2022 Philippine House of Representatives elections

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.[1]

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."[2]

Weeks before he is expected to turn over the speakership to Velasco, Cayetano said that Velasco's term shall start on 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.[3]

On a September 29, 2020 meeting between President Duterte, Cayetano and Velasco, the president asked the representatives to abide by the gentleman's agreement.[4] Velasco rejected Duterte's suggestion to move the term-sharing deal from October to December.[5] On the October 1st session, Cayetano, who attacked Velasco for pushing through with the deal in the middle of the pandemic and while the budget is 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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] Velasco then recalled the budget from second reading, reopening deliberations for it.[12]

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 Korea boy band BTS who called out Cayetano using the name of the boy band for political motives.[13]

The Philippines uses parallel voting for its lower house elections. For this election, there shall be 308 seats in the House; 247 of these are district representatives, and 61 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 plurality voting system from single-member districts. Party-list representatives are elected via the nationwide vote with a 2% "soft" election threshold, with a 3-seat cap. The party in the party-list election with the most votes usually wins three seats, the other parties with more than 2% of the vote two seats, and the parties with less than 2% of the vote winning a seat each if the 20% quota is not met.

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

These are the new districts that will be contested in 2022, based from redistricting laws passed by the 17th Congress:

• Southern Leyte's 1st congressional district, from Southern Leyte's at-large congressional district[14]
• Southern Leyte's 2nd congressional district, Southern Leyte's at-large congressional district[14]
• General Santos's at-large congressional district, from South Cotabato's 1st congressional district[14]
• Santa Rosa's at-large congressional district, from Laguna's 1st congressional district[15]
• Mandaue's at-large congressional district, from Cebu's 6th congressional district[16]

It will also be the first election for Davao de Oro in that name, after the successful renaming plebiscite in 2019 from "Compostela Valley".[17]

As there shall be 247 districts in the election to date, and that party-list seats shall be 20% of the seats in the chamber, there shall be 61 seats to be disputed under the party-list system. If there are 248 districts, there shall be 62 party-list seats.

Other districts may be created by Congress before the election.

The following reapportionment bills have been passed the House of Representatives, and is now pending on the Senate:

• Reapportioning Rizal's 2nd congressional district to three districts
  • This involves giving Rodriguez and San Mateo its own congressional districts each as the 4th and 3rd districts respectively, while leaving the rest of the 2nd district intact.[18]
• Dividing Maguindanao into two provinces
  • Each new province will get its own congressional district, with Cotabato City being grouped with Northern Maguindanao's at-large district. This involves no changes in the number of districts as Maguindanao is already divided into two districts.[19]
  • The current 1st congressional district shall be Northern Maguindanao, with Talitay from the 2nd district being included.
  • The current 2nd congressional district shall be Southern Maguindanao, except Talitay which shall be included in Northern Maguindanao.
• Reapportioning Bulacan excluding San Jose del Monte from four districts to six
  • This involves redistricting Bulacan's 2nd, 3rd and 4th districts. The 1st district is not affected.[20]
• Reapportioning Caloocan's 1st congressional district to two districts
  • The new 3rd congressional district shall include the Camarin's Barangay 178, and the entirety of Tala and Amparo, while leaving the rest of the 1st district intact.[21]
• Reapportioning Agusan del Norte's two congressional districts
  • Butuan will be separated from the 1st district to be its own lone district. The rest of the province, including Las Nieves which is in the 1st district, and the entire 2nd district, will be its own lone district. This reapportionment doesn't increase the number of districts.[22]

Other bills have not passed through 1st reading.

There is a pending plebiscite to divide Palawan into three provinces. Palawan, together with the city of Puerto Princesa, is grouped into three congressional districts. If the voters approve Palawan's partition, each province, and Puerto Princesa, will get its own congressional district, or an addition of another district. The plebiscite, which was supposed to be held on May 2020, will be held on March 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[23]

If all are approved, there shall be six new districts in the upcoming 19th Congress. This brings the number of districts to 253, with 63 party-list representatives, for a total of 316 congressmen.

The following are "third-termers", who are term limited. Others may retire or opt to run for other positions in 2022.

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

*Contested as Compostela Valley–2nd in 2019.