3 Branches of the Government

3 Branches of the Government:

1. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT
2. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
3. JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

1. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

- The Philippines has a bicameral Congress just like the United States since the 1987 Philippine Constitution was patterned after the U.S. Constitution. It consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives.

POWER: Legislative and non-legislative power. Legislative Power is the power to enact and frame laws.

2. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT

- The President of the Philippines is the head of the executive branch of the government.

POWER: Executive power is described as the power to enforce and administer the laws.

3. JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

- The judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court and in lower courts.

POWER: Judicial power is the power to interpret and apply the laws.

The National Territory

My chinky eyes shed tears whenever we were being tasked by our grade school mentors to sing:

PILIPINAS KONG MAHAL

(Tagalog)
Ang bayan ko'y tanging ikaw
Pilipinas Kong Mahal
Ang puso ko at buhay man
Sa iyo'y ibibigay

Tungkulin kong gagampanan
na lagi kang paglingkuran
Ang laya mo'y babantayan
Pilipinas kong Hirang...

(English, singing translation)
My Beloved Philippines

I love my own native land
Philippines, my Philippines
To thee I give my heart and hand
Philippines, my Philippines.
the trees that crown thy mountains grand,
the seas that beat upon thy strand
Awake my heart to thy command,
Philippines, my Philippines...

It is not the National Anthem “Lupang Hinirang” that has been stuck in my patriotic soul. Needless to say, I love the Philippines and my brown skin even though, at times, I am quiet fascinated with Caucasian look.

Incidentally, I believe that every Filipino, whether natural-born or naturalized must have a deep sense of appreciation for the components of the national territory of the Philippines. We should also take to heart that God had decreed the history (times) and boundaries (exact places) for all nations.

Acts 17:26

²⁶From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

And Article I of the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides as follows:

The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial and aerial domains, including its territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas. The waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines.

The 1^st sentence refers to terrestrial, fluvial, and aerial domains that are under the State’s sovereignty which means that ALL who live and sojourn in Philippine territory, regardless of the nationality, shall be subject to its laws and jurisdiction with the exception of heads of states and diplomatic representatives by virtue of the customary of nations.

Terrestrial domain is the land mass;

Fluvial and maritime domain is the inland and external waters; and

Aerial domain is the airspace above the land and water.

While the territorial sea which is a belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal state, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas, are under jurisdiction only meaning foreign ships (both military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) set the 200 mile EEZ limit as the boundary of the Continental shelf for seabed and subsoil exploration.

The 2^nd sentence is an affirmation of the Achipelago doctrine that the entire archipelago is regarded as one integrated unit via the connection of the outermost points of our archipelago with straight baselines and consider all the waters enclosed thereby as internal waters over which the state has complete jurisdiction: not even innocent passage is allowed.

The definition in Article 1 now covers the following territories:

1. Those ceded to the United States by virtue of the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898 wherein U.S. paid the Spain $20 million.
2. Those defined in the treaty concluded between the U.S. and Spain on Nov. 7, 1900 which were not defined in the treaty of Paris, specifically the islands of Cagayan, Sulu and Sibuto.
3. Those defined in the treaty concluded on Jan. 02, 1930, between the U.S. and Great Britain specifically the Turtle and Mangsee islands.
4. The island of Batanes, which was covered under a general statement in the 1935 Constitution.
5. Those contemplated in the phrase “belonging to the Philippines by historic right or legal title” in the 1973 Constitution.