CHECKS AND BALANCES

The ends of government are better achieved if the system of checks and balances will be observed.

Under the system of checks and balances, one department is given certain powers by which it may definitely restrain the others from exceeding constitutional authority. It may object or resist any encroachment upon its authority, or it may question, if necessary any act or acts which unlawfully interferes with its sphere of jurisdiction and authority. (Suarez, 2005).

The following are illustrations where there are checks and balances:

1. the lawmaking power of the Congress is checked by the President through its veto power, which in turn maybe overturn by the legislature
2. the Congress may refuse to give its concurrence to an amnesty proclaimed by the President and the Senate to a treaty he has concluded
3. the President may nullify a conviction in a criminal case by pardoning the offender
4. the Congress may limit the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and that of inferior courts and even abolish the latter tribunals
5. the Judiciary in general has the power to declare invalid an act done by the Congress, the President and his subordinates, or the Constitutional Commissions.