Semi-Presidential Form of Government Is Good for the Philippines


Hi good afternoon, everyone! My name is James Romer V. Velina, a former BS Tourism Management student of CEU-Makati and as an aspiring Senate staff. This is my blog, a political blog rather.

I will discussing today what a semi-presidential form of government is and why it is best suit for the Philippines given the desire of the present Duterte administration to reform the present 1987 Constitution.

Ok. Semi-presidential form of government is a form of government wherein a President and a Prime Minister shares executive powers. It is a mixture of a presidential form of government and a parliamentary form of government. A President is elected by directly by the people while a Prime Minister is being appointed by him or her from a political party that garnered majority of seats in Parliament or legislature and the Members of the Cabinet will also be appointed from among the members of the said political party who are also Members of the said parliament by the President, upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister. And under the said form of government, it seeks to make a President a strong one.

Now let us go brief history of the semi-presidential form of government. It was originated in Germany on 1919 at the end of World War I during the time of the Weimar Republic until Adolf Hitler and the Nazis took over on 1933. And this was revived on 1958 in France when General  and later President Charles de Gaulle, a veteran of World War II insisted in creating a new Constitution that will provide stability in the country after years of disorder due to the perceived weakness of the parliamentary form of government. Here in the Philippines it was also introducted on the 1981 amendments to the then 1973 Constitution but was not effectively carried out as then dictator and President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., was still doing his lawmaking functions side by side with the unicameral Batasang Pambansa legislature under the Amendment No. 6 to the Constitution that was ratified on 1976 during Martial Law era.

As for me the reasons why a semi-presidential form of government is best suitable to the Philippines once more that must be included in the discussions for constitutional reforms is this:


1.) It will balance the roles of a presidential form of government and a parliamentary form of government.

2.) It promotes collective leadership with a President concentrating on foreign policy and national security and a Prime Minister focusing on domestic and economic policies.

3.) A strong President will provide stability in our political system since he will prevent any gridlock to happen;

4.) In times of crises, a President will be a decisive leader;

5.) A Parliament wil be able to remove a Prime Minister that is inefficient, incompetent thus avoiding the tedious process of impeachment; And;

6.) There will be strong cooperation among the Executive and Legislative branches of Goverment in terms of passing legislation since the members of the Executive will also be coming from the Legislative.

Given these short arguments I raised, I am convinced that if the Philippines will become a semi-presidential form of government, everything in the country will be alright.

That is all for today.

Thank you.


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