Vice President of the Philippines

Home provinces of the vice presidents.

The first known vice president claiming to be part of a government was Mariano Trías, whose term started on March 22, 1897. He was elected during the elections of the Tejeros Convention, and was later elected vice president of the Supreme Council that oversaw negotiations for the Biak na Bato pact in 1897. This Supreme Council had no sovereignty, did not govern any state, and was just used for bargaining with the Spanish. This council was replaced later, with no such position existing during the country's declaration of independence in 1898, which had a dictatorial government. Officially, the country's first actual republic was founded in 1899, and it too had no vice president. Trias instead served in the cabinets of Apolinario Mabini and Pedro Paterno, as finance minister and war minister, respectively. Trias is not considered a Philippine Vice President as the Supreme Council did not proclaim any sovereign state.

The 1935 Constitution of the Philippines established the position of vice president, and may be appointed by the president to a cabinet position. The first person elected to the position of vice president under the constitution was Sergio Osmeña. Elected together with Manuel L. Quezon in the first Philippine national elections, Osmeña was given the highest-ranking cabinet portfolio with inauguration of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in November 1935. Prior to independence in 1946, that cabinet portfolio was Secretary of Public Instruction, which had once been reserved only for the vice governor-general (an American). Vice President Osmeña held that position from 1935 to 1939, and a similar portfolio in the War Cabinet during World War II.

After independence, the highest-ranking cabinet position became that of Secretary of Foreign Affairs (it is still the highest-ranking cabinet portfolio in official protocol to this day), which was given to Vice President Elpidio Quirino. Vice President Fernando Lopez declined the Foreign Affairs portfolio when he became Quirino's vice president in 1949. However, Vice Presidents Carlos P. Garcia and Emmanuel Pelaez also held the Foreign Affairs portfolio, a tradition revived in the Fifth Republic, with Vice Presidents Salvador Laurel and Teofisto Guingona, Jr. holding the Foreign Affairs portfolio. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo served as Secretary of Social Welfare and Development. Other Cabinet positions with no Secretary title was given to Joseph Estrada as Chairman of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission and Noli de Castro as Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

Among the vice presidents of the Third Republic, Diosdado Macapagal alone was not given any cabinet position, since he was the first elected vice-president that did not originate from the same party as the incumbent. Arturo Tolentino was officially proclaimed vice president-elect by the Regular Batasang Pambansa in 1986. He took his oath as vice president on February 16, 1986 before Chief Justice Ramon Aquino but because of popular belief that the elections had been rigged, he never actually served out his term as vice president. Within a week after Tolentino's oath, the People Power Revolution resulted in the collapse of the Marcos regime. On February 25, 1986, Corazon Aquino and Salvador H. Laurel were sworn in as president and vice president.[1]

The office of vice president was abolished and not included in the original version of the 1973 Constitution. It was, however, reinstated in subsequent amendments, just before the snap elections in 1986 that led to the People Power Revolution that installed Corazon Aquino into the presidency.

The vice president is first in the presidential line of succession. The Constitution provides several circumstances where the vice president (or the vice president-elect) shall assume the presidency or serve as acting president.

• In case of the death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of the president, the vice president shall assume the presidency.[5]
• If the president-elect fails to qualify for office, the vice president-elect shall act as president until the president-elect is qualified.[6]
• If in case of death, permanent disability, dismissed from service, resignation or failure to assume the post, the Senate president shall assume the vice presidency.
• If a president is not chosen, then the vice president shall act as president until a president is chosen and qualified.[6]

There has been four cases where the vice president has assumed the presidency, three of which because of the president's death, and one because of the president's resignation:

• Sergio Osmeña in 1944, upon the death of Manuel L. Quezon.
• Elpidio Quirino in 1948, upon the death of Manuel Roxas.
• Carlos P. Garcia in 1957, upon the death of Ramon Magsaysay.
• Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2001, upon the resignation of Joseph Ejercito Estrada, as decided by the Supreme Court.[7]

Under Section 9 of Article VII of the 1987 Philippines Constitution whenever there is a vacancy in the Office of the Vice-President during the term for which he was elected, the President shall nominate a Vice-President from among the Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives who shall assume office upon confirmation by a majority vote of all the Members of both Houses of the Congress, voting separately.[6] Hence, when the Vice-president became the president by succession, he/she can nominate a member of the Congress with confirmation from the Majority of all the members of both Houses of the Congress. The Senate President may not directly be in succession for the position of the Vice-Presidency, unless he/she was nominated.

There is only one instance where a member of the Congress has assumed the vacant vice-presidency position, that is in the case of Teofisto Guingona Jr., who was appointed as Vice President of the Philippines by Arroyo on February 7, 2001. Guingona is the only vice president who was not nationally elected to the position. He is also the oldest person to hold the position when he was appointed at the age of 72. He also concurrently served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs.