THE LEGISLATURE AND THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

Legislative Power
1. Meaning. The word “legislative” is derived from the Latin “lex” which
means “law.” In general, legislative power refers to the power to make
and unmake laws. Laws are rules or collection of rules, whether
written or unwritten, prescribed under the authority of a political
society for the common good. The “Legislative Department”
(Legislature) is the law-making branch of the government.

2. Delegation to the Congress. Fundamentally, legislative power is an

attribute of sovereignty, in that the Constitution itself, the fundamental
law of the State, is a legislation of the sovereign people. However,
through the Constitution, the people “delegated” the legislative power
to the Congress of the Philippines. Section 1, Article VI states that
“Legislative power shall be vested in the Congress of the Philippines…”
The delegation of power entails a surrender of authority to the
representatives, or in the case of legislative power, to the Congress.
Thus, law-making can only be performed by the Congress, even if the
law it enacts involves the people.

3. Reservation to the People. The Constitution, however, makes a

reservation as to the delegation, in that it explicitly states: “… except
to the extent reserved to the people by the provision on initiative and
referendum.” In other words, there is no complete delegation of law-
making power to the Congress, as the power is reserved to the people
in cases of initiative and referendum. Thus, laws are made or unmade,
first, by the Congress in the form of “statutes,” and second, by the
people in initiatives and referendums; legislative power is exercised by
the Congress and the sovereign Filipino people.

4. Legislative Power as Exercised by Congress. Legislative power as

exercised by Congress manifests itself more specifically in the
Constitution as “power of appropriation,” “power of taxation,” and
“power of concurrence.”

(a) Power of Appropriation. Section 29 (1), Article VI speaks of the

power to appropriate. It states, “No money shall be paid out of the
Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law.”
Appropriation means the authorization by law for the use of a certain
sum of the public funds. An appropriations law is necessary before
public funds may be spent by the government for its projects. The
government needs money in all its activities and projects so that the
power of appropriation, also known as the “power of the purse,” is said
to be one of the most important prerogatives of the Congress.

(b) Power of Taxation. The power, which is one of the inherent powers
of the state, is generally exercised by the legislative department. The
Constitution limits such power as follows: “The rule of taxation shall
be uniform and equitable. The Congress shall evolve a progressive
system of taxation.” As was discussed in Chapter 4, taxation must be
uniform, equitable, and progressive. Any law passed by the Congress
contrary to this provision is null and void.

(c) Power of Concurrence. Section 21, Article VII states that “no treaty
or international agreement shall be valid and effective unless
concurred in by at least two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate.”
This refers to the power of concurrence of the Congress in which no
treaty can become binding and effective as a domestic law without the
two-thirds concurrence of the Members of the Senate.

Non-Delegation of Powers
1. Meaning and Explanation. The Congress cannot further delegate the
power delegated to it by the people. This is in keeping with the
principle of non-delegation of powers which is applicable to all the
three branches of the government. The rule states that what has been
delegated cannot further be delegated – potestas delegata non
delegari potest. A delegated power must be discharged directly by the
delegate and not through the delegate’s agent. It is basically an
ethical principle which requires direct performance by the delegate of
an entrusted power. Further delegation therefore constitutes violation
of the trust reposed by the delegator on the delegate. The people,
through the Constitution, delegated lawmaking powers to the
Congress, and as such, it cannot as a rule delegate further the same to
another.

2. Exceptions. In order to address the numerous and complex demands

of legislative function, the Constitution provides exceptions to the rule.
Further delegation is permitted in the following cases:
(a) Delegation to the people at large. The Congress further delegates
its legislative power by allowing direct legislation by the people in
cases of initiative and referendum;

(b) Delegation of emergency powers to the President. Section 23 (2),

Article VI of the Constitution states that “in times of war or other
national emergency, the Congress may, by law, authorize the President,
for a limited period and subject to such restrictions as it may
prescribe, to exercise powers necessary and proper to carry out a
declared national policy.” Emergency powers are delegated to the
President by the Congress to effectively solve the problems caused by
war or other crisis which the Congress could not otherwise solve with
more dispatch than the President;

(c) Delegation of tariff powers to the President. Section 28 (2), Article

VI of the Constitution states that “the Congress may, by law, authorize
the President to fix within specified limits, and subject to such
limitations and restrictions as it may impose, tariff rates, import and
export quotas, tonnage and wharfage dues, and other duties or
imposts within the framework of the national development program of
the Government.” Tariff powers are delegated to the President by the
Congress to efficiently and speedily solve economic problems posed
by foreign trade which the Congress could not otherwise address with
more dispatch than the President;

(d) Delegation to administrative bodies. The Congress delegates the so

called “power of subordinate legislation” to administrative bodies. Due
to the growing complexity of modern society, it has become necessary
to allow specialized administrative bodies to promulgate
supplementary rules, so that they can deal with technical problems
with more expertise and dispatch than the Congress or the courts.
Regulations or supplementary rules passed by the administrative
bodies are intended to fill-in the gaps and provide details to what is
otherwise a broad statute passed by Congress. For the rules and
regulations to be valid and binding, they must be in accordance with
the statute on which they are based, complete in themselves, and fix
sufficient standards. If any of the requirements is not satisfied, the
regulation will not be allowed to affect private rights; and

(e) Delegation to the local governments. This delegation is based on

the principle that the local government is in better position than the
national government to act on purely local concerns. Legislative power
is therefore given to them for effective local legislation.

TESTS IN DETERMINING VALIDITY OF DELEGATION

There are two accepted tests to determine whether or not there is a

valid delegation of legislative power, viz,, the completeness test and
the sufficient standard test. Under the first test, the law must be
complete in all its terms and conditions when it leaves the legislature
such that when it reaches the delegate the only thing he will have to
do is enforce it Under the sufficient standard test, there must be
adequate guidelines or limitations in the law to map out the
boundaries of the delegate's authority and prevent the delegation from
running riot. Both tests are intended to prevent a total transference of
legislative authority to the delegate, who is not allowed to step into
the shoes of the legislature and exercise a power essentially
legislative.

The principle of non-delegation of powers is applicable to all the three

major powers of the Government but is especially important in the
case of the legislative power because of the many instances when its
delegation is permitted. The occasions are rare when executive or
judicial powers have to be delegated by the authorities to which they
legally pertain. In the case of the legislative power, however, such
occasions have become more and more frequent, if not necessary. This
had led to the observation that the delegation of legislative power has
become the rule and its non-delegation the exception.