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Philippines Executive Department
Article 6 of the 1987 Constitution restores the presidential
system with certain modifications. The president is elected by a
direct vote of the people for a term of six years and is not
eligible for reelection. The president must be a natural-born
citizen of the Philippines, at least forty years of age, and a
resident of the Philippines for at least ten years immediately
preceding the election.
The president is empowered to control all the executive
departments, bureaus, and offices, and to ensure that the laws
are faithfully executed. Presidential nominations of heads of
executive departments and ambassadors are confirmed by a
Commission on Appointments, consisting of twelve senators and
twelve representatives. The president may grant amnesty (for
example, to former communists, Muslim rebels, or military
mutineers) with the concurrence of a majority of all the members
of Congress and, as chief diplomat, negotiate treaties, which
must be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate.
The constitution contains many clauses intended to preclude
repetition of abuses such as those committed by Marcos. The
president's spouse cannot be appointed to any government post (a
reaction to Imelda Marcos's immoderate accumulation of titles and
powers). The public must be informed if the president becomes
seriously ill (a reaction to the belated discovery of numerous
kidney-dialysis machines in Marcos's bedroom in Malacañang). The
president is prohibited from owning any company that does
business with the government. And the armed forces must be
recruited proportionately from all provinces and cities as far as
is practicable, in order to prevent a future president from
repeating Marcos's ploy of padding the officer corps with people
from his home province.
Constitutional safeguards also prevent the president from
ruling indefinitely under emergency powers. Martial law may be
proclaimed, but only for sixty days. The president must notify
Congress of the institution of martial law within forty-eight
hours, and Congress can revoke martial law by a simple majority
vote. The president may not abolish Congress. The Supreme Court
may review and invalidate a presidential proclamation of martial
law. Of course, Congress can grant the president emergency powers
at any time.
The vice president has the same term of office as the
president and is elected in the same manner. The vice president
also may serve as a member of the cabinet. No vice president may
serve for more than two successive terms. The president and vice
president are not elected as a team. Thus, they may be
ideologically opposed, or even personal rivals.
In 1991 the president's cabinet consisted of the executive
secretary (who controlled the flow of paper and visitors reaching
the president), the press secretary, the cabinet secretary, and
the national security adviser, and the secretaries of the
following departments: agrarian reform; agriculture; budget and
management; economic planning; education, culture, and sports;
environment and natural resources; finance; foreign affairs;
health; interior and local governments; justice; labor and
employment; national defense; public works and highways; science
and technology; social welfare and development; tourism; trade
and industry; and transportation and communications. Cabinet
members directed a vast bureaucracy--2.6 million Filipinos were
on the government payroll in 1988.
The bureaucracy in the late 1980s was overseen by a
constitutionally independent Civil Service Commission, the
members of which were appointed by the president to a single
nonrenewable term of seven years. Because the Constitution
prohibits defeated political candidates from becoming civil
servants, bureaucratic positions cannot be used as consolation
prizes.
Two problems, in particular, have plagued the civil service:
corruption (especially in the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of
Internal Revenue) and the natural tendency, in the absence of a
forceful chief executive, of cabinet secretaries to run their
departments as independent fiefdoms. Bribes, payoffs, and
shakedowns characterized Philippine government and society at all
levels. The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated
in 1988 that one-third of the annual national budget was lost to
corruption. Corruption also occurred because of cultural values.
The Filipino bureaucrat who did not help a friend or relative in
need was regarded as lacking a sense of utang na loob, or
repayment of debts
(see Social Values and Organization
, ch. 2).
Many Filipinos recognize this old-fashioned value as being
detrimental to economic development. A 1988 congressional study
concluded that because of their "personalistic world view,"
Filipinos were "uncomfortable with bureaucracy, with rules and
regulations, and with standard procedures, all of which tend to
be impersonal." When faced with such rules they often "ignore
them or ask for exceptions."
Data as of June 1991
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