History
The original provisions of the 1973 Constitution, which was ratified on 17 January 1973, provides for the establishment of a unicameral National Assembly. Upon its ratification, an interim National Assembly composed of the President and Vice President of the Philippines, those who served as President of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, the Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and those Delegates to the 1971 Constitutional Convention, was established and functioned as the Legislature.
However, the regular National Assembly under the 1973 Constitution was not convened. By virtue of Presidential Decree No. 1033 (the 1976 Amendments to the Constitution) the National Assembly was replaced by the Interim Batasang Pambansa which carried all the powers inherent from the dissolved body. Members of the Regular Batasang Pambansa included regional representatives, sectoral representatives, and members of the Cabinet chosen by the incumbent President.
Before the Regular Batasang Pambansa convened, the 120-member Interim Batasan served as the national Legislature. The body was composed of the incumbent President, representatives elected from different regions and from different sectors, and select Cabinet officials appointed by the President. In 1981, the semi-parliament was formally convened as the "Batasang Pambansa", and in 1984, unsuccessfully tried to impeach President Marcos.
The Batasang Pambansa was subsequently dissolved when Proclamation No. 3, popularly known as the 1986 Freedom Constitution, was promulgated on 25 March 1986.
Read more about this topic: Batasang Pambansa
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)