2022 Philippine House of Representatives elections


The 2022 Philippine House of Representatives elections were the 36th lower house elections in the Philippines, and 26th as House of Representatives. The election of the House of Representatives was held on May 9, 2022.
The election is held concurrently with the 2022 presidential, Senate and local elections. A voter has two votes in the House of Representatives: one for the congressional district, and one for party-list. Parties of leading presidential candidates are expected to stand candidates in many districts. In the outgoing [18th Congress of the Philippines|Congress of the Philippines|18th Congress], there are 243 congressional districts.
There are 253 congressional districts for this election, which means 63 seats, or at least 20% of the seats, disputed in the party-list election. The party-list election is done on a nationwide, at-large basis, separate and distinct from the election from the congressional districts.
Allies of presidential-elect Bongbong Marcos won a majority of the seats, with his cousin Martin Romualdez being elected as speaker.

Background

In the 18th Congress of the Philippines, the parties supporting President Rodrigo Duterte disputed the speakership, Alan Peter Cayetano of the Nacionalista Party, Lord Allan Jay Velasco of PDP–Laban, and the National Unity Party's Paolo Duterte emerged as the front-runners to be speaker. The president pushed for a term-sharing agreement between Cayetano and Velasco, with Cayetano serving from July 2019 to October 2020, then Velasco serving until 2022. The younger Duterte disapproved of term-sharing, though. Cayetano was elected Speaker in July 2019.
By March 2020, Cayetano allegedly met with representatives from the Nacionalistas and the NUP to consolidate support for his tenure as speaker. This allegedly involved declaring the position of Speaker vacant. and with Cayetano having enough votes to be reelected, override the original agreement in order to remain in position for the rest of the congressional term. Cayetano, when asked about this, said "I cannot predict what's going to happen sa floor which can happen anytime and any member can make any motion."
Weeks before he was expected to turn over the speakership to Velasco, Cayetano said that Velasco's term should have started in November, as October is the 15th month, and it was brokered that he become speaker for the first 15 months. Aside from the speakership, only one committee chairmanship is expected to change hands, with all other positions unaffected by the change.
In a September 29, 2020 meeting between President Duterte, Cayetano and Velasco, the president asked the representatives to abide by the gentleman's agreement. Velasco rejected Duterte's suggestion to move the term-sharing deal from October to December. On the October 1 session, Cayetano, who attacked Velasco for pushing through with the deal in the middle of the pandemic and while the budget was being tackled offered to resign as speaker, but it was rejected by his allies. A later vote showed that 184 representatives wanted Cayetano to stay as speaker, 1 dissented, and 9 abstained.
At the next week, Congress suspended its session a week earlier than scheduled. At the session Cayetano moved to terminate the period of debates and amendments. After that was approved, another motion was approved for the 2021 budget to be approved on second reading. The session was then suspended until November 16. This meant that session was suspended before the expected transfer of power on October 14. This put the status of the budget in time in doubt. Duterte called on Cayetano and Velasco to settle their differences or else he'll "do it for you". Duterte then called on a special session from October 13 to 16 to pass the budget.
On October 11, pictures of Velasco and Davao City mayor Sara Duterte appeared on the internet, with the presidential daughter giving tacit approval of Velasco's speakership campaign. On October 12, the day before the special session, Velasco and his allies gathered in the Celebrity Sports Plaza in Quezon City to elect new officials of the House of Representatives, including the speakership. Velasco was elected 186–0. Cayetano branded the session as illegal. On the morning of the special session, Velasco allies entered the session hall of the Batasang Pambansa Complex and elected Velasco as speaker in the same 186–0 result. While voting was ongoing, Cayetano resigned as speaker on Facebook live, giving Velasco the speakership undisputedly. Velasco then recalled the budget from second reading, reopening deliberations for it.
After Velasco and his allies consolidated leadership positions in the chamber, Cayetano and six of his allies launched "BTS sa Kongreso", or "Back to service in Congress" in January 2021. Cayetano clarified that his bloc was not named as such, in response to fans of South Korean boy band BTS who called out Cayetano using the name of the boy band for political motives.

Electoral system

The Philippines uses parallel voting for its lower house elections. For this election, there are 316 seats in the House of Representatives; 253 of these are district representatives, and 63 are party-list representatives.
Philippine law mandates that there should be one party-list representative for every four district representatives. District representatives are elected under the first-past-the-post system from single-member districts. Party-list representatives are elected via the nationwide vote with a 2% election threshold, with a party winning not more than three seats. The party with the most votes usually wins three seats, then the other parties with more than 2% of the vote two seats. At this point, if all of the party-list seats are not filled up, the parties with less than 2% of the vote will win one seat each until all party-list seats are filled up. The electoral system, with the 2% threshold and the 3-seat cap, encourage vote splitting; several parties have indeed exploited this, putting up separate party-lists for every sector so as not to waste their vote on just one party.
Political parties competing in the party-list election are barred from participating district elections, and vice versa, unless permitted by the Commission on Elections. Party-lists and political parties participating in the district elections may forge coalition deals with one another.
Campaigning for elections from congressional districts seats are decidedly local; the candidates are most likely a part of an election slate that includes candidates for other positions in the locality, and slates may comprise different parties. The political parties contesting the election make no attempt to create a national campaign.
Party-list campaigning, on the other hand, is done on a national scale. Parties usually attempt to appeal to a specific demographic. Polling is usually conducted for the party-list election, while pollsters may release polls on specific district races. In district elections, pollsters do not attempt to make forecasts on how many votes a party would achieve, nor the number of seats a party would win; they do attempt to do that in party-list elections, though.

Redistricting

In the Philippines, Congress has the power to create new congressional districts. Congress can either redistrict the entire country within three years after each Philippine census, or create new districts from existing ones piecemeal, although Congress has never redistricted the entire country wholesale since the approval of the 1987 constitution. Congress usually creates a new district once a place reaches the minimum 250,000 population mandated by the constitution.
New districts can also be created by creating new provinces and cities; in this case, it also must be approved by the people in a plebiscite in the affected places.

Changes from the previous Congress

There were originally four new districts that will be first contested in 2022, based from redistricting laws passed by the 17th Congress that were not implemented in time for the 2019 election:
It will also be the first election for Davao de Oro in that name, after the successful renaming plebiscite in 2019 from "Compostela Valley".
In Palawan, a law was passed dividing it into three provinces, with each province and Puerto Princesa getting a new district each; Palawan and Puerto Princesa together presently has 3 districts. As this means creating new provinces, it had to be approved in a plebiscite before it can be made effective. In the ensuing plebiscite held on March 13, 2021, the voters rejected division, thereby retaining the status quo of three districts shared between Palawan and Puerto Princesa.

Changes from the outgoing Congress

There are six new districts created by the 18th Congress that have either been signed by President Rodrigo Duterte, or lapsed into law: One repeals the redistricting done by the previous Congress.
A law was ratified dividing Maguindanao into two provinces; as Maguindanao now is divided into 2 districts, this does not change the number of districts, but does send Talitay along with the old 1st district to Maguindanao del Norte, while leaving the rest of the old 2nd district as the new Maguindanao del Sur. As this involved creating new provinces, the people must agree on a plebiscite for this to be effective. The law originally scheduled the plebiscite in August 2021, but the Commission on Elections rescheduled the plebiscite to be held after the 2022 election. This means that in Maguindanao, the current appropriation would be used before the province was to be divided.

Summary of changes

In August 2021, the Commission on Elections set the number of seats to be disputed in the election. As there were 253 districts by that date, that means there will be 63 party-list seats to be disputed as well.

Participating parties

In both chambers of Congress, members are organized into "blocs", akin to parliamentary groups elsewhere. In keeping with the traditions of the Third Philippine Republic which was under a two-party system, there are two main blocs, the majority and minority blocs; this is despite the fact that the country is now in a multi-party system. Those who voted for the winning speaker are from the majority bloc, while those who did not will vote amongst themselves on who will be the minority bloc. Those who belong to neither bloc shall be the independent minority bloc. Members can also be from the independent bloc. Each bloc can have members from multiple parties. Only the majority and minority blocs have voting privileges in committees.
In the present 18th Congress, the majority bloc is seen to be in favor of President Rodrigo Duterte's presidency, while the minority and independent minority blocs are those opposed.

Elections in congressional districts

Political parties in the Philippines have been described as "temporary political alliances", or argued that there are no parties at all, just "fan clubs of politicians". Party-switching is not uncommon. The dependence of parties on personalities instead of issues is seen as a factor on why this is so.

Party-list election

In party-list elections, parties, usually called as "party-lists" can represent ideological, sectoral or ethnolinguistic interests. These elections have allowed left-wing parties to enter the legislature, such as parties allied with the Makabayan and Akbayan, and right-wing parties such as Magdalo. Other parties represent sectoral interests such as Senior Citizens, who represent the elderly, or regionalists such as Ako Bikol who represent Bicolanos. While envisioned as a tool to allow the marginalized to enter the legislature, it has allowed politicians who had previously run and won in non-party-list elections and landed interests to win under the party-list banner as well. Party-list representatives have also run and won in elections outside the party-list system as well.
The Party-list Coalition has represented party-list interests in Congress starting in 2014. In the 18th Congress, all party-lists, save for those from Makabayan and Magdalo, are members of this group. The Party-list Coalition participate in the election as individual member parties; the component parties of the Makabayan are in coalition with each other. The party-list representatives, save from the Makabayan bloc usually support the policies of the sitting president.

Retiring and term-limited incumbents

Representatives who have been elected for three consecutive times on regular elections are prohibited from running for a fourth consecutive term. Incumbents on their first or second terms may opt to run for other offices.

Term-limited incumbents

These are incumbents who are on their third consecutive terms and cannot run for re-election but may run for other offices outside the House of Representatives. Term-limited politicians usually run for local offices or swap positions with relatives.
;Notes

Retiring incumbents

These were allowed defend their seats, but chose not to:
;Notes

Marginal seats

Elections in congressional districts

These are the marginal seats that had a winning margin of 5% or less in the 2019 elections, in ascending order via margin:

Party-list election

The following party-lists won less than 2% of the vote in 2019, and only won one seat each because all of party-list seats have not been filled up by the parties that did win at least 2% of the vote. These are sorted by number of votes in descending order.
Less than 2% of the vote, but greater than or equal to 1%:
Less than 1% of the vote:

Results

Results in elections in congressional districts are expected to be known overnight, while results for the party-list election are expected to be known seven days from election day.
Allies of Bongbong Marcos, the winner of the concurrent presidential election, captured most of the seats in the House of Representatives. Outgoing majority leader Martin Romualdez and former speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are thought to be the contenders for the speakership in the 19th Congress.

Elections in congressional districts

Results per district

'''Notes'''

Party-list election

A total of 177 parties and organizations were included in the draw on how these would be listed in the ballot.
The commission originally expected to proclaim the winners in seven days. A week after the election, the commission said it plans to proclaim the winners on May 19. Upon the proclamation of senators-elect on May 18, the commission said they'd proclaim the winning party-lists after the results of the special elections in 12 barangays in Tubaran, Lanao del Sur on May 24 are known. COMELEC did proclaim the winners on May 26.

Defeated incumbents

Elections in districts

These include incumbents who ran and lost while running within a congressional district.
  1. Bulacan–1st: Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado
  2. Catanduanes: Hector Sanchez
  3. Ilocos Norte–1st: Ria Christina Fariñas
  4. Ilocos Sur–1st: Deogracias Victor Savellano
  5. La Union–2nd: Sandra Eriguel
  6. Maguindanao–1st: Datu Roonie Sinsuat Sr.
  7. Manila–1st: Manny Lopez
  8. Manila–5th: Cristal Bagatsing
  9. Misamis Occidental–1st: Diego Ty
  10. Negros Occidental–5th: Maria Lourdes Arroyo
  11. Nueva Ecija–4th: Maricel Natividad-Nagaño
  12. Palawan–3rd: Gil Acosta Jr.
  13. Pangasinan–2nd: Jumel Anthony Espino
  14. Quezon–3rd: Aleta Suarez
  15. Quezon City–1st: Anthony Peter Crisologo
  16. Quezon City–2nd: Precious Hipolito
  17. Quezon City–3rd: Allan Benedict Reyes
  18. Quezon City–4th: Bong Suntay
  19. Samar–1st: Edgar Mary Sarmiento
  20. Surigao del Sur–1st: Prospero Pichay Jr.
  21. Zamboanga del Sur–2nd: Leonardo Babasa Jr.

Party-list election

These include incumbents who have not been elected in the party-list election, either because their party lost all seats, or lost enough seats, including the incumbent's own.
  1. Michael Edgar Aglipay
  2. Naella Aguinaldo
  3. Manuel Cabochan III
  4. Adriano Ebcas
  5. Ferdinand Gaite
  6. Godofredo Guya
  7. Aloy Lim
  8. Bobby Pacquiao
  9. Amihilda Sangcopan
  10. Maria Victoria Umali
  11. Carlos Isagani Zarate

Aftermath

With the victory of his cousin, Bongbong Marcos, as president, outgoing majority leader Martin Romualdez was pushed by the National Unity Party to lead the House of Representatives. Another candidate is Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who served as speaker during the 17th Congress, and endorsed Romualdez for speaker in the 18th. Another potential candidate is current speaker Lord Allan Velasco of the ruling PDP–Laban, while both Arroyo and Romualdez are from Lakas–CMD.
A few days after the NUP endorsement, Arroyo herself endorsed Romualdez for the speakership, advising the Lakas congressmen to vote for Romualdez in the speakership election. Following the Arroyo endorsement, PDP–Laban also endorsed Romualdez for the speakership. The Party-list Coalition also gave their endorsement to Romualdez, while announcing that Elizaldy Co, representative for Ako Bikol, will be their leader in the 19th Congress, replacing Mikee Romero of 1-PACMAN. Later in the week, Lakas released a statement that said that the Nationalist People's Coalition also endorsed Romauldez's speakership ambitions, with NPC chairman Tito Sotto announcing in a separate statement the "unconditional support of the party to the Speakership of Congressman Martin Romualdez." A few days later, PDP–Laban announced its support for Romauldez's speakership.