Southeast Asian Region Countries Law

Since 1900, statutes have been enacted with the following titles:   

•  Acts  - from 1900-1935 (4,275 Acts)
• Commonwealth Acts - from 1935-1945 (733 Acts)
• Republic Acts - from 1946-1972
• Batas Pambansa – from 1979-1985 (884 Acts)
• Republic Acts - from 1987- current

During Martial Law, both President Marcos and the Batasang Pambansa (Parliament) issued laws at the same time - there were 2034 Presidential Decrees by President Marcos (1972-1985) and 884 Batas Pambansa by the Philippine Parliament. 

In addition, the Philippines also has approximately 27 Codes in force - these are either enacted as legislation or issued by Executive Order or Presidential Decree. The Codes are:   

• Administrative Code of 1987 ( Executive Order No. 292)
• Child and Youth Welfare Code (Pres. Decree No. 603)
• Civil Code (Rep. Act No. 386)
• Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Code
• Code of Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (Rep. Act No. 6713)
• Cooperative Code (Rep. Act No. 9520)
• Corporation Code (Batas Blg. 68)
• Family Code (Executive Order No. 209)
• Fire Code      (Rep. Act No. 9514)
• Fisheries Code (Rep. Act No. 8550)
• Forest Reform Code (Pres. Decree No. 705)
• Insurance Code (Pres. Decree No. 1460)
• Intellectual Property Code (Rep. Act No. 8293)
• Labor Code (Pres. Decree No. 442)
• Land Transportation and  Traffic Code (Rep. Act No. 4136)
• Local Government Code (Rep. Act No. 7160)
• Muslim Code of Personal Laws ( Pres. Decree No. 1083)
• National Building Code (Pres. Decree No. 1096)
• National Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and Supplements (Executive Order No. 51 s. 1986)
• National Internal Revenue Code (Pres. Decree No. 1158)
• Omnibus Election Code (Batas Blg 881)
• Philippine Environment Code (Pres. Decree No. 1152)
• Revised Penal Code (Act no. 3815)
• Sanitation Code (Pres. Decree No. 856)
• State Auditing Code
• Tariff and Customs Code (Pres. Decree No. 1464)
• Water Code (Pres. Decree No. 1067)

The official languages of the Philippines are English and Filipino.

Statutes are available online in English on:

Legislative power is vested in the bicameral Congress of the Philippines, which comprises the Senate and the House of Representatives. The legislature promulgates statutes. 

A brief history of the Philippine legislature is available at the House of Representative website. 

A useful explanation of the Legislative Process: How a Bill becomes a Law, is available on the House of Representatives website.

Bills and Resolutions

The House of Representatives website includes:

• Full text House Bills and Resolutions and their status - can be browsed by Congress (from the 13th Congress to the current Congress).
• The LEGIS database - a search engine which allows you to search for Bills and Resolutions by Bill number, author, status, Committee referral, and subject matter of the Bill - from the 8th Congress (1987-1992) to the current Congress.
• The House of Representatives Journal contains the daily proceedings - including Bills Readings and Debates - from the 12th Congress (2003-2004) to the current Congress.

The Senate website (under maintenance) includes:

• up to date Senate and House Bills and Resolutions (from the 13th Congress to the current Congress)
• the Senate Journals - the daily proceedings - including Bills Readings and Debates
• up to date Committee Reports
• up to date Adopted Resolutions