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, 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 (NUP) 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 (on the) 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:
Division of Southern Leyte's at-large district to two districts Southern Leyte's municipalities to the east of Sogod Bay becomes the 1st district. The municipalities to the west, including Sogod, becomes the 2nd district. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11198. Division of South Cotabato's 1st district to two districts General Santos becomes the 3rd district. The rest of the 1st district is kept intact. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11243. Division of Cebu's 6th district to two districts Mandaue becomes its own at-large district The rest of the district (Consolacion and Cordova) remains intact. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11257 Division of Palawan to three provinces Taytay and all municipalities north of it would have been Palawan del Norte and it own at-large district. Municipalities in between Taytay and Puerto Princesa would have been Palawan Oriental and it own at-large district. Municipalities south of Puerto Princesa would have been Palawan del Sur and it own at-large district. Puerto Princesa would have become its own at-large district. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11259 Defeated in a plebiscite held on March 13, 2021. Division of Laguna's 1st district to two districts Santa Rosa, becomes its own at-large district. The rest of the 1st district, San Pedro, remains intact. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11395
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.
Division of Rizal's 2nd district to three districts Rodriguez becomes the 4th district, San Mateo becomes the 3rd district. The rest of the 2nd district is kept intact. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11533 Division of Caloocan's 1st district to two districts Caloocan's Barangay 178 in Camarin, and the entirety of Tala and Amparo shall become the 3rd district. The rest of the 1st district is kept intact. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11545 Reapportionment of Bulacan excluding San Jose del Monte and the 1st district from three districts to five Baliuag, Bustos and Plaridel becomes the 2nd district. Doña Remedios Trinidad, San Ildefonso, San Miguel and San Rafael becomes the 3rd district. Marilao, Meycauayan and Obando becomes the 4th district. Balagtas, Bocaue, Guiguinto and Pandi becomes the 5th district. Angat, Norzagaray and Santa Maria becomes the 6th district. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11546 Reapportionment of Bataan from two districts to three Bagac and Mariveles from the 2nd district and Dinalupihan and Morong from the 1st district becomes the 3rd district. The rest of the 1st and 2nd districts remain intact. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11553 Division of South Cotabato's 1st and 3rd districts to three districts General Santos, which is the 3rd district, becomes its own at-large district. South Cotabato's 1st district's municipalities not bordering Koronadal becomes the 3rd district. The rest of the 1st district remains intact. Enacted into law as Republic Act No. 11804, repealing Republic Act No. 11243