Constitutional Law 101: What is Impeachment under Philippine Law

An impeachment is a written accusation by the House of Representatives to the Senate against an Officer.  According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the following Officers can be the subject of impeachment:

• The President of the Philippines
• The Vice President of the Philippines
• Members of the Constitutional Commission (such as the Commission on Election, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission)
• Office of the Ombudsman
• Justices of the Supreme Court

All other public officers may be removed from office as provided by law (such as the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Revised Penal Code, Civil Service Commission Rules and Regulations, etc) but not through impeachment.

The written accusation is called the Articles of Impeachment and the grounds for impeachment are:   culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, betrayal of public trust.   The Constitution is clear that the House of Representatives shall have the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment, and that the Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.

The constitutional process of impeachment can start through the following:

a)  Complicated process;
b) Simple process;

The Complicated Process starts with a verified complaint initiated by:  a) only one Member of the House of Representatives; or  b) A citizen of the Philippines through a resolution of endorsement by any member of the House of Representatives.    This process is tedious because such verified complaint  will have to be included in the Order of Business in the House within ten session days from receipt, and thereafter referred to the Committee on Justice of the House of Representatives within three session days.  There will be a hearing within the Committee on Justice and upon a vote of a majority of the members of the Committee on Justice,  such Committee must endorse a report (favorable or unfavorable) together with a Resolution to the House of Representatives within 60 session days from referral.     Such Resolution shall be calendared for reconsideration before the House of Representatives within 10 session days from receipt of the Resolution and report.  A vote of at least 1/3 of all the Members of the House of Representatives will be necessary to affirm the Articles of Impeachment, or override the resolution for unfavorable Resolution of the Committee on Justice, as the case may be.

The Simple Process, on the other hand, only requires a verified complaint or resolution filed by at least  1/3 of all the Members of the House of Representatives in order to constitute the Articles of Impeachment.

Once the Articles of  Impeachment has been affirmed, trial will proceed before the Senate.  Under the Constitution, the Senate shall take the oath for such purpose.    Conviction by impeachment shall require at least 2/3 vote of all the Members of the Senate.  

Judgment shall constitute no more than removal from office and disqualification to hold any public office in the Republic of the Philippines.  


References:

Bag-ao (2012), "Simplifying the Senate Rules on Impeachment Trials"  

TheLaw.com (The Law Network,  LLC).  

The Philippine Constitution (1987), Section 3 Article XI.

My experience as an independent contractor for the first month of January 2011

January, 2011 is a challenging month for me.    I have accepted a position which entails managing an online office, and practicing my skills in technical writing, business research and human resource management at a maximum level.  It is a surprise that I still managed to accept contract drafting jobs and contract analysis.  In conclusion, I consider this month to be my most challenging and happiest to date.

I got to open my account in Skills Page and started to plug in a lot of my activities related to the skills I specialize.  For more details, please see my skills page at www.skillpages.com/christine.carpio-aldeguer.

For the most part, working online as an independent contract is not bad considering you get to work at home with nothing to worry on other overhead expense such as transportation, clothing and make-up.  The efforts  I have done for the month proved to be very productive.  

Aside from having fun from the work that I  experienced for this month, the excellent feedback from clients provided a bonus for my self-esteem.  This is without prejudice that my profile picture has been featured as a homepage in Odesk,  my official  home for seeking international clients online.   Anyway,  I posted this blog after so many attempts of thinking what kind of article I should post for the day.  I guess this post is a very special post.  It is my way of zoning out for a while so that I can start writing articles for next month.  
 

What is a Non-disclosure Agreement?

A non-disclosure agreement (also known as NDA) is an agreement entered between two contracting parties namely: disclosing party and receiving party, who wish to share confidential information to each other.  The NDA as a legal document is being executed to prohibit the receiving party from divulging such confidential information to any third person, otherwise, damages or any right of action may be claimed by the disclosing party.

Non-disclosure agreements are utilized in employment contracts, independent contractorship agreements, and business opportunity transactions, whereby the receiving party is authorized to receive proprietary information from the disclosing party.  Such proprietary information may include contact information of clients, marketing plans and business plans which cannot be known to outside competitors, trade secrets, marketing and business proposals, intellectual property or inventions that cannot be made public in the meantime.

Executing a non-disclosure agreement is the modern trend so as to protect the interest of the disclosing party from loss of revenues due to the disclosure or theft of proprietary or confidential information which may be claimed by competitors or any interested persons.

The following are the usual items contained in a non-disclosure agreement:

• The parties to the agreement, including their addresses or contact information; 
• Coverage of the confidential information that cannot be disclosed to third persons; 
• Information which is excluded from the coverage; 
• Obligations of the receiving party regarding the use of the confidential information ;
• Circumstances where disclosure of confidential information is permitted (i.e. court order, or order from the proper governmental agency); 
• The duration of the confidentiality, the law governing the confidentiality, and the venue of action in case of breach.