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 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.[3]

In 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 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.[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 Korean 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 316 seats in the House of Representatives; 253 of these are district representatives, and 63 are party-list representatives.[14]

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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17]

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.

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.[18]

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.

In both chambers of Congress, members are organized into "blocs", akin to parliamentary groups elsewhere. In keeping with the traditions of the Third Philippine Republic which was under a two-party system, there are two main blocs, the majority and minority blocs; this is despite the fact that the country is now in a multi-party system. Those who voted for the winning speaker are from the majority bloc, while those who did not (if there are more than two candidates for the speakership) will vote amongst themselves on who will be the minority bloc. Those who belong to neither bloc shall be the independent minority bloc. Members can also be from the independent bloc. Each bloc can have members from multiple parties. Only the majority and minority blocs have voting privileges in committees.

In the present 18th Congress, the majority bloc is seen to be in favor of President Rodrigo Duterte's presidency, while the minority and independent minority blocs are those opposed.

Representatives who have been elected for three consecutive times on regular elections (special elections do not count) are prohibited from running for a fourth consecutive term. Incumbents on their first or second terms may opt to run for other offices.