Vice President of the Philippines
The vice president of the Philippines (Filipino: Pangalawang Pangulo ng Pilipinas, also referred to as Bise Presidente ng Pilipinas) 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.
For a list, see List of vice presidents of the Philippines.Vice President of the Philippines
- Madam Vice President
(informal) - The Honorable
(formal) - Her Excellency
(diplomatic)
Second highest executive branch officer
11th Floor, Robinsons Cybergate Plaza, EDSA cor. Pioneer St., Mandaluyong 1550, Philippines
Direct popular vote, or, if vacant, President via congressional confirmation
Six years, renewable once consecutively
November 15, 1935
₱353,476 monthly
The current office of the vice president was re-established under the 1987 Constitution, bearing similarities with the office as created in the 1935 Constitution that was abolished by the Marcos regime. The vice president may be elected to two consecutive six-year terms. The 15th and incumbent vice president Sara Duterte was inaugurated on June 19, 2022,[1][2] but her term officially began 11 days later on June 30, as per the constitution.
Title[edit]
The official title of the office in Filipino is Pangalawang Pangulo, although Bise Presidente, derived from Spanish, is the usual title used in some of the major Philippine languages, such as Cebuano and Hiligaynon language. The text of the 1987 Constitution refers to the person and office of the vice-president, with a hyphen connecting the two words. However, the person and office is usually referred to today without the hyphen, as the vice president.
History[edit]
Colonial era[edit]
The first known vice president claiming to be part of a government was Mariano Trías, whose term started on March 22, 1897. He was elected during the elections of the Tejeros Convention, and was later elected vice president of the Supreme Council that oversaw negotiations for the Pact of Biak-na-Bato in 1897. This Supreme Council had no sovereignty, did not govern any state, and was just used for bargaining with the Spanish. This council was replaced later, with no such position existing during the country's declaration of independence in 1898, which had a dictatorial government. Officially, the country's first actual republic was founded in 1899, and it too had no vice president. Trias instead served in the cabinets of Apolinario Mabini and Pedro Paterno, as finance minister and war minister, respectively. Trias is not considered a Philippine vice president as the Supreme Council did not proclaim any sovereign state.
Conceptualization and the Commonwealth[edit]
The 1935 Constitution, largely patterned after the U.S. Constitution,[3] provided the basis for the Commonwealth government. It also established the position of vice president, and as per Section 12, Subsection 3, the vice president may be appointed by the president to a cabinet position. But unlike their U.S. counterpart, the vice president is not the president of the Philippine senate as senators choose their president from among their ranks. The first person elected to the position of vice president under the constitution was Sergio Osmeña, elected together with Manuel L. Quezon in the first Philippine national elections.
Third Republic[edit]
Since the inception of the 1935 constitution, the president and vice president came from the same ticket and political party, until the 1957 elections, which saw the first-ever split ticket that won the presidency and vice presidency.
Fourth Republic[edit]
The 1973 Constitution abolished the office of the vice president and Fernando Lopez was therefore unable to finish his term. Subsequent amendments, particularly the 1984 amendments restored the vice presidency. Arturo Tolentino was officially proclaimed vice president-elect by the Regular Batasang Pambansa in 1986. He took his oath as vice president on February 16, 1986, before Chief Justice Ramon Aquino, but because of popular belief that the elections had been rigged, he never actually served out his term as vice president. Within a week after Tolentino's oath, the People Power Revolution resulted in the collapse of the Marcos regime.
Fifth Republic[edit]
The People Power Revolution installed Corazon Aquino into the presidency. On February 25, 1986, Aquino and her running mate, Salvador Laurel, were sworn in as president and vice-president, respectively.[4] Since the promulgation of the 1987 constitution, only two elections have produced a president and a vice president from the same ticket: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Noli de Castro in 2004 and Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte in 2022.
Incumbency[edit]
Term limits[edit]
Under the 1935 Constitutions, the vice president, along with the president, set the vice president's term at six years, with possibility of re-election as only the president was barred from seeking re-election.[24] In 1940, it shortened the term from six to four years, again without limitations on the number of terms for the vice president. The president, however, was barred from serving more than two terms.[25] Under the provisions of these constitutions, only vice presidents Osmeña and Lopez have won re-election.
To date, only Fernando Lopez has served more than one term (a total of three terms), from 1949 to 1951, from 1965 to 1969, and again from 1969 until 1972 when the office was abolished. Under the 1987 Constitution, the vice president is barred from serving more than two consecutive terms.[20]
Impeachment[edit]
Impeachment in the Philippines follows procedures similar to the United States. The House of Representatives, one of the houses of the bicameral Congress, has the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment against the president, vice president, members of the Supreme Court, members of the Constitutional Commissions and the ombudsman. When a third of its membership has endorsed the impeachment articles, it is then transmitted to the Senate of the Philippines which tries and decide, as impeachment tribunal, the impeachment case. A main difference from US proceedings however is that only a third of House members are required to approve the motion to impeach the president (as opposed to the majority required in the United States). In the Senate, selected members of the House of Representatives act as the prosecutors and the senators act as judges with the Senate president and chief justice of the Supreme Court jointly presiding over the proceedings. Like the United States, to convict the official in question requires that a minimum of two-thirds (i.e., 16 of 24 members) of the senate vote in favor of conviction. If an impeachment attempt is unsuccessful or the official is acquitted, no new cases can be filed against that impeachable official for at least one full year.
The Constitution enumerates the culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, and betrayal of public trust as grounds for the impeachment of the vice president, as applicable for the president, the members of the Supreme Court, the members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the ombudsman.
Post-vice presidency[edit]
Several vice presidents either lose re-election alongside their running mate or ascend to the presidency. After having been re-elected in 1941, Osmeña ascended to the presidency after President Quezon's death. Vice presidents Quirino and Garcia never ran for re-election as vice president as they would ascend to the presidency following the president's death. Vice president Lopez did not run for re-election in 1953, opting to run for senator instead. After being elected in 1998, Arroyo ascended to the presidency after President Estrada was ousted in the Second EDSA Revolution. She later ran for re-election in 2004 and won. Five vice presidents ran for the presidency after their vice presidential term ended. Two of them, Macapagal in 1961 and Estrada in 1998 won. Three of them, Laurel in 1992, Binay in 2016, and Robredo in 2022 lost.
Four vice presidents ran for another office after their vice presidential term ended and two succeeded. In 1953, Lopez ran and won for senator, finishing first. He would go on to win the vice presidency once more in 1965 and 1969. President Macapagal's running mate Pelaez also did not seek re-election for vice president, but instead sought the nomination of the opposing Nacionalista nomination for president, which he would eventually lose to then-senator Marcos.[39] He would run for a seat in the House of Representatives in 1965 and won. In 2022, two vice presidents ran for senator; Binay lost, while de Castro withdrew less than a week after filing his candidacy. Only Teofisto Guingona Jr. did not pursue other office after his vice presidential term ended.