The House of Representatives ( or ) is the lower house of Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the Senate as the upper house. The lower house is commonly referred to as Congress, although the term collectively refers to both houses.The Legislative Branch | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

Members of the House are officially styled as representatives () and are sometimes informally called congressmen or congresswomen (). They are elected to a three-year term and can be re-elected, but cannot serve more than three consecutive terms without an interruption of one term (e.g. serving one term in the Senate ad interim). Around 80% of congressmen are district representatives, representing specific geographical areas. The 20th Congress has 254 congressional district representatives. Party-list representatives (currently 64), who make up not more than twenty percent of the total number of representatives, are elected through the party-list system.

Aside from needing its agreement to every bill before it is sent to the president for signature to become law, the House of Representatives has the power to impeach certain officials and all franchise and money bills must originate from the lower house.

The House of Representatives is headed by the House speaker (). The position is currently held by Bojie Dy. The speaker of the House is third in the Philippine presidential line of succession, after the vice president and the Senate president. The official headquarters of the House of Representatives is at the Batasang Pambansa (literally "national legislature") located in Batasan Hills, Quezon City. The building is often simply called Batasan, and the word has also become a metonym to refer to the House of Representatives.

History Malolos Congress

The Philippine legislative system began in a unicameral form of government in 1898 when then President Emilio Aguinaldo established the Malolos Congress of the short-lived First Philippine Republic from 1898 to 1901. The Congress’ notable achievement was the ratification of Philippine Independence when it was declared on June 12, 1898, in Kawit, Cavite.

The Malolos Congress’ convened at the Barasoain Church during the subsequent inauguration of Emilio Aguinaldo and the Malolos Constitution in 1898. A year prior to the establishment of the republic, the Congress approved the motion to declare war on the United States, thus beginning the Philippine–American War which lasted from 1899 to 1901. The Malolos Congress was dissolved on April 1, 1901, following Aguinaldo's declaration of allegiance to the United States when he was captured.

Philippine Assembly

At the beginning of American colonial rule, from March 16, 1900, the sole national legislative body was the Philippine Commission with all members appointed by the president of the United States. Headed by the governor-general of the Philippines, the body exercised all legislative authority given to it by the president and the United States Congress until October 1907 when it was joined by the Philippine Assembly. William Howard Taft was chosen to be the first American civilian governor-general and the first leader of this Philippine Commission, which subsequently became known as the Taft Commission.

The Philippine Bill of 1902, a basic law, or organic act, of the Insular Government, mandated that once certain conditions were met a bicameral, or two-chamber, Philippine Legislature would be created with the previously existing, all-appointed Philippine Commission as the upper house and the Philippine Assembly as the lower house. This bicameral legislature was inaugurated in October 1907. Under the leadership of speaker Sergio Osmeña and floor Leader Manuel L. Quezon, the rules of the 59th United States Congress was substantially adopted as the rules of the Philippine Legislature. Osmeña and Quezon led the Nacionalista Party, with a platform of independence from the United States, into successive electoral victories against the Progresista Party and later the Democrata Party, which first advocated United States statehood, then opposed immediate independence.

It is this body, founded as the Philippine Assembly, that would continue in one form or another, and with a few different names, up until the present day.

Jones Act of 1916

In 1916, the Jones Act, officially the Philippine Autonomy Act, changed the legislative system. The Philippine Commission was abolished and a new fully elected, bicameral Philippine Legislature consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was established. The Nacionalistas continued their electoral dominance at this point, although they were split into two factions led by Osmeña and Quezon; the two reconciled in 1924, and controlled the Assembly via a virtual dominant-party system.

Commonwealth and the Third Republic

The legislative system was changed again in 1935. The 1935 Constitution established a unicameral National Assembly. But in 1940, through an amendment to the 1935 Constitution, a bicameral Congress of the Philippines consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was adopted.

Upon the inauguration of the Republic of the Philippines in 1946, Republic Act No. 6 was enacted providing that on the date of the proclamation of the Republic of the Philippines, the existing Congress would be known as the First Congress of the Republic. The "Liberal bloc" of the Nacionalistas permanently split from their ranks, creating the Liberal Party. These two will contest all of the elections in what appeared to be a two-party system. The party of the ruling president wins the elections in the House of Representatives; in cases where the party of the president and the majority of the members of the House of Representatives are different, a sufficient number will break away and join the party of the president, thereby ensuring that the president will have control of the House of Representatives.

Martial law

This set up continued until President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law and abolished Congress. He would rule by decree even after the 1973 Constitution abolished the bicameral Congress and created a unicameral Batasang Pambansa parliamentary system of government, as parliamentary election would not occur in 1978. Marcos' Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL; New Society Movement) won all of the seats except those from the Central Visayas ushering in an era of KBL dominance, which continued until the People Power Revolution overthrew Marcos in 1986.

1987 Constitution The 1987 Constitution restored the presidential system of government together with a bicameral Congress of the Philippines. One deviation from the previous setup was the introduction of the mid-term election; however, the dynamics of the House of Representatives resumed its pre-1972 state, with the party of the president controlling the chamber, although political pluralism ensued that prevented the restoration of the old Nacionalista-Liberal two-party system. Instead, a multi-party system evolved.

Corazon Aquino who nominally had no party, supported the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP; Struggle of the Democratic Filipinos). With the victory of Fidel V. Ramos in the 1992 presidential election, many representatives defected to his Lakas–NUCD party; the same would happen with Joseph Estrada's victory in 1998, but he lost support when he was ousted after the 2001 EDSA Revolution that brought his vice president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to power. This also meant the restoration of Lakas–NUCD as the top party in the chamber. The same would happen when Benigno Aquino III won in 2010, which returned the Liberals into power. Rodrigo Duterte's election as president in 2016 had most Liberals to switch to the ruling party PDP–Laban. After Bongbong Marcos won in the 2022 elections, Lakas–CMD once again became the dominant party in the House.

The presiding officer is the speaker. Unlike the Senate president, the speaker usually serves the entire term of Congress, although there had been instances when the speaker left office due to conflict with the president: examples include Jose de Venecia Jr.'s resignation as speaker in 2008 when his son Joey de Venecia exposed alleged corrupt practices by first gentleman Mike Arroyo, and Manny Villar's ouster which occurred after he allowed the impeachment of president Estrada in 2000.

Electoral system The Philippines uses parallel voting for its lower house elections. For the 2025 elections, 318 seats in the House were contested; 254 of these are district representatives, and 64 are party-list representatives. The number of seats to be disputed may change depending on the creation of new congressional districts.

Philippine law mandates that there should be one party-list representative for every four district representatives. District representatives are elected under the plurality voting 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.

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.

Officers The members of the House of Representatives who are also its officers are also ex officio members of all of the committees and have a vote.

On July 28, 2025, the 20th Congress of the Philippines elected among themselves their leaders. The terms of office of the officers elected are set to end on June 30, 2028.

Speaker

The speaker is the head of the House of Representatives. He presides over the session; decides on all questions of order, subject to appeal by any member; signs all acts, resolutions, memorials, writs, warrants, and subpoenas issued by or upon order of the House; appoints, suspends, dismisses, or disciplines House personnel; and exercise administrative functions.

The speaker is elected by a majority of all the members of the House, including vacant seats. The speaker is traditionally elected at the convening of each congress. Before a speaker is elected, the House secretary general sits as the presiding officer until a speaker is elected. Compared to the Senate president, the unseating of an incumbent speaker is rarer.

The incumbent speaker of the House is representative Bojie Dy, since September 17, 2025, following the resignation of former speaker Martin Romualdez.

Deputy speakers

There was a position of speaker pro tempore for Congresses prior the reorganization of the officers of the House of Representatives during the 10th Congress in 1995. The speaker pro tempore was the next highest position in the House after the speaker.