LOCATION OF SOVEREIGNTY

Where does sovereignty reside?

If we are to qualify, legal sovereignty resides in the lawmaking body of a state. The legislative body (Congress or Parliament) can pass a law without restraints whatsover except those of a physical or moral character.

But of course, at the back of this power is the power of the people or the political sovereign. This political sovereign can depose a King or a President or bring the Parliament down. In a democratic country, political sovereign may be understood to be the electorate or ultimately the whole mass of population. The real political sovereign is in all states the people, whether they actually control public affairs, whether they deliberately turn over these affairs to a ruling class, or whether they are voluntarily or involuntarily submit to the domination of a despot. (Aruego, 1981)

Therefore, political sovereignty resides in the people; but the legal sovereignty is in the hands of the lawmaking body.

Section 1, Article II of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that

"xxx. Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them."

With this principle, the Filipino people have the right to constitute their own government, to change it, to form a new government and to organize it in a way that they deemed best. Government functionaries is not therefore the repository of sovereignty, rather they were delegated by the people to exercise sovereignty.

photos courtesy of www.pinasnapinas.blogspot.com and www.congress.gov.ph