execute he laws of the land, not craft them. In the Philippines we will see this same thing next year as every candidate will go around touting what they want to do for the country and how they will improve it through implementing various legislative programs. Whoever is elected the House and Senate will defer to the executive and thus the cycle of confused government will continue.