The historical phenomena will determine or we must say characterized the present of the

country. Considering that the administrations from Cory to Duterte provided us the clearer vision
what kind of democracy we had for the past years which can provide us compatibility as stated
on our 1987 constitution or a mere fact that we really having it only as a paper. Being Asia’s
oldest democracy, Philippines have been a puzzle to many intellectuals and observers of
democracy (Deinla & Dressel, 2019). No one in Asia has more than the Philippines from the
representational structure from Malolos republic of 1898 experience with democratic institution
continue to empowered us until the restoration of democracy during people power in 1986.
Moreover, a century after its introduction, the structured framework continues to dominate us in
the present times. While vibrant in terms of voter turnout, civic engagement, and institutional
protections, there are widespread flaws in Philippine democratic processes illustrated by
persistent pernicious elite politics, continued institutional weakness, and widespread abuse of
public office (Hutchcroft & Rocamora, 2003). Yet, the sense of frustrations over its
characterization is more arguably apparent ever than before. Straightforward, the current
development of the country has democratic deficiency, that is, the enormous need for responding
to repressed demands and pressures from lower to upper levels. The continuing failure of
democratic are mere fact a failure to expand the respond to the needs of poor and the masses and
will continue to affect our development. In this paper, we will identify different parameters
within different administrations from Corazon Aquino in the year 1986-1992, her successors in
the office to the incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte in the year 2016 to present. The said
parameters will characterize the mentioned administrations in different aspects such as first, the
electoral process that allows us to differentiate the entitlement of the public under democratic
system in selecting and legitimizing their officials to public service; Secondly, civil liberties and
political participation being congruent, restored or taken one step back in every administration.
Lastly, functioning of government and its political development over three decades after the fall
of the authoritarian rule and the dawn of restoration of democratic regimes.

The Philippine political development has been enduring and challenging from the very
beginning up to the present functioning of the government. While the present has been whittled
by our history, its future will be defined how state and society conducts its function for the
betterment of the current issues to democracy. According to Pye (1966), stated that regardless of
the form of government, either democratic or not there must be a façade popular rule for subjects
for the reason that they should be an active citizen. According to him that the very first step to
reach development is the development of national state. Political development can be the whole
population, at governmental level and in the organization of political system as well.
Furthermore, a well-functioning government can be determined how officials are elected, the
quality of political stability that delivers the services from being a paper unto the public. The
Philippine government takes place in an organized framework of a presidential, representative,
and democratic republic divided into different branches (law-making body, law-enforcing body,
and law-interpreting body). During Corazon Aquino’s term, they have faced the extremely
difficult mostly restoring democracy from the authoritarian regime involving both political and
economic reconstructions. Political issues and events were also dominated in her first two years.
Aquino dissolved the Marcos-controlled legislature. She dismissed thousands of local governors
and mayors, replacing them with officers in charge, who would serve until elections could be
held resulting to a “Freedom Constitution” that gave her the decree-making powers of her
predecessor, although for a limited period, included a bill of rights, and called for a convention to
draft a new constitution. The new government also moved quickly to seize the assets amassed
by Marcos and his associates during the previous administration. The Presidential Commission
on Good Government (PCGG) was established by Aquino's first executive order to pursue legal
action against Marcos and his associates outside the Philippines, as well as to identify and seize
their assets in the Philippines. Still, on Ramos’s term, began enacting economic reforms aimed at
opening up the previously closed national economy, encouraging private enterprise, attracting
more foreign and domestic investment, and reducing widespread corruption. Yet crisis have been
challenged during his term in addressing issues that corresponds to the service of the government
to the public such as the power crisis that contradicts to his five-point programs. During his State
of the Nation address on 1992, he asked Congress to pass legislation to establish an Energy
Department to plan and manage the Philippines' energy sector. Congress not only established the
Department of Energy, but also granted the president special emergency powers to deal with the
power outage. Ramos used these powers to grant licenses to independent power producers (IPP)
to build additional power plants within 24 months. This structure, however, became a problem
after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, when the Philippine peso lost half of its value and the
local price for contracted electricity nearly doubled. As a result, the Philippine electricity price is
now the second-highest in Asia, trailing only Japan according to (Mijares, 1999). Further, During
Ramos' tenure, the Philippines pioneered the use of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) schemes to
spur development, in which private investors are invited to build specific government projects
(i.e. tollways, power plants, railways, etc.), operate them for a set period of time, and then
transfer ownership to the government. Next administration, Joseph Estrada, his term The Estrada
administration widened the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)
to the landless peasants in the country side (Boncan et. al, 2006). Yet, despite having a strong
economic team, the Estrada administration failed to capitalize on the previous administration's
gains. His administration was heavily chastised for cronyism, incompetence, and corruption,
causing foreign investors to lose confidence to his administration. Succeeding the remaining
years of Estrada and to vested as president of the country for more years, Gloria Arroyo as her
top priorities for the past years to fight corruptions where at her faster pace, anti-corruption
projects were held with the focus on tangible results. Moreover, according to (Oyamada, 2008),
there are new laws and several executive and legislative orders had passed. New strategies
during her second term more social value formation at the national level, Medium Term
development plans for 2001-2004 and 2004- 2010 proposed “prosperity for the greatest number
(Balicasan, 2015), showing encouraging signs for success. However, Oyamada on the same work
cited, despite the effort and achievement, the public perception of corruption and sincerity of
government performance in fighting it remains unchanged or has even worsened. The question is
that because of lack of political will? Is it the end of the era fighting corruption? The very answer
will be complex but the important things is that in Arroyo’s term, there are a slow progress to
improve the country’s economy. For the past years of ineffectiveness of the government resulted
the negative perception of the public which we mentioned that in order to implement the real
essence of democracy or any other form of government, there must be a popular rule which in
this case is the effectiveness of the government to have an active citizen. The government needs
to gain the public confidence so reforms will strengthen good governance and make officials
accountable. Consequently, the transition from Arroyo to Benigno Aquino became smooth as the
economy going back on track stating that they have been discredited Arroyo for her
achievement. Yet, to the current President Duterte, with so much attention focused on Duterte’s
shadowy “war on drugs” a far more worrying trend unfolded before the public’s eye—a
systematic assault on and erosion of the salience of independent institutions and institutions of
the rule of law. Rule of law has been perennially weak in the Philippines, with episodic periods
of displays of independence by the Supreme Court (Deinla and Dressel, 2019). According to a
survey conducted by a business organization in 2014 and 2015, lower courts and the appellate
court, the Court of Appeals, are regarded as among the worst performing government institutions
in the Philippines yet he is on track being the Philippine's most popular president since the
democratic era began 33 years ago with the fall of Ferdinand Marcos's dictatorship (Venzon,
2019). President Duterte finished the first half of his six-year term with a record net satisfaction
rating of 68% in the second quarter, surpassing a previous high of 66% in the January-March
period, according to Philippine News Agency. Clearly, no matter whose administration it is and
the democracy being challenged over time with its structure and its problems with institution, the
level of this parameter over the years will still be a wheel of fortune or jinx and yet without
public confidence, reforms will be as hard as it is. However, this doesn’t end with one parameter
but there will be a lot to consider which will be tackled and get deep upon throughout this paper.