The Batasang Bayan (, ) was the consultative assembly and legislative advisory council in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

that helped formulate decrees promulgated by

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

from its inauguration on September 21, 1976 to June 12, 1978. "As such powers and functions shall consist of but not limited to assisting and advising the President of his lawmaking functions, providing a forum for the citizenry, through the herein designated representatives, to ventilate their views on national issues, as well as their opinions on the manner of administering the affairs of the government, providing a forum for the rationalization, unification, and clarification on the policies and programs of the Executive Branch of Government and providing a mechanism for actually conducting a review of the structures, policies and efficiencies of the different Barangays and Sanggunians and submit its finding and recommendations to the President as mandated by the 1973 Constitution as the

shifted from a

presidential Presidential may refer to: * "Presidential" (song), a 2005 song by YoungBloodZ * Presidential Airways (charter), an American charter airline based in Florida * Presidential Airways (scheduled), an American passenger airline active in the 1980s * ...

to a

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

form of government and Presidential Decree No. 995.Presidential Decree No. 995
/ref>" It held its regular and special sessions at the

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Sessions

*Regular Session: September 21, 1976 – October 30, 1978

Leadership

President

Secretary of Local Governments

*Jose A. Roño, Jr.

Floor Leader

Functions

The Batasang Bayan functioned as a legislative advisory council to the President on legislative matters. Powers and functions consisted of: * Assisting and advising the President of his lawmaking functions; * Providing a forum for the citizenry, through the herein designated representatives, to ventilate their views on national issues, as well as their opinions on the manner of administering the affairs of the government; * Providing a forum for the rationalization, unification, and clarification on the policies and programs of the Executive Branch of Government; * Providing a mechanism for actually conducting a review of the structures, policies and efficiencies of the different Barangays and Sanggunians and submit its finding and recommendations to the President.

Members

The Batasang Bayan was composed of 128 members, all appointive. Representation came from the highest government entity down to the smallest local government unit (barangay) and the marginalized sectors of society. Particularly, it was composed of the following: *President of the Republic of the Philippines, the members of the Cabinet, including officials with the rank of Cabinet. *Provincial governors, city mayors, presidents of regional associations of Barangay and Kabataang Barangay Councils. *Sectoral representatives of professional, capital-industrial and agricultural.

References

External links

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