2022 Philippine House of Representatives elections


The 2022 Philippine House of Representatives elections will be the 36th lower house elections in the Philippines. The election is scheduled to be held on May 9, 2022.
The election will be 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. Four new districts will be contested for the first time in 2022. Other districts may be created prior to the election.
As there are at least 247 districts, there shall be 61 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.

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 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 floor which can happen anytime and any member can make any motion."

Electoral system

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.
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.

District changes

These are the new districts that will be contested in 2022, based from redistricting laws passed by the 17th Congress:
It will also be the first election for Davao de Oro in that name, after the successful renaming plebiscite in 2019 from "Compostela Valley".
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:
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 has been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mimaropa.

Retiring and term-limited incumbents

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

Bukidnon Paglaum incumbents

These are the marginal seats that had a winning margin of 5% or less in the 2019 elections, in ascending order via margin:
DistrictIncumbentParty2019 margin
Manila–5thCristal BagatsingPDP–Laban0.83%
Dinagat IslandsAlan EcleoPDP–Laban0.92%
Pangasinan–5thRamon Guico IIILakas1.42%
Masbate–1stNarciso Bravo, Jr.NUP1.45%
Misamis Occidental–1stDiego TyNUP1.92%
IfugaoSolomon ChungalaoNPC1.95%
Ilocos Sur–2ndKristine Singson-MeehanBileg2.10%
Camarines Sur–2ndLuis Raymund VillafuerteNacionalista2.18%
IliganFrederick SiaoNacionalista2.27%
BatanesCiriaco Gato, Jr.NPC2.50%
Lanao del Sur–2ndYasser BalindongLakas2.73%
Manila–2ndRolando ValerianoNUP2.77%
Eastern SamarMaria Fe AbundaPDP–Laban3.11%
Zamboanga del Sur–2ndLeonardo Babasa, Jr.PDP–Laban3.45%
Pangasinan–1stArnold CelesteNacionalista3.79%
Bohol–3rdKristine Alexie Besas-TutorNacionalista4.00%
Makati–1stRomulo Peña, Jr.Liberal4.20%
Nueva Ecija–4thMaricel Natividad-NagañoPRP4.59%
Davao de Oro–2nd*Ruwel Peter GonzagaPDP–Laban5.00%

*Contested as Compostela Valley–2nd in 2019.