ADAMSON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

Enhancing the Requirements forPresidential Candidacy

In Partial FulfilmentFor the course requirement in

Political Government

Submitted by:

Austria, Allaine Balubal, Aldrin Junard

Madrideo, JejomarNaif, Amgad

Submitted to:

Prof. Eman Nolasco

February 13,2012

I.Introduction

Is it enough to be able to read and write to become the president of the Philippines? Many of us dreamed to be the President of the Philippines. Anybody can be a president. According to the 1987 constitution, to be able to run for the office of President of the Philippines, a person must be a registered voter, at least forty years of age, able to read and write, a Filipino citizen by birth, and a resident of the Philippines for at least ten years immediately before the election.

A term President of the Philippines means s the head of state and the chief executive of the government of the Republic of the Philippines. Based on the definition, the president is the “HEAD OF THE STATE”, but the requirements or qualification of being a president is evidence why some of the leaders of the Philippines have no experience in leading the country to be better. There are some basic problems in the government that the president still cannot do some quick actions, like corruption is definitely one of the problems seen by the citizen and the government as well.

There have been lots of controversies relative to government officials being involved with money issues. The thing is that even though there are hearings and investigations, the truth never seems to come out--whether it's positive or negative news. Poverty and employment would also be among the problems. There are more people that are going hungry. And with the current problem with international economics, more people are losing their jobs.

As I looked over to the other countries about their qualifications of being a President of their country I noticed that no country has the requirements that the person must be graduated by a degree or master’s degree. I noticed that when the elections are coming we have our own bets but we should also think that the people whom we are voting have a superb skills in leading our country.Technically speaking, the Philippine Constitution does not require experience to be an eligible candidate for the presidency.

Theoretically, the enumeration of the qualifications for running as presidential candidate is exclusive, and no law may be passed modifying the same, either by adding other qualifications or removing any of the qualifications already included. Some may say that the qualifications such as the candidate must be at least 40 years old, must be a registered voter and must be a natural born citizen are too lax that anybody who is 40 years old at least, a registered voter and a natural born citizen may be eligible as candidate for the presidency.

Again while this is theoretically true, still the COMELEC is empowered by some law to "sift" the presidentiables in search for the nuisance candidate. But even the crucible in removing nuisance candidates does not include the experience requirement. Why the constitution and the law did not require experience as one of the qualifications to be eligible to run for the presidency is a matter of public policy, and is surely backed-up by some reasonable rationale, one of which is the constitutional equal protection clause, which need not be discussed further here.

So that in a legal and technical point of view, experience is not one of the qualifications required in order for one to throw his hat in the presidential race. For practical purposes however, it may be argued at some point, that he who aspires to lead a 90 million people, with all their diversity in ideologies, ideas, religion and some other persuasions, has to have some background in leadership. Even an applicant for a clerical position in a small office has to have some previous clerical experience before his application could be even considered.

Arguably, at first glance, it may be said that leading a country is akin to a chief executive officer cum executive operating officer of a business conglomerate who should have the business acumen and experience in order to successfully carry through, maintain and develop the business in order for profit to flow into the company.

Your focus as a CEO is profit, and how the company you are managing will attain and maintain that level of market confidence wherein you have established your system, your market is steady and you do nothing else but create more ways and avenues for your company to earn more profit through diversification. Unfortunately, becoming a president is nothing like managing a business empire. A country should not be likened to a profit driven business entity.

It definitely is not a profit making venture. It is about allocating the government's scarce resources for the good of the people. It is in fact investing on the people. A country is a political entity, a legal entity, a moral entity, a cultural entity and a social entity. A country is about the people. The purpose of its existence transcends the more mundane objects of a business conglomerate. Managing a country is not for the purpose of earning profit, nor making more profit to earn more.

Managing a country is seeing to it that government resources is felt even by the most lowly of the people. Or even seeing to it that those who have more must be required to share more under the tenets of social justice. To do this, one who aspires to be president need not have a masterly or doctorate in any of the social sciences, politics or governance and public administration. While these may be plus factors, these are not imperatives.

He needs to have the heart and the resolve to focus on what is good for the people; the integrity and strength of character to resist the temptation that the presidency brings .But good intentions alone is not enough, it is argued. A president must at least have a track record. But track record for what? If you are applying for a clerical position you should have a previous experience in clerical jobs. If you are applying for a position of a barber in a barber shop you need to have an experience as a barber.

If you are applying for a position as a driver you need to have an experience in driving. If you are applying for a position as a writer you should have an experience in writing, If you are applying for a position as CEO of a land development company definitely you should have an experience in managing a land development company. The presidency of a country however is a singular position at any given time. The presidency is not like any other government positions. It is a class of its own.

Nobody knows how to be president until he becomes one. The presidency does not create the man/woman who occupies it. The man/woman who occupies the position creates his own presidency. Unless we intend that previous presidents of this country should run again for the presidency then that is the only chance that we could truly say that experience or track record should be required from a presidential.

II.Discussion

We Discussed the Enhancing the Requirements for Presidential Candidacy, because the Present Requirements is not enough to prove the candidate can manage of whole country, we must see the power or strategy of that candidate before he / she sits the throne in Presidency. Many of us dreamed to be the President of the Philippines so we must Enhancing the Requirements, According to the 1987 constitution says, “to be able to run for the office of President of the Philippines, a person must be a registered voter, at least forty years of age, able to read and write, a Filipino citizen by birth, and a resident of the Philippines for at least ten years immediately before the election”.

We discussed first The person must be registered voter in this article says must be a voter for us that is right must a voter(botante) you have rights to speak in the Government or Open Up them in what you have to say, and you opened up your mind in the Politics. And the Second is the able to read and write there where misinterpret in what says in the constitution, because if you learn how to read and write you can be a president someday there is lack of requirement to be presidential candidacy, you must learn how to Manage you country, strategy and fight the poverty of the country, lastly in Political issue because if you don’t have how to Manage your country or to Manage the income TAX the people of the country starts hates on you and the country will not successfully improve in what is in your mind maybe your country will be big failure and your Presidency or your Leadership will be vanished like Former President Joseph Estrada in what happened in his Presidency.

For us we would like to enhance the requirement like how to manage the income tax, manage in what happening in the country and last important master degree of Political issues. These is the important of being a President of a country we hope the constitution will change in highest rank of requirement.

Like in other country the requirements is highly tight like in United States of the America the qualifications “The person must be 35 years of age or older, a natural-born citizen of the United States and must have been a permanent resident of the United States of America for at least 14 years. Additionally, a candidate must not have served more than one previous term as president, not have been impeached by the Senate, and not have participated in a rebellion against the United States."

The qualifications in not have participated in a rebellion, that is a good requirement because the candidate will commit a promise of a country will not be a Rebel of a country. In country of Turkey “Article 101 of the Constitution of Turkey specifies that the President of Turkey shall have completed higher education, be at least forty years of age, and be a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly or a Turkish citizen eligible to be a deputy. The requirements for the latter are given by Article 76, and exclude, among others, persons who have failed to perform compulsory military service, and those who have been convicted for dishonourable offences. Judges, civil servants, and members of the Armed Forces are not eligible unless they resign from office.”

Based on our research some article says shall have completed higher education it means you must completed all level of the education, this article is good for us and the other country because if you successful person you graduated with a degree it means you educated and responsible person you know the right or wrong doing before you seated being a president of a country.

And we have also discussed the 10 major requirements candidacy in Unites States of the America:

1. Candidates must be conspicuously church-going Christians whose

allegiance to God must be uttered whenever practicable.

2. Candidates must never suggest that raising taxes is a good thing to

do.

3. Candidates must propose lowering taxes.

4. Candidates must be adept at covering up all past and current mis-

deeds including, but not exclusive to: affairs, medical conditions,

questionable business dealings, surprise children, etc.

5. Candidates must not appear to be particularly intelligent, at least no

more intelligent than most Americans consider themselves to be.

6. Candidates must be reasonably attractive, preferably tall, and be

able to speak lines almost as if they had written them themselves.

7. Candidates must be all for the nebulous term, “Family Values”

despite the fact that no one actually knows what that term means.

8. Candidates must be able to speak for hours at a time, only on

subjects they have rehearsed, and to still not say anything

substantive.

9. Candidates must have a joke writer so that they can seem both glib

and folksy.

10. Candidates must be adept at raising more money in a month than

99% of Americans will ever see in their lifetimes.

And lastly, an anti-requirement:

10. Candidates aren’t required to understand international

relations, economics, history, social issues, military history and

tactics, or to have even read the United States Constitution.

We added the requirements, because we make sure the other people in

our country to know the constitution of other country like in America, the

Enhancing of requirement is very tight like in #2 requirements above

“Candidates must never suggest that raising taxes is a good thing to do.”

The Candidates must never ask increase of TAX unless the increase it

makes sense. Like in the Philippines the President will increase or put

some TAX, but it makes sense to us to increase of TAX.

This table shows the countries that the qualifications are the same as with

our country:

Country Ages Registered

Voter

Education Years of

residency

Citizen by

birth

Afghanistan 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Albania 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Algeria 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Angola 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Armenia 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Austria 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Azerbaijan 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Philippines 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Turkey 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

U.S.A 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

We have the right to choose a nominee via whatever process they so

desire. If their means by which to do so does not lead to victory, they may

revisit that mechanism in the future, but it's up to the party to work out their

own process for selecting a nominee. Our own process is fairly Democratic

when it comes to individual states: instead of using winner-take-all, we

make it proportional, in an attempt to reflect consensus. But it's not at all

democratic to include unelected super delegates into the mix, so we've got

a fairly odd mix of a democratic and non-democratic process. And that

starts with realizing what it means to be qualified to be President. And

Bangladesh 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Bolivia 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Brazil 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Colombia 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

France 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Germany 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

India 40 Able to read and

write

10 and

above

Mexico Atleast

35

Able to read and

write

20 and

above

being in the Senate or being a politician? That's not what qualifies you. Any

cabinet will need people who know Malacaňang and know the way things

work there. Any cabinet will need people who know how to get things

done. But President? That just requires that you meet a few basic

requirements and draw enough people to vote for you that you win an

election. But we should set in our minds that our President must reach the

standards that a leader must be.

This are some “MUST BE” to become a good president:

A president must know how to distinguish one word from another, but also how to distinguish one idea from another.

A president must have the ability to recognize right from wrong-to distinguish good ideas from bad ideas.

A president must know and improve his/her reasoning skills. A president must generated by essentially three things- curiosity (a

desire to know or understand), enjoyment (the pleasure of learning or being entertained), and necessity (a recognized need to know).

One of the most important qualities of a good president must know how to obey authorities.

A president should be obedient and always ready to do what is good. A president must see all sides of the argument, but hold fast in their

beliefs. A president needs to be understanding, and certainly not bigoted. A president needs an exemplary character. A leader needs to be

trusted and be known to live their life with honestly and integrity.

A president must be enthusiastic about their work or cause and also about their role as leader. People will respond more openly to a person of passion and dedication.

A president need to be able to be a source of inspiration, and be a motivator towards the required action or cause. Although the responsibilities and roles of a leader may be different, the leader needs to be seen to be part of the team working towards the goal.

This kind of leader will not be afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. 

A president must be confident in order to lead and set direction, a president needs to appear confident as a person and in the leadership role.  

A good president as well as keeping the main goal in focus is able to think analytically. Not only does a good leader view a situation as a whole, but is able to break it down into sub parts for closer inspection. Not only is the goal in view but a good leader can break it down into manageable steps and make progress towards it.

A president is committed to excellence. Second best does not lead to success. A president is not only maintains high standards, but also is proactive in raising the bar in order to achieve excellence in all areas.

III.Conclusion

Therefore, we conclude that our country, the Philippines with a 90 billion populations governed in a democratic form government which is being headed by a president who won by a popular vote by a national election.

Constitutionally speaking, to run in a presidential election in the country is too comfort for the aspiring candidates as fur as they meet the requirements. Such as law abiding citizen, age, nationality, and other criteria as estate in Article VII Section 2 of the Philippine Constitution.

So anybody regardless of stature in life as mandated by Philippine Constitution of Article VII Section 2 is eligible to run as a candidate for the presidency of the national election that’s why the national interest of the country is the least thing to be prioritized. Because the requirements of being a chief executive in the Philippine Constitution needs to amend specifically Article VII Section 2 of 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Why does the Article VII Section 2 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution be amended? Because there are some provisions need to define, modify, and to expand. So that it could cope up with a changing time. In our present time, this provision of Article VII Section 2 is too lax for the aspiring candidate especially on a presidential candidacy, because it does require such a specific eligibility for a presidential candidate namely...

A. Educational Attainment – must be a collegiate graduate or attain such a professional course.

B.Character:- Emphasize more on Character. Because great leaders had failed,

because of lack in good moral character namely:1. Leadership.2. Self-control on temptation on material things or

corruption.

3. Fail to see national interest because of self-motives.4. Failed to manage responsibility.5. Decisions making.

IV.Recommendation

We recommend as a group that the Philippine government must improve the qualifications/requirements for presidential candidacy so that our future president can have a quick and intelligent solution against the basic problems of the Philippines like corruption and poverty. Philippines is a beautiful country. We have lots of places that we are proud of. We can have more places to improve if our president has a skill enough to run and lead our country.We are not against to PNOY even to our beloved pass presidents, as our opinion the requirement of becoming a president here in the Philippines is quite easy. For us, Mirriam Defensor Santiago has a skill to run a country because of her high I.Q and intelligence. And also the president must be a member of any political party so that he/she had enough experience in the political surroundings.

These are the approved requirements that we are using now in the country:

1. Able to read and write 2. Must be at least 40 years old of age 3. Registered Voter 4. Filipino citizen by birth 5. At least 10 years of residency prior to election

This are our group recommendation to enhance the qualification in our country:

1. Have bachelor’s or masteral’s degree 2. Able to read and write3. Not to have been convicted of a criminal act or crime against

humanity, nor have been deprived of civil rights by a court.4. Member of a political party5. Registered Voter6. Filipino Citizen by birth7. At least 10 years of residency prior to election

V. References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requirements_for_becoming_a_president

http://www.chanrobles.com/electioncodeofthephilippines.html

http://www.senate.gov.ph/senators/terms.asp

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103704878

VI. Contribution of the members

Austria Allaine - she contribute in making the introduction ,discussion and recommendation

Amgad Naif - he contributes in making the conclusion and in the printing of the final term paper

Balubal, Aldrin Junard- He contributes in making the discussion and recommendation

Madrideo- He contributes in making the recommendation and in the

discussion.