House of Representatives of the Philippines

The House of Representatives of the Philippines (Filipino: Kapulungan ng mga Kinatawan ng Pilipinas, Kamara or Camara de Representantes from the Spanish word cámara, meaning "chamber") is the lower house of Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the Senate of the Philippines as the upper house. The lower house is usually called Congress,^[c] although the term collectively refers to both houses.^[1]

House of Representatives of the Philippines

Kapulungan ng mga Kinatawan ng Pilipinas

Lower house

of the Congress of the Philippines

3 consecutive terms (9 years)

October 1907 (1907-10)

Martin Romualdez, Lakas
since July 25, 2022

Aurelio Gonzales Jr., Lakas
since May 17, 2023

See list

Manuel Jose Dalipe, Lakas
since July 25, 2022

Marcelino Libanan, 4Ps
since July 25, 2022

316 representatives
253 from congressional districts
63 party-list representatives

Majority (283)

Lakas–CMD (92)
Party-list Coalition (42)
NUP (36)
Nacionalista (32)
NPC (33)
PFP (10)
Liberal (8)
PDP–Laban (5)
Local parties (7)^[a]
PRP (2)
Aksyon (1)
CDP (1)
LDP (1)
UNA (1)
Independent (4)

Minority (28)

Party-list Coalition (16)
Makabayan (3)
Liberal (2)
Nacionalista (2)
NUP (2)
Reporma (2)
Local parties (1)^[b] Vacant (5)
Vacancies (5)

63 standing committees and 17 special committees

3 years

Article VI, Constitution of the Philippines

Parallel voting (First-past-the-post voting in 80% of seats, and modified party-list proportional representation in 20%)

May 9, 2022

May 12, 2025

Districts are redistricted by Congress after each census (has never been done since 1987)
By statute (most frequent method)

Members of the House are officially styled as representative (Filipino: kinatawan) and sometimes informally called congressmen or congresswomen (Filipino: mga kongresista) and are elected to a three-year term. They can be re-elected, but cannot serve more than three consecutive terms except with an interruption of one term like the senate. Around eighty percent of congressmen are district representatives, representing a particular geographical area. The 19th Congress has 253^[2] congressional districts. Party-list representatives are elected through the party-list system which constitutes not more than twenty percent of the total number of representatives.

Aside from needing its agreement to every bill in order to be sent for the president's signature to become law, the House of Representatives has 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 speaker (Filipino: Ispiker). The position is currently held by Rep. Martin Romualdez. The speaker of the House is the third in the presidential line of succession, after the vice and senate presidents. 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.

Electoral system[edit]

The Philippines uses parallel voting for its lower house elections. For the 2022 elections, there will be 316 seats in the House; 253 of these are district representatives, and 63 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.

No person shall be a Representative unless he/she is a natural-born citizen of the , and on the day of the election, is at least 25 years of age, able to read and write, a registered voter except for a party-list representative, and a resident of the country for not less than one year immediately preceding the day of the election.

Philippines

The age is fixed at 25 and must be possessed on the day of the elections, that is, when the polls are opened and the votes cast, and not on the day of the proclamation of the winners by the board of canvassers.

With regard to the residence requirements, it was ruled in the case of Lim v. Pelaez that it must be the place where one habitually resides and to which he, after absence, has the intention of returning.

The enumeration laid down by the 1987 Constitution is exclusive under the Latin principle of . This means that Congress cannot anymore add additional qualifications other than those provided by the Constitution.

expressio unius est exclusio alterius

The qualifications for membership in the House are expressly stated in Section 6, Art. VI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution as follows:

Creation of , 2013: The rival Cagas and Bautista clans dominate politics in the province of Davao del Sur; their members have been elected as congressional representatives for the first and second districts of the province since 1987. However, the province's governorship has been in contest between the two clans in recent years: Claude Bautista, the current governor, was elected in 2013; before that Douglas Cagas served as governor from 2007 to 2013, after succeeding Benjamin Bautista Jr. who served from 2002 to 2007.^[12] Supporters of both clans have been subjected to political violence, prompting the police to put the province of Davao del Sur in the election watchlist.^[13] The law which created Davao Occidental, Republic Act No. 10360, was co-authored by House Representatives Marc Douglas Cagas IV and Franklin Bautista as House Bill 4451; the creation of the new province is seen as a way to halt the "often violent" political rivalry between the clans by ensuring that the Cagas and Bautista clans have separate domains.^[13]

Davao Occidental

Reapportionment of , 2009: A new congressional district was created within Camarines Sur under Republic Act No. 9716, which resulted in the reduction of the population of the province's first district to below the Constitutional ideal of 250,000 inhabitants. The move was seen as a form of political accommodation that would (and ultimately did) prevent two allies of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from running in the same district. Rolando Andaya, who was on his third term as congressman for the first district, was appointed Budget Secretary in 2006; his plans to run as representative of the same district in 2010 put him in direct competition with Diosdado Macapagal-Arroyo, the president's youngest son, who was also seeking re-election. Then-Senator Noynoy Aquino challenged the constitutionality of the law but the Supreme Court of the Philippines ultimately ruled that the creation of the new district was constitutional.^[14]

Camarines Sur

Creation of , 2007: The separation of Dinagat Islands from Surigao del Norte has further solidified the hold of the Ecleo clan over the impoverished and typhoon-prone area, which remains among the poorest provinces in the country.^[15]

Dinagat Islands

Powers[edit]

The House of Representatives is modeled after the United States House of Representatives; the two chambers of Congress have roughly equal powers, and every bill or resolution that has to go through both houses needs the consent of both chambers before being passed for the president's signature. Once a bill is defeated in the House of Representatives, it is lost. Once a bill is approved by the House of Representatives on third reading, the bill is passed to the Senate, unless an identical bill has also been passed by the lower house. When a counterpart bill in the Senate is different from the one passed by the House of Representatives, either a bicameral conference committee is created consisting of members from both chambers of Congress to reconcile the differences, or either chamber may instead approve the other chamber's version.

Just like most lower houses, franchise and money bills originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may still propose or concur with amendments, same with bills of local application and private bills. The House of Representatives has the sole power to initiate impeachment proceedings, and may impeach an official by a vote of one-third of its members. Once an official is impeached, the Senate tries that official.

House of Representatives of the Philippines