Constitution of Government - Introductory Concepts

Question 1

What is the difference between constituent and ministrant functions?

Answer 1

According to SSS Employees Assoc. v. Soriano

Constituent functions constitute the very bonds of society and are compulsory in nature;

Ministrant Functions are those that are undertaken only by way of advancing the general interest of society, and are merely optional;

Question 2

What are the most important of the ministrant functions? According to the case of SSS Employees Assoc. v. Soriano.

Answer 2

According to SSS Employees Assoc v. Soriano,

The most important ministrant functions are: public works, public education, public charity, health and safety regulations, and regulations of trade and industry.

Question 3

What are the principles which determine whether or not a government shall exercise certain ministrant functions?

Answer 3

According to SSS Employees Assoc. v. Soriano,

The principles determining whether or not a government shall exercise certain of these optional functions are: (1) that a government should do for the public welfare those things which private capital would not naturally undertake, and (2) that a government should do those things which by their very nature it is better equipped to administer for the public welfare than is any private indiviudal or group of individuals (Bacani v. National Coconut Corp.).

Question 4

What are the constituent functions as enumerated by President Wilson, and as reiterated in the case of SSS Employees Assoc.

Answer 4

President Wilson enumerated constituent functions as follows:

1. Keeping order and providing protection of persons and property from violence and robbery;
2. Fixing of the legal relations between man and wife and between parents and children;
3. Regulation of the holding, transmission, and interchange of property, and the determination of its liabilities for debt or crime;
4. Determination of contract rights between individuals;
5. Definition and punishment of crimes;
6. Administration of justice in civil cases;
7. Determination of the political duties, privileges, and relations of citizens;
8. Dealings of the state with foreign powers, the preservation of the state from external danger or encroachment and the advancement of its international interests.

Question 5

Are government functions limited only to what President Wilson described as mandatory constituent functions of government?

Answer 5

No, in the case of Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration (ACCFA), the definition of governmental functions have expanded to include what was only deemed as optional before– functions that are undertaken by government only because they advance the general welfare and that no private entity would take the burden of performing such functions.

“The areas which used to be left to private enterprise and initiative which the government was called upon to enter optionally, only ‘because it was better equipped to administer for the public welfare than is any private individual or group of individuals’ continue to lose their well-defined boundaries and to be absorbed within activities that the government must undertake in its sovereign capacity if it is to meet the increasing social challenges of the times.”