Prospero Pichay Jr.

With no prior experience in politics, Pichay ran for congressman for the 1st District of Surigao del Sur in the 1998 elections and won.[1]

In 2000, Pichay joined fellow congressmen who endorsed the verified complaint against President Joseph Estrada. Coming under the heels of EDSA 2, Congress was reorganized and Pichay was elected Chairman of the House Committee on National Defense. He was again named to the same post when his constituents overwhelmingly voted him into office in the elections for the 12th Congress.

Pichay was re-elected as congressman in the 2004 elections. When the 13th Congress was organized, Pichay's political career would take on a more prominent course: he was named Head of the House of Representatives Contingent to the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA).

Pichay voted to junk the 2005 and 2006 impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. At the height of the "Hello Garci Scandal", he said there was nothing wrong with Arroyo talking to Commission on Elections officials, as all candidates talk to them to protect their votes. In October 2006, Pichay authored House Resolution 1285, which sought to convene a constituent assembly to amend the 1987 Constitution. One of his proposals is the abolition of the Philippine Senate and the creation of a unicameral parliament. The resolution was widely opposed by civil society and church groups and the resolution was shelved on the same month.

When the Department of Justice announced a plan to ban all government officials from going to bars, karaoke joints and other nightspots, Pichay assailed the move as the "highest form of hypocrisy." Pichay believed there was nothing wrong with going to bars if public officials do it on their own time, saying “Moralizing is very subjective. We should not mix it with governance."

During his time as congressman, Pichay contributed to the following laws:

• RA 9355 - Act Creating the Province of Dinagat Islands
• RA 9340 - Amending RA 9164 to extend the terms of office of barangay officials and reset the date of barangay elections
• RA 9344 - Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act

Pichay ran for senator in 2007 under TEAM Unity but lost after placing 16th in the overall results. He reportedly spent P127.39 million for campaign ads, the highest candidate expenditure for that election.[2]

Following his defeat, it was rumored that Pichay would be appointed by President Arroyo as head of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.[3] It was later reported that he would be appointed as a member of the board and chairman of the Local Waterworks and Utilities Administration (LWUA). On August 28, 2008, Pichay announced that he will not accept his appointment as board member of the LWUA, for he is satisfied with his current job in a private company.[4][5][6] However, on September 4, he changed his mind and accepted his appointment. Eduardo Ermita announced that Pichay has decided to accept his appointment as board member with a nomination to be elected as chairman.[7][8]

In September 2010, an employees' group of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) filed a plunder complaint against Pichay before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly using the agency's money for his personal interest. The complaints stemmed from LWUA's ₱780-million investment in the Express Savings Bank, Inc.[9]

In April 2011, during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, criminal and administrative charges were filed against Pichay and other LWUA officials for their “highly irregular” and “anomalous” acquisition of a controlling stake at Express Savings Bank, Inc., a thrift bank in Cabuyao, Laguna owned by the Gatchalian family which suffered losses of up to ₱27.87 million from 2005 to 2009.[10]

On July 4, 2011, the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal of Pichay and two other officials for grave misconduct in connection to the 2009 acquisition of Express Savings Bank, Inc. by LWUA. They were stripped of all benefits and were permanently disqualified from working in government. Pichay responded by saying his dismissal was "political harrasment"[11] and accused the Aquino administration of getting back at him for his staunch support for the previous Arroyo administration.[12] He appealed to the Court of Appeals in October 2011[13] but his dismissal was upheld by the court in November 2013.[14] He then appealed to the Supreme Court.[15]

Pichay taking his oath of office as Deputy House Speaker on July 27, 2019

Pichay ran for Congress in the 2016 Philippine general election to regain his seat from neophyte congresswoman Mary Elizabeth Ty-Delgado who was not seeking reelection. He won the election, receiving 90,843 votes.[16]

On July 13, 2016, a petition was filed before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal against Pichay by his opponent in the election, Gregorio Murillo, Jr. Murillo stated that Pichay was ineligible to run for public office since the July 2011 decision of the Ombudsman disqualified him from working in government.[16] The petition was later dismissed for lack of merit due to Pichay's pending appeal in the Supreme Court.[17]

In October 2016, Pichay filed an ethics complaint against Surigao del Sur 2nd District Representative Ace Barbers following a confrontation between the two during a hearing of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments.[18] The two got into a heated argument during discussions on whether the panel should vote on recommending a Constituent Assembly or a Constitutional Commission to amend the 1987 Constitution.[19] The two congressmen previously had a squabble back in 2005 when Pichay moved to "kick out" Barbers from the Lakas–CMD party of then-President Arroyo following the latter's backing of the impeachment complaint against the President.[18][19]

Pichay was a member of the House Committees on Agriculture And Food, Energy, Foreign Affairs, Good Government And Public Accountability, Government Enterprises And Privatization, Information And Communications Technology, Mindanao Affairs, and National Defense And Security during the 17th Congress.[20][21]

In August 2018, following the ascension of Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to Speaker of the House, Pichay was elected House Deputy Speaker, replacing Representative Miro Quimbo who resigned to pursue his bid for minority leadership.[22]

In the 2019 Philippine House of Representatives elections, Pichay again ran for another term. A disqualification case was filed against him by his predecessor former congresswoman Mary Elizabeth Ty-Delgado. The petition cited the same July 2011 Ombudsman decision that barred Pichay from working in government. Pichay responded by saying that the case has not been decided with finality and that a similar petition was junked by the COMELEC during the 2016 elections.[23] He further argued that as a member of the House of Representatives, he was not subject to disciplinary actions of the Ombudsman.[24] He later won the congressional seat with 102,361 votes.[25]

In the 18th Congress, Pichay was elected again to be a Deputy House Speaker.[26] During his term in the 18th Congress, he was a principal author of House Bill 6312 which was later signed into law as Republic Act 11470. The law established the National Academy of Sports System.[27] Other bills he filed concerned the creation of a Surigao del Sur Special Economic Zone and Freeport,[28] the separation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources into a Department of Environment and a Department of Water,[29] a Right to Travel Act,[30] and an act establishing hospitals with 500-1,000 bed capacity in every region of the country,[31] among others.