Philippines Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Official name: Republic of the Philippines

Type: republic

Capital: Manila (de facto), Quezon City (designated)

Political subdivisions: 74 provinces and 61 chartered cities

Legal system, based on Spanish, Islamic, and Anglo-American law; parliamentary constitution passed 1973; constitution amended in 1981 to provide for Frenchstyle mixed presidential-parliamentary system; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court; legal education at University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, and 71 other law schools; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

National holiday: Independence Day, 12 June

Branches: constitution provides for unicameral legislature (Batasang Pambansa'and a strong executive branch under President and Prime Minister; judicial branch headed by Supreme Court with descending authority in a three-tiered system of local, regional trial, and intermediate appellate courts

Government leader: Corazon AQUINO, President (since February 1986); Salvador LAUREL, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister (since February 1986)

Suffrage: universal and compulsory

Elections: presidential election held on 7 February 1986, Ferdinand Marcos initially declared winner; following civil unrest and military rebellion, he left office and Aquino assumed presidency; provincial and legislative elections may be scheduled for late 1986

Political parties: national parties are New Society Movement (KBL); United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO); and the Liberals, Nacionalistas, and PDP-Laban;

prominent regional parties include the Mindanao Alliance and the Pusyon Visaya

Communists the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) controls about 16.000 fulltime insurgents; not recognized as legal party, a second Communist party, the proSoviet Philippine Communist Party (PKP), has quasi-legal status

Member of: ADB, ASEAN, ASPAC, Colombo Plan, ESCAP, FAO, G-77, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IPU, IRC, ISO, ITU, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

NOTE: The information regarding Philippines on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Philippines 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Philippines 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.