SEPARATION OF POWERS
legislative, executive or judicial.
As explained by this court in the landmark case of Angara v.
Electoral Commission:
The separation of powers is a fundamental principle in our
system of government. It obtains not through express
provision but by actual division in our Constitution. Each
department of the government has exclusive cognizance of
matters within its jurisdiction, and is supreme within its own
sphere. But it does not follow from the fact that the three
powers are to be kept separate and distinct that the
Constitution intended them to be absolutely unrestrained and
independent of each other. The Constitution has provided for
an elaborate system of checks and balances to secure
coordination in the workings of the various departments of
the government.
The doctrine of separation of powers was also discussed in
United States v. Ang Tang Ho,3 a case which was decided
when the Philippines was still under American rule:
By the organic law of the Philippine Islands and the
Constitution of the United States all powers are vested in the
Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. It is the duty of the
Legislature to make the law; of the Executive to execute the
law; and of the Judiciary to construe the law. The Legislature
has no authority to execute or construe the law, the Executive
has no authority to make or construe the law, and the
Judiciary has no power to make or execute the law. Subject
to the Constitution only, the power of each branch is supreme
within its own jurisdiction, and it is for the Judiciary only to
say when any Act of the Legislature is or is not
constitutional.
Legislation belongs to the Congress.
Execution belongs to the Executive.
Settlement of legal controversies belongs to the Judiciary.
Purpose;
The doctrine of separation of powers is intended to prevent
concentration of authority in one person or group of persons
that might lead to an irreversible error or abuse in its exercise
to the detriment of our republican institutions.
According to Justice Laurel, the doctrine is intended to
1. secure action,
2. forestall over-action,
3. to prevent despotism (exercise absolute power) and
4. to obtain deficiency.
The principle of separation of power ordains that each of the
three great branches of the government has exclusive
cognizance of and is supreme in matters falling within its
own constitutionality allocated sphere.
To achieve these purpose, the legislature is generally limited
to the enactment, of laws and may not enforce or apply them;
the executive to the enforcement of laws and may not enact
or apply them; and the judiciary to the application of laws
and may not enact or enforce them.
The doctrine of separation of power, as properly understood,
is not independence but interdependence.
BLENDING OF POWERS
There are instances under the Constitution, where powers are
not confined exclusively within one department but in fact
assigned to or shared by several departments. As a result of
this, “blending of powers”, as it is called, there is some
difficulty in classifying some of them as definitely
First example of blending of powers is the enactment of the
general appropriations law, which begins with the
preparation by the president of the budget which becomes the
basis of the bill adopt by the Congress and subsequently
submitted by it to the president. Who may then approve it.
Second example, Granting amnesty by the president which
requires the concurrence by the president of a majority of all
members of the Congress,
Third example would be, the Commission on Elections does
not alone deputize law-enforcement agencies and
instrumentalities of the government for the purpose of
ensuring free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections
but does so with the consent of the President.
Bonus example, the Congress enacts a bill and the president
will either approve or vetoes the bill.
Legislative process
Congress is responsible for making enabling laws to make
sure the spirit of the constitution is upheld in the country and,
at times, amend or change the constitution itself. In order to
craft laws, the legislative body comes out with two main
documents: bills and resolutions.
Resolutions convey principles and sentiments of the Senate
or the House of Representatives. These resolutions can
further be divided into three different elements:
• joint resolutions — require the approval of both
chambers of Congress and the signature of the
President, and have the force and effect of a law if
approved.
•
• concurrent resolutions — used for matters affecting
the operations of both chambers of Congress and must
be approved in the same form by both houses, but are
not transmitted to the President for his signature and
therefore have no force and effect of a law.
•
• simple resolutions — deal with matters entirely
within the prerogative of one chamber of Congress,
are not referred to the President for his signature, and
therefore have no force and effect of a law.
•
Bills are laws in the making. They pass into law when they
are approved by both houses and the President of the
Philippines. A bill may be vetoed by the President, but the
House of Representatives may overturn a presidential veto by
garnering a 2/3rds vote. If the President does not act on a
proposed law submitted by Congress, it will lapse into law
after 30 days of receipt.
Check and Balances
The system of checks and balances between the judicial and
legislative branches showed a political dynamics. The
constitutional power of the judiciary is to determine any
grave abuse of discretion aggravating to excess or lack of
jurisdiction in the part of the legislative branch.
First example of the concept of checks and balances is the
law making power of the Congress is checked by the
president through his veto power, which in turn may be
overridden by the legislator.
The Congress may refuse to give its concurrence to an
amnesty proclaimed by the president and the senate to a
treaty he has concluded.
The president may nullify a conviction in a criminal case bu
pardoning the offender.
The Congress may limit the jurisdiction of the Supreme
Court and that of inferior courts and even abolish the latter
tribunals.
As for the judiciary in general, it has the power to declare
invalid an act done by the Congress, the President and his
subordinate, or the Constitutional Commissions.
DELEGATION OF POWERS
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.
In 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.
The principle of non-delegation of powers
Administrative bodies though vested with rights by the
congress to do its some of its duties, they do not legislate the
same as the congress and adjudicate the same as the
judiciary. Therefore they only have quasi-legislative and
quasi-judicial powers.
The Administrative bodies have only quasi- legislative and
quasi-executive powers;
Quasi-legislative because they have to implement and
supply the details from the guidelines coming from the
Congress
Quasi-judicial because they adjudicate certain matters even
those that are traditionally belongs to the court but they do
not exercise through judicial power because their resolutions
are still subjected to final exercise of judicial review.

The rule states that what has been delegated cannot further be PCSD (Palawan Council for sustainable development) vs.
delegated – potestas delegata non delegari potest Ejercito Lim (doing business as Bonanza Air Services),

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 but is especially important in the
case of legislative power because of many instances when its
delegation is permitted. The occasions are rare when
executive or judicial powers are exercised the departments to
which they legally pertain. In the case of the legislative
power, however, such instances have become more and more
frequent, if not necessary. This had led to the observation that
the delegation of the legislative power has become the rule
and its non-delegation the exception.
Administrative agencies possess two kinds of powers, the
quasi-legislative or rule-making power, and the quasi-
judicial or administrative adjudicatory power.
The first is the power to make rules and regulations that
results in delegated legislation that is within the confines of
the granting statute and the doctrine of non-delegability and
separability of powers. The issuance of the assailed A.O. No.
00-05, Resolution. No. 03-211 and the other issuances by the
PCSD was in the exercise of the agency's quasilegislative
powers.

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.
The second is the power to hear and determine questions of
fact to which the legislative policy is to apply and to decide
in accordance with the standards laid down by the law itself
in enforcing and administering the same law. The
administrative body exercises its quasi-judicial power when
it performs in a judicial manner an act that is essentially of an
executive or administrative nature, where the power to act in
such manner is incidental to or reasonably necessary for the
performance of the executive or administrative duty entrusted
to it.

NPC Drivers and Mechanics Association vs. National

Power Corporation, 503 SCRA 138 (2006), "the act or the Legislative Power involves the discretion to determine what
liberty to decide according to the principles of justice and the law shall be.
one's ideas of what is right and proper under the
circumstances, without willfulness or favor.8 Discretion, Quasi-Legislative power only involves the discretion to
when applied to public functionaries, means a power or right determine how the law shall be enforced.
conferred upon them by law of acting officially in certain
circumstances, according to the dictates of their own
judgment and conscience, uncontrolled by the judgment or Quasi Legislative power is the authority delegated by the
law making body to the administrative body to adopt rules
conscience of others.9 It is to be presumed that in naming the
and regulations intended to cary our the provisions of a law
respective department heads as members of the board of and implement legislative policy.
directors, the legislature chose these secretaries of the various
executive departments on the basis of their personal
qualifications and acumen which made them eligible to
occupy their present positions as department heads. Thus, the
department secretaries cannot delegate their duties as
members of the NPB, much less their power to vote and
approve board resolutions, because it is their personal
judgment that must be exercised in the fulfillment of such
responsibility.

Binamira v. Garrucho, An officer to whom a discretion is

entrusted cannot delegate it to another, the presumption being
that he was chosen because he was deemed fit and competent
to exercise that judgment and discretion, and unless the
power to substitute another in his place has been given to
him, he cannot delegate his duties to another.

In those cases in which the proper execution of the office

requires, on the part of the officer, the exercise of judgment
or discretion, the presumption is that he was chosen because
he was deemed fit and competent to exercise that judgment
and discretion, and, unless power to substitute another in his
place has been given to him, he cannot delegate his duties to
another.