The Philippine Congress is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives. The Senate has 24 senators elected nationwide for six-year terms, while the House has between 250 and 300 representatives elected for three-year terms. Bills must pass both chambers as well as be signed by the President to become law. The legislative process involves bills and resolutions, with resolutions expressing opinions and bills becoming laws with approval.
2. The legislative power is vested in the Congress of the Philippines which
consists of the Senate and House of Representatives. The upper house is
located in Pasay, while the lower house is located in Quezon City. The
district and sectoral representatives are elected for a term of three years.
They can be re-elected but they may not run for a fourth consecutive term.
Senators are elected to a term of six years. They can be re-elected but
may not run for a third consecutive term. The House of Representatives
may opt to pass for a vacancy of a legislative seat, which leads to a
special election. The winner of the special election will serve the
unfinished term of the previous district representative, and will be
considered as one elective term. The same rule also applies in the
Senate, however it only applies if the seat was vacated before a regular
legislative election.
The current President of the Senate is Franklin Drilon, while the
current Speaker of the House of Representatives is Feliciano Belmonte,
Jr.
3. The Senate shall be composed of twenty-
four Senators who shall be elected at large
by the qualified voters of the Philippines, as
may be provided by law; the House of
Representatives shall be composed of not
more than 250 (unless otherwise fixed by
law), 20 percent of whom must be Party-list
representatives.
4. 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,
Simple Resolutions, Concurrent Resolutions.
5. 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.
6. This article is about a form of legislature. For
other uses, see Bicameralism (disambiguation).
A bicameral legislature is one in which the
legislators are divided into two separate
assemblies, chambers or houses. A bicameral
legislature is distinguished from a unicameral
legislature, in which all of the members
deliberate and vote as a single group, and from
some legislatures which have three or more
separate assemblies, chambers or houses.
7. Most legislatures have a bicameral form. Often,
the members of the two chambers are elected or
selected using different methods, which varies
from country to country. Enactment of laws
usually requires the approval of a majority of
members in each of the chambers of the
legislature.
Bicameralism is an essential and defining feature
of the classical notion of mixed government.
Bicameral legislatures usually require a
concurrent majority to pass legislation.
