Government

CONCEPT

Government, as an element of the state, is the supreme authority that can enforce the laws of the land. It is the machinery that operates governmental activities in all their respective spheres. It is the organization vested with the right to exercise sovereign powers through which the will of the state is "formulated, expressed and realized." It is compared to a rudder which steers the ship of state.

The Supreme Court clearly defines government in the case of US vs. Dorr (2Phil 332)as the institution or aggregate of institutions by which an independent society makes and carries out those rules of action which are necessary to enable man to live in a social state, or which are imposed upon the people forming that society by those who possess the power or authority of prescribing them. Government is the aggregate of authorities which rule a society."

ADMINISTRATION

Inherently related to government, it is the aggregate body of persons in whose hands the rules of government are entrusted for a time being. It is used to designate the body of officials who actually carry out the affairs and functions of government.

NECESSITY

No state can exist without an organized form of government. It is the machinery or agency that carries out the affairs and functions of government intended to secure unto the people their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

The ends for which government exists include whatever the collective action of men associated for the common good can do for the moral and material welfare of the community and the individual citizens who compose it, helping them to obtain the maximum that life can afford of enjoyment and to suffer the minimum life may bring of sorrow.

FUNCTION

"The two functions of government are:

1. Constituent functions are those which constitute the very bonds of society and are by nature compulsory; that is to say, public officials cannot refuse to execute or enforce them.
2. Ministrant or ministerial functions are those that are undertaken only by way of advancing the general interest of society and, by nature, merely optional. These are not exercised to govern, but to promote the happiness and well-being of the people.
Among the constituent function of government may be added the following:
a. The keeping of order and providing for the protection of persons and property from violence and robbery;
b. The fixing of the legal relations between man and woman;
c. The regulation of the holding, transmission, and interchange of property;
d. The determination of the liabilities for debt or for crime;
e. The determination of contract rights between individuals;
f. The definition and punishment for crimes;
g. The administration of justice in civil cases;
h. The determination of political duties, privileges, and relations of citizens; and
i. Dealing of the state of foreign powers; the preservation of the state from external danger of encroachment and the advancement of its international interests.

STATE DISTINGUISHED FROM GOVERNMENT

1. The state is a legal personality while government is an element of the state, the agency or machinery by which the affairs of the state are carried out;
2. A state cannot exist without government, whereas a government may exist without the state;
3. The government may change as the people dictates; but the people cannot change the status of a state as a legal person;
4. The acts of government when performed within the limits of the delegation of powers to it may be considered acts of the state; but acts of the state may not be said to be the acts of the government.

GOVERNMENT DISTINGUISHED FROM PEOPLE

1. Government is the machinery or agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and carried out, whereas people are the inhabitants of the state collectively organized for whose benefit the government exists.
2. The government is the representative of the people who, as the sovereign power, may decide what kind of government they may wish to have.
3.The government cannot exist without the people but the people may exist without a government.

CLASSIFICATION

The classification of government depends upon who exercises sovereign powers, the extent of powers thus exercised, and with respect to the relationship among the three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial.

1. As to person or persons exercising sovereign powers:

a. Monarchy where the supreme power of government is entrusted in the hands of a single person without regard to the source of his election or the nature or duration of his tenure. Monarch may either be: absolute where the monarch rules by divine right; or limited where the monarch rules under a constitution.

b. Aristocracy where the political power is exercised by a few privilege aristocrats or oligarchs.

c. Democracy where the political power is exercised by a majority of the people. It may be: Pure Democracy where the will of the people is formulated or exercised directly and immediately through the people in a mass meeting or primary assembly, or through the medium of delegates or representatives chosen to act for them. or Representative Democracy where the will of the people, through their relatively small and select body of persons, act as their representative.

d. Republic where the government derives all its powers either directly of indirectly from the people themselves, and it is administered for a limited period, or during good behavior by the persons holding their offices at pleasure. The government derives its power from the great body of people, not just from a favored class or an inconsiderable portion of it.

2. With respect to limit of power exercised

a. Unitary government where the power of control over national or local affairs is exercised by the national or central government.

b. Federal government where the governmental powers are distributed between a central government and a local government, each being supreme within its own sphere.

3. As to relation between the executive and legislative

a. Parliamentary government where the state confers upon the legislature the complete control of the administration of law.

b. Presidential where the state makes the executive independent of the legislature, both in tenure and in prerogatives, and furnishes him with sufficient power to prevent the legislature from trenching upon the sphere marked out s executive independence and prerogative.

4. Other forms of government

a. Military government where the government is established and administered by a belligerent in a territory of an enemy occupied by him.

b. Civil government where the affairs of the state is entrusted for their administration and direction upon the representatives chosen by the citizens.

c. Bureaucratic government where a group administrators specially trained for public service, enter the government service only after a regular course and an examination, and who serve usually during good behavior, and retire on pension.

d. Hereditary government where the state confers the powers of government upon a person, or upon an organization or organizations composed of persons standing by a certain family relation to his or their immediate predecessors.

e. De jure government
It is the legal government in all its aspects which has the support of its people and founded upon existing constitutional laws of the state. It may also refer to one established as an independent government by the inhabitants of a country who rise in insurrection against the parent state.

f. De facto government
Here, the government takes possession and control of, or usurps, by force or by the voice of the majority, the rightful legal government and maintains itself against the will of the latter. It may also designate a government established and maintained by military forces who invade and occupy a territory of the enemy in the course of war, and which is denominated as a government of paramount force. And the third is that established as an independent government by the inhabitants of a country who rise in insurrection against the parent state.

TEST TO DETERMINE WHETHER A GOVERNMENT IS DE JURE OR DE FACTO

The question as to whether a particular government is de jure or de facto rests upon the validity and the ultimate success or failure of the government in question. Under what is called the selective test, a de jure government is one which legally possess the power of sovereignty which, at the time, may be lost. A de facto government is one which is really in possession of such power of sovereignty, although the possession may be wrongful or precarious.

The validity of the acts of either government depends upon its character as de jure or de facto insofar as effect is sought to be given in such acts within the territory of the state in which the government in question belongs. This distinction between the two governments, while important in constitutional and political law, is hardly of any significance in international law, since the status of government depends upon the recognition afforded to it by the government of other states.

GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES UNDER THE 1987 CONSTITUTION

Under Section 2 of the Administrative Code, the government of the Republic of the Philippines refers only to that governmental entity through which the functions of government are exercised as an attribute of sovereignty, and in this are those arms through which political authority is made effective whether they be provincial, municipal or other forms of local government like municipal corporations.

Today, under the 1987 Constitution, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines refers to the corporate governmental entity established under the new charter as adopted by the Constitutional Commission, later ratified by the Filipino people themselves on February 2, 1987 whereby the functions of government are exercised throughout the Philippines as defined and limited under its various provisions.

Sources:

Malcolm. The Government of the Philippine Island
Malcolm and Laurel. Philippine Constitutional Law
Sinco. Philippine Political Law
Bryce. Modern Democracies
Garner. Introduction to political Science