CHECKS AND BALANCES 3.
3. The President enters into a treaty with foreign countries and the Senate ratifies the same.
The ends of government are better achieved if the system of checks and balances will be
observed.
Under the system of checks and balances, one department is given certain powers by which
it may definitely restrain the others from exceeding constitutional authority. It may object or
resist any encroachment upon its authority, or it may question, if necessary any act or acts
which unlawfully interferes with its sphere of jurisdiction and authority. (Suarez, 2005).
The following are illustrations where there are checks and balances:
1. The lawmaking power of the Congress is checked by the President through its veto
power, which in turn maybe overturn by the legislature
2. The Congress may refuse to give its concurrence to an amnesty proclaimed by the
President and the Senate to a treaty he has concluded
3. The President may nullify a conviction in a criminal case by pardoning the offender
4. The Congress may limit the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and that of inferior courts
and even abolish the latter tribunals
5. The Judiciary in general has the power to declare invalid an act done by the Congress,
the President and his subordinates, or the Constitutional Commissions.
BLENDING OF POWERS
With the intricateness of the operations of government, it is unwise and impracticable to
effect a strict and complete separation of powers. There are instances when certain powers
are to be reposed in more than one department so they may better collaborate with, and in
the process check each other for the sake of a good and efficient government. Thus, the
necessity of blending of powers.
Blending of powers is actually sharing of powers of the different departments of government
whereby one department helps and coordinates with the other in the exercise of a particular
power, function or responsibility.
The following are examples under the 1987 Philippine Constitution where powers are not
confined exclusively within one department but are in fact shared:
1. The President and Congress help one another in the making of laws. Congres enacts the
bill and the President approves it.
2. The President prepares a budget and Congress enacts an appropriation bill pursuant to
that budget.
4. The Supreme Court may declare a treaty, international or executive agreement, or law, as
unconstitutional, and it has also the power to declare invalid any act done by the othe
departments of government.
5. The grant of amnesty by the President is subject to the concurrence of a majority of all the
members of the Congress.
DOCTRINE OF SEPARATION OF POWERS
Originally suggested by Aristotle in his treatise on Politics, and later on recognized by
Marsiglio of Padua, Cromwell, Locke and Montesquieu, the doctrine of separation enunciates
the idea of grouping the powers of government into three classes and of their apportionment
among three coordinate departments, separate from and independent of each other.
This doctrine is being carried out until this modern day that it is now incorporated in the
constitutions of many states. Among which is the United States of America.Kilbourne vs.
Thompson, 103 US 168, 190, 25L.ed. 377, ruled:
It operates to maintain the legislative powers to the legislative department, executive
powers to the executive department, and those which are judicial in character to the
judiciary. Through this allocation of powers, the person entrusted shall not be permitted to
encroach upon the power confided to the others, but that each shall, by the law of its
creation, be limited to the exercise of the powers appropriate to its own department and no
other. There must be independence and equity of the several departments.
In essence, the separation of powers means that the making of the laws belongs to Congress,
the execution of the laws is to the executive and the settlement of controversies rests in the
Judiciary. Each is prevented from invading the domain of the others. The purpose of the
separation of powers is to prevent concentration of authority in one department and thereby
avoid tyranny.
The separation of powers however should not be interpreted as complete separation and
absolute exclusion. The doctrine carries that although the three branches are not subject to
the control by either of the others and each is supreme within its own sphere, they are still
equal and coordinate. Equal because they all derive their powers from the same common
sovereign through the constitution. And coordinate because they cannot simply ignore the
acts done by other departments as nugatory and not binding.