The Congruence of Legitimacy to Power in the Philippines

The Congruence of Legitimacy to Power
By: Chissan Rae M. Balderas
Adamson University, Philippines

Under presidential system of government having three equal branches, in which the executive is one, several conflicts would have been vital to the immediate decay of all three in just one misinterpretation in the rule of law. Checks and balances are the main concern of this kind of government; thus, the executive in particular has its own executive power. In contrast, loop holes (legally) to consider by the two other branches. Legislative and the judiciary branches are the other backbones of a democratic setting of governance in which bureaucratic flow of authoritative policy comes in, similar on both branches. In this sense, executive branch has far less extensive concentration in terms of bureaucratic governance. On the other hand, upon this lesser pressure coming from rules and regulations, issue on legitimacy became vital to the executive’s nature of leading a state.
In the field of political science, legitimacy is defined as the acceptance of the masses or by the public on a political leader, the President in particular. It is how he or she and his or her projects are being liked and supported by the citizens of the nation in totality.
Public office is all about public trust. People’s perspective on the effectiveness of a president does not merely lie on the constitutional basis. It is not included or mentioned neither in the Constitution nor under its laws and regulations that the public trust must always be present in each and every president-elect of The Republic. Public trust is being determined by the people; so the power of a president in a democratic nation like Philippines lies on it. Because power is all about control, a president won’t be able to have the power over his or her fellow people if they don’t possess any trust on him; therefore, he cannot control these people with his words.
A popular president does not have problems on legitimacy issues. President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III is one of the most well-known presidents of the Republic of the Philippines. Triggered by the death of his mother Former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, he ran as President during the 2010 National Elections in which he got the sympathy of most Filipinos and had a number of votes which totalled to 15,208,678 with 42.80 per cent of the total votes for presidency. It has been his advantage that he got the hearts of the Philippine population for he can have their support in each and every step he would be doing as the President. Recently, he criticised the Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona about being a midnight appointee of the Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which lead to the present impeachment trial against SJ Corona.
In our case here in the Philippines, a democratic country, the issue concerning legitimacy is very crucial. Unlike authoritarian-type government in which all are being mandated by the leader, in democratic countries it is very impossible for the constitution to dictate legitimacy. It depends upon the personal view of a person whether they would offer or not support on him and his regime.
All presidents being elected by the people in a democratic government have the same qualifications and rights but differ when it comes on the aspect of legitimacy capacity. If you were to compare the legitimacy capacity of the present President, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, you would be able to see the effect of legitimacy on one’s regime. PNoy presently receives positive 70 per cent of trust rating from the Filipino public while during GMA’s term the last statistics recorded by the PulseAsia was negative 50 per cent. PNoy’s administration receives outmost support from the people because they lay their trust on him. On the other way around, people don’t trust her administration anymore and so it becomes hard for her to successfully gain the support she need in each and every thing she implemented; in fact, most of her project were being contradicted by the people because they it’s in their minds that they don’t trust her and everything that she does was all wrong.
For this matter, a president could abuse his power as an executive official for the whole nation because he has the support coming from most of the citizens, particularly the masses. If he will not think for the betterment of the country and be selfish, he may come up will plans which would profit him as an individual without the knowing of the people what he or she is actually doing. For the masses or the common people, they think that his or her plans are for the betterment of the country so they will support all of these, but in reality it is otherwise.
It will not be hazardous to us, simple citizens to trust our leaders. What I just want to point out is that we have to be keen observant of what really was happening on our government. This is to caution you of the possible scenarios which may happen if we will put much of our hearts on believing to all what they say. Be aware enough on the community where you belong.