Members of the Senate:

Are They Competent to Frame the Law?

Jacinth D. Dela Cerna

jaja.dls.dlc@gmail.com
Juris Doctor - I
A Baby Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of the College of Law
University of Cebu
Banilad Campus
Cebu City

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements in
Legal Research and Thesis Writing

October 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION
The Legislative Branch of the government holds one of the highest
responsibilities in the government. As laws being the one that governs and
control the movement of the people of the land, the legislative branch is being
given the burden of framing and creating these laws. As stated in the 1987
Constitution of the Philippines, Article VI Section 1 The legislative power shall be
vested in the Congress of the Philippines which shall consist of a Senate and a
House of Representatives, except to the extent reserved to the people by the
provision on initiative and referendum.
Legislative power is the authority to make laws and to alter and repeal
them. As vested by the Constitution in Congress, it is a derivative and delegated
power. "The Constitution is the work or will of the people themselves, in their
original, sovereign, and unlimited capacity. Law is the work or will of the
legislature in their derivative and subordinate capacity. The one is the work of the
Creator, and the other of the creature. The constitution fixes limits to the exercise
of legislative authority, and prescribes the orbit within which it must move."
(Bernas, 2009)
Being the legislative branch the law framing department of the
government, the framers therefore are needed to have the legal background
seeing that it is their duty to create such laws that would then be followed by the
citizens of the country. As seen in the history of the previous constitutions of the
Philippines, the Constitutional Conventions that was raised in order to frame the
supreme law of the land mostly composes of members that were law graduates
or had a legal background. The American constitution, one of the oldest framed
laws, were written by men who practiced law. As stated by the Encyclopedia
Britannica, The First Continental Congress included Patrick Henry, George
Washington, John and Samuel Adams, John Jay, and John Dickinson. (The
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.)
Law being the binding force in a nation, the framers who hold the duty
thereof should therefore have the legal background that would make him or her
competent in the framing thereof. But as what the 1987 Constitution provides as
one of the requirements for being a member in the House of Senate No

person shall be a Senator unless he is able to read and write... The education
qualification does not specify any degree to have been held by a member, nor
does it specify nor require the member to have a background in law, but simply
states that a member should be able to read and write.
The issue seen now is the competency of the laws instituted by the
members of Congress seeing that the members (though not all) are simply
persons who are able to read and write. As we look at what our Senate is
composed of, a number of its members hold degrees that does not in any way
relate to their job description which is to frame the laws of the land. Some of
which are only college degree holders and others only had high school diplomas
held.
Problem is because the legislative branch is given the heaviest task of
framing the laws that will be implemented in the land, the members who are
tasked to do so are not men whose educational background relates to it, nor their
educational attainment has managed to study the basic structure of the laws of
the land.
There is a need to conduct such study because as citizens of this country,
we are tasked to follow the laws implemented, yet the question is how would one
be able to fully follow these laws if even in the framing of these laws, the men
tasked to do so are unqualified in making it. They were not able to study the
basics of what constitutes the laws of the land.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study aims the following:
1. To evaluate the education requirement of the Senate of the Philippines
provided for in the Constitution; determine whether there is a need to
change the education requirements of the members of the Senate of the
Philippines seeing that they hold the burden of framing the laws of the
land;

METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Research Site
Subjects
Date Sources
Research Procedure
Statistical Treatment/Data Analysis

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION

RECOMMENDATIONS

LITERATURE CITED
Bernas, J. G. (2009). The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines
A Commentary. Rex Publishing House.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Continental Congress.
Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Continental-Congress