Ocampo, Nina Rotzen T. Archi.3A 1. Do you think Filipinos are law- abiding? Explain your answer.

I think Filipinos become law-abiding suddenly when they are not in their own country. Because of the different places and environment, it is just in the behavior of the human being to respect the rules of the foreign land where they are in. Like being in someones house, you cannot misbehave. In the Philippines, some still do the same. But most are not because they are forced to nor have no choice but to break the law for their own sake. To my own perspective, looking up to the cause and effect, maybe it is because of poverty. We cannot tell who remains disciplined in our impoverish country. 2. Meaning of equal protection of the laws. Equal protection of the laws means the right of all persons to have the same access to the law and courts and to be treated equally by the law and courts, both in procedures and in the substance of the law. It is akin to the right to due process of law, but in particular applies to equal treatment as an element of fundamental fairness. 3. How are the two Houses of a legislature differentiated? The Senate of the Philippines is the upper chamber of the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, the Congress of the Philippines. The Philippine Senate is composed of 24 senators who are elected nationwide at-large. The Senate is the only body that can authorize the ratification of treaties. A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. It follows that the Senator, having a national rather than only a district constituency, will have a broader outlook of the problems of the country, instead of being restricted by narrow viewpoints and interests. With such perspective, the Senate is likely to be more circumspect, or at least less impulsive, than the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives of the Philippines is the lower chamber of the Congress of the Philippines. The Senate is the upper chamber. The House is often informally called theCongress. Members of the house are called Congressmen and their title is Representative. Congressmen are elected to a three-year term and can be reelected, but cannot serve more than three consecutive terms. Around eighty percent of congressmen are district representatives, representing a particular geographical area. The members of the House of Representatives, aside from being grouped into political parties, are also grouped into the "majority bloc," "minority bloc" and "independents" (different from the independent in the sense that they are not affiliated into a political party). Originally, those who voted for the winning Speaker belongs to the majority and those who voted for the opponent is the minority; each bloc is to elect amongst themselves a floor leader. While members are allowed to switch blocs, they must do so in writing to the bloc they are transferring to, with consent from the bloc, also expressed in writing. When the bloc the member ought to transfer to refuses to accept the transferring member, or a member does not want to be a member of either bloc, that member becomes an independent member. A member that transfers to a new bloc forfeits one's committee chairmanships and memberships, until the bloc the member transfers to elects the member to committees. The membership in each committee should be in proportion to the size of each bloc, with each bloc deciding who amongst them who will go to each committee, upon a motion by the floor leader concerned to the House of Representatives in plenary. The Speaker, Deputy Speakers, floor leaders, deputy floor leaders and the chairperson of the Committee on Accounts can vote in committees; the committee chairperson can only vote to break a tie. To ensure that the representatives each get their pork barrel, most of them will join the majority bloc, or even to the president's party, as basis of patronage politics (known as the Padrino Systemlocally); thus, the House of Representatives always aligns itself with the party of the sitting president.

4. What is the principle in political philosophy called separation of power of the government? The separation of power, is a model for the governance of a state. The state is divided into branches, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that no one branch has more power than the other branches. The normal division of branches is into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary. The Executive Branch

The executive branch is headed by the President, who is elected by a direct vote of the people. The term of office of the President, as well as the Vice-President, is six (6) years. As head of the Executive Department, the President is the Chief Executive. He represents the government as a whole and sees to it that all laws are enforced by the officials and employees of his department. He has control over the executive department, bureaus and offices. This means that he has the authority to assume directly the functions of the executive department, bureau and office or interfere with the discretion of its officials. Corollary to the power of control, the President also has the duty of supervising the enforcement of laws for the maintenance of general peace and public order. Thus, he is granted administrative power over bureaus and offices under his control to enable him to discharge his duties effectively.

The Legislative Branch The legislative branch, which has the authority to make, alter or repeal laws (see also the definition of legislative power), is the Congress. Congress is vested with the tremendous power of the purse, traditionally recognized in the constitutional provision that no money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law. It comprehends both the power to generate money by taxation (the power to tax) and the power to spend it (the power to appropriate). The power to appropriate carries with it the power to specify the amount that may be spent and the purpose for which it may be spent.

The Judiciary Judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law. The judiciary has the moderating power to determine the proper allocation of powers between the branches of government. When the judiciary mediates to allocate constitutional boundaries, it does not assert any superiority over the other departments; it does not in reality nullify or invalidate an act of the legislature, but only asserts the solemn and sacred obligation assigned to it by the Constitution to determine conflicting claims of authority under the Constitution and to establish for the parties in an actual controversy the rights which that instrument secures and guarantees to them. In the words of Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno: The Judiciary may not have the power of the sword, may not have the power of the purse, but it has the power to interpret the Constitution, and the unerring lessons of history tell us that rightly wielded, that power can make a difference for good. 5. Scope of suffrage: a. Is compulsory voting a good thing? Why? The democracy in our country is well applied among the Filipino people. I dont think compulsory voting is a good thing for our country because not all of the citizens are well aware in political voting. If compulsory voting is implemented, and the majority may be the one who are not aware of the political parties and cannot determine their goals and plans for our country, it may happen that their votes may be a mistake for the selection of the leaders.