Senators serve six-year terms with a maximum of two consecutive terms, with half of the senators elected in staggered elections every three years. When the Senate was restored by the 1987 Constitution, the 24 senators who were elected in 1987 served until 1992. In 1992, the 12 candidates for the Senate obtaining the highest number of votes served until 1998, while the next 12 served until 1995. Thereafter, each senator elected serves the full six years. From 1945 to 1972, the Senate was a continuing body, with only eight seats up every two years.
Aside from having its concurrence on every bill in order to be passed for the president's signature to become a law, the Senate is the only body that can concur with treaties and try impeachment cases. The president of the Senate is the presiding officer and highest-ranking official of the Senate. They are elected by the entire body to be their leader and are second in the Philippine presidential line of succession. The current officeholder is Francis Escudero.
History
Joint session of Philippine Legislature including the newly elected Senate, November 15, 1916The post–World War II Philippine Senate in 1951: Cipriano P. Primicias, Sr., far left, debates Quintín Paredes, far right. In the middle are Justiniano Montano, Mariano Jesús Cuenco, Enrique B. Magalona, and Francisco Delgado; in the foreground is Edmundo Cea. Deliberations were once held at the Old Legislative Building.
Future president Manuel L. Quezon, who was then Philippine Resident Commissioner, encouraged future president Sergio Osmeña, then Speaker of the House, to run for the leadership of the Senate, but Osmeña preferred to continue leading the lower house. Quezon then ran for the Senate and became Senate President serving for 19 years (1916–1935).
This setup continued until 1935, when the Philippine Independence Act or the "Tydings–McDuffie Act" was passed by the U.S. Congress which granted the Filipinos the right to frame their own constitution in preparation for their independence, wherein they established a unicameral National Assembly of the Philippines, effectively abolishing the Senate. Not long after the adoption of the 1935 Constitution several amendments began to be proposed. By 1938, the National Assembly began consideration of these proposals, which included restoring the Senate as the upper chamber of Congress. The amendment of the 1935 Constitution to have a bicameral legislature was approved in 1940 and the first biennial elections for the restored upper house was held in November 1941. Instead of the old senatorial districts, senators were elected via the entire country serving as an at-large district, although still under plurality-at-large voting, with voters voting up to eight candidates, and the eight candidates with the highest number of votes being elected. While the Senate from 1916 to 1935 had exclusive confirmation rights over executive appointments, as part of the compromises that restored the Senate in 1941, the power of confirming executive appointments has been exercised by a joint Commission on Appointments composed of members of both houses. However, the Senate since its restoration and the independence of the Philippines in 1946 has the power to ratify treaties.
The Senate finally convened in 1945 and served as the upper chamber of Congress from thereon until the declaration of martial law by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, which shut down Congress. The Senate was resurrected in 1987 upon the ratification of the 1987 Constitution. However, instead of eight senators being replaced after every election, it was changed to twelve.
In the Senate, the officers are the Senate president, Senate president pro tempore, majority floor leader, minority floor leader and the Senate secretary and the Senate sergeant at arms who are elected by the senators from among the employees and staff of the Senate. Meanwhile, the Senate president, Senate president pro-tempore, the majority floor leader and the minority floor leader are elected by the senators from among themselves.
Article VI, Section 2 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides that the Senate shall be composed of 24 senators who shall be elected at-large by the qualified voters of the Philippines, as may be provided by law.
The composition of the Senate is smaller in number as compared to the House of Representatives. The members of this chamber are elected at large by the entire electorate. The rationale for this rule intends to make the Senate a training ground for national leaders and possibly a springboard for the presidency.[1]
It follows also that the senator will have a broader outlook of the problems of the country, instead of being restricted by narrow viewpoints and interests by having a national rather than only a district constituency.[1]
The Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) composed of three Supreme Court justices and six senators determines election protests on already-seated senators. There had been three instances where the SET has replaced senators due to election protests, the last of which was in 2011 when the tribunal awarded the protest of Koko Pimentel against Migz Zubiri.[2]
Qualifications
The qualifications for membership in the Senate are expressly stated in Section 3, Art. VI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution as follows:
No person shall be a Senator unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, and on the day of the election, is at least 35 years of age, able to read and write, a registered voter, and a resident of the Philippines for not less than two years immediately preceding the day of the election.
The age is fixed at 35 and must be possessed on the day of the elections, that is, when the polls are opened and the votes cast, and not on the day of the proclamation of the winners by the board of canvassers.
With regard to the residence requirements, it was ruled in the case of Lim v. Pelaez that it must be the place where one habitually resides and to which he, after absence, has the intention of returning.
Under the Constitution, "Congress shall convene once every year on the fourth Monday of July for its regular session...". During this time, the Senate is organized to elect its officers. Specifically, the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides a definite statement to it:
(2) Each House shall choose such other officers as it may deem necessary.
(3) Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its Members, suspend or expel a Member. A penalty of suspension, when imposed, shall not exceed sixty days.
—Article VI, Section 16, paragraphs 1 to 3, The Constitution of the Philippines
By virtue of these provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the Senate adopts its own rules, otherwise known as the "Rules of the Senate." The Rules of the Senate provide the following officers: a president, a president pro tempore, a secretary and a sergeant-at-arms.
Following this set of officers, the Senate as an institution can then be grouped into the Senate Proper and the Secretariat. The former belongs exclusively to the members of the Senate as well as its committees, while the latter renders support services to the members of the Senate.
Powers
The Senate ratified the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), a treaty between the Defense forces of the Philippines and Japan on December 16, 2024
The Senate was modeled upon the United States Senate; the two chambers of Congress have roughly equal powers, and every bill or resolution that has to go through both houses needs the consent of both chambers before being passed for the president's signature. Once a bill is defeated in the Senate, it is lost. Once a bill is approved by the Senate on third reading, the bill is passed to the House of Representatives, unless an identical bill has also been passed by the lower house. When a counterpart bill in the lower house is different from the one passed by the Senate, either a bicameral conference committee is created consisting of members from both chambers of Congress to reconcile the differences, or either chamber may instead approve the other chamber's version.
While franchise and money bills originate in the House of Representatives, the Senate may still propose or concur with amendments. Only the Senate has the power to approve, via a two-thirds supermajority, or denounce treaties, and the power to try and convict, via a two-thirds supermajority, an impeached official.
A Senate session during the 18th Congress inside the GSIS building with other senators on remote locations via virtual conference during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Senate previously met at the Old Legislative Building in Manila until May 1997. The Senate occupied the upper floors (the Session Hall now restored to its semi-former glory) while the House of Representatives occupied the lower floors (now occupied by the permanent exhibit of Juan Luna's Spoliarium as the museum's centerpiece), with the National Library at the basement. When the Legislative Building was ruined in World War II, the House of Representatives temporarily met at the Old Japanese Schoolhouse at Lepanto Street (modern-day S. H. Loyola Street),[4] while the Senate's temporary headquarters was at the half-ruined Manila City Hall.[5] Congress then returned to the Legislative Building in 1950 upon its reconstruction. When President Ferdinand Marcos dissolved Congress in 1972, he built a new legislative complex in Quezon City. The unicameral parliament known as the Batasang Pambansa eventually met there in 1978. With the restoration of the bicameral legislature in 1987, the House of Representatives inherited the complex at Quezon City, now called the Batasang Pambansa Complex, while the Senate returned to the Congress Building, until the GSIS Building was finished in 1997. Thus, the country's two houses of Congress meet at different places in Metro Manila.
The Senate would eventually move to the New Senate Building at the Navy Village in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig by 2025 at the earliest.[6] As the Senate has rented GSIS for the office space, it asked the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to present suitable sites for it to move to, with the Senate eyeing the Navy Village property along Lawton Avenue as its favored site.[7] In 2018, a building designed by AECOM was chosen as winner for the new home for the Senate and was expected to be built by 2022. Civil works to erect the building had been awarded to Hilmarcs Construction Corporation, the same company the Senate investigated for alleged overpriced construction of the Makati City Hall Parking Building II in 2015.[8] The reception to the design was mixed, with some Filipino netizens comparing it to a garbage can.[9] By early 2021, the New Senate Building's construction was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines.[10]
This is how the Senate looked like after the beginning of every Congress under the 1987 constitution. The parties are arranged alphabetically, with independents at the rightmost side. Vacancies are denoted by dashes after the independents. Senators may switch parties or become independents mid-term.
Manuel Roxas – 5th president, also served as Senate president and 2nd speaker of the House of Representatives. First Filipino to have served as chief of the upper and lower house. Recipient of the Quezon Service Cross.
Marcelo Fernan – 18th Chief Justice (1988–1991) and former Senate President (1998–1999); only Filipino to have served as chief of the Senate and the Judiciary.
First Lady
Loi Ejercito – physician and the first former First Lady of the Philippines to win a seat in the Senate.
Benigno Aquino Jr. – Marcos-era opposition leader, husband of the 11th president Corazon C. Aquino, and father of the 15th President Benigno S. Aquino III.
Eulogio Rodriguez – former Senate President known as the "Grand Old Man of Philippine Politics"
Lorenzo Tañada – Marcos-era opposition leader, and longest serving senator of 24 years tied with Tito Sotto and Franklin Drilon from 1947 to 1972. Dubbed "The Grand Old Man of Philippine Politics".
Jovito Salonga – former Senate President, Marcos-era opposition leader, former Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).
Rene Saguisag – human rights lawyer during the Marcos dictatorship.
Neptali Gonzales – elected three times as Senate president, former Minister of Justice, member of Batasang Pambansa, Vice Governor of Rizal, and dean of the College of Law of the Far Eastern University.
Franklin Drilon – Senate President, former Liberal Party chairman, and tied with Lorenzo Tañada for the longest tenure as elected senator.
The president of the Philippines is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The Congress of the Philippines is the legislature of the national government of the Philippines. It is bicameral, composed of an upper body, the Senate, and a lower body, the House of Representatives, although colloquially, the term "Congress" commonly refers to just the latter. The Senate meets at the GSIS Building in Pasay, while the House of Representatives meets at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City, which also hosts joint sessions.
The House of Representatives is the lower house of Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the Senate of the Philippines as the upper house. The lower house is commonly referred to as Congress, although the term collectively refers to both houses.
The vice president of the Philippines is the second-highest official in the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the first in the presidential line of succession. The vice president is directly elected by the citizens of the Philippines and is one of only two nationally elected executive officials, the other being the president.
The government of the Philippines has three interdependent branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The Philippines is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative and democratic constitutional republic in which the president functions as both the head of state and the head of government of the country within a pluriform multi-party system.
The State of the Nation Address is an annual address by the president of the Philippines to a joint session of the Congress of the Philippines. Mandated by the 1987 Constitution, the speech is delivered on the fourth Monday of July at the Plenary Session Hall of the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Batasan Hills, Quezon City.
A parliamentary election was held in the Philippines on April 7, 1978, for the election of the 165 regional representatives to the Interim Batasang Pambansa. The leading opposition party, the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN), ran twenty-one candidates for the Metro Manila area. Their leading candidate was the jailed opposition leader Ninoy Aquino. Marcos regime's party known as the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), which was led by the then-First Lady Imelda Marcos. Ninoy was allowed to run by his fellow partymates under the Liberal Party, who boycotted the election and was not allowed to campaign, and so his family campaigned for him. The night before the election on April 6, 1978, a noise barrage was organized by the supporters of (LABAN) which occurred up to dawn.
The Council of State of the Philippines is an advisory body composed primarily of senior statesmen who act as advisors to the President of the Philippines, who is both head of state and head of government, as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Customarily, former presidents are, among other things, made Councillors of State for life, owing to their experience and knowledge in the position.
This list of presidential elections in the Philippines includes election results of both presidential and vice presidential elections since 1899 with the candidates' political party and their corresponding percentage.
The 1987 election of members to the Senate of the Philippines was the 23rd election to the Senate of the Philippines. It was held on Monday, May 11, 1987. The Philippine Senate was re-instituted following the approval of a new constitution in 1987 restoring the bicameral Congress of the Philippines; earlier, a constitution was approved in 1973 that created a unicameral Batasang Pambansa (parliament) that replaced the bicameral Congress. The last Senate election prior to this was the 1971 election.
The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders are the two Senators of the Philippines who are elected by their respective parties or coalitions as their official leaders. They serve as the chief spokesmen of their party with regard to their business in the Senate.
Elections to the Senate of the Philippines are done via plurality-at-large voting; a voter can vote for up to twelve candidates, with the twelve candidates with the highest number of votes being elected. The 24-member Senate uses staggered elections, with only one-half of its members up for election at any given time, except for special elections, which are always held concurrently with regularly scheduled elections.
The Constitution of the Philippines is the supreme law of the Philippines. Its final draft was completed by the Constitutional Commission on October 12, 1986, and ratified by a nationwide plebiscite on February 2, 1987. The Constitution remains unamended to this day.
Elections for the House of Representatives in the Philippines were held on May 11, 1987. This was the first legislative election since 1984, the first House of Representatives elections since 1969, and the first election since the People Power Revolution that overthrew president Ferdinand Marcos and brought Corazon Aquino to power after alleged election fraud by the former during the 1986 presidential election against the latter.
Teofisto "Tito" Tayko Guingona Jr. is a Filipino politician and diplomat who served as the 11th Vice President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2004, during the first term of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Born in San Juan, he is a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, where he was a working student.
The Philippine presidential line of succession defines who becomes or acts as president upon the incapacity, death, resignation, or removal from office of a sitting president or a president-elect.
The 2019 election of members to the Senate of the Philippines was the 33rd election of members to the Senate of the Philippines for a six-year term. It was held on May 13, 2019.
Raul Aguila Daza is a Filipino lawyer, certified public accountant, and politician, who served in the House of Representatives of the Philippines for 20 years as Representative of the 1st District of Northern Samar. Although he could still seek another term under the term-limit provisions of the Constitution, at 86 he chose not to stand for re-election in the 2019 national elections. He was also a three-term governor of the same province from 2001 to 2010; the Representative of the Lone District of Northern Samar from 1969 until the declaration of martial law in 1972.
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