2025 Philippine House of Representatives elections explained

Election Name:2025 Philippine House of Representatives elections
Type:parliamentary
Noleader:yes
Ongoing:yes
Seats For Election:All 318 seats to the House of Representatives of the Philippines, including 63 party-list seats
Majority Seats:159
Country:Philippines
Previous Election:2022
Next Election:2028
Module:
Embed:yes
Election Name:Congressional district elections
Ongoing:yes
Noleader:yes
Type:parliamentary
Party1:Lakas–CMD
Party2:National Unity Party (Philippines)
Party3:Nacionalista Party
Party4:Nationalist People's Coalition
Party5:Partido Federal ng Pilipinas
Party6:Liberal Party (Philippines)
Party7:Others
Party8:Party-lists
Current Seats1:92
Current Seats2:36
Current Seats3:32
Current Seats4:33
Current Seats5:10
Current Seats6:10
Current Seats7:40
Current Seats8:61
Module:
Embed:yes
Election Name:Party-list election
Ongoing:yes
Noleader:yes
Type:parliamentary
Party1:ACT-CIS Partylist
Party2:1-Rider Partylist
Party3:Tingog Party List
Party4:4Ps Party-list
Party5:Ako Bicol Political Party
Party6:SAGIP Partylist
Party7:Others
Current Seats1:3
Current Seats2:2
Current Seats3:2
Current Seats4:2
Current Seats5:2
Current Seats6:2
Current Seats7:48
Speaker
Before Election:Martin Romualdez
Before Party:Lakas-CMD

The 2025 Philippine House of Representatives elections will be the 37th lower house elections in the Philippines, scheduled to be held on May 12, 2025, within the 2025 Philippine general election. All 318 seats in the House of Representatives will be contested in the election, including one seat for each of the 255 congressional districts in the country and 63 seats representing party-lists apportioned on a nationwide vote.

Background

See also: 2022 Philippine House of Representatives elections and 19th Congress of the Philippines. In the 2022 election, parties aligned with the UniTeam Alliance and eventual president Bongbong Marcos secured a supermajority of seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines.[1] Political observers noted that among those elected to the chamber, most came from "wealthy and influential families", which was associated with the vote-buying incidents observed in the election.[2]

Upon the opening of the 19th Congress of the Philippines, Representative Martin Romualdez of Leyte's 1st district, a cousin of President Marcos, was elected as the speaker of the House of Representatives unopposed.[3] [4] Media outlets have noted that a number of positions in the house leadership were assigned to representatives related to the Marcos family, including senior deputy majority leader Sandro Marcos, the son of President Marcos, and chair of the accounts committee Yedda Marie Romualdez, the wife of Speaker Romualdez.[5] [6]

Electoral system

See main article: article. The Philippines uses parallel voting for its lower house elections. For this election, there are 317 seats in the House of Representatives; 254 of these are district representatives, and 63 are party-list representatives.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9] The electoral system, with the 2% threshold and the three-seat cap, encourage vote splitting; and encourage sectors to up separate party-lists for every sector so as not to waste their vote on just one party.[10]

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.

Redistricting

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.[11]

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.

Changes from the 18th (previous) Congress

There is one district recreated by the 18th Congress that was either signed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte or approved and lapsed into law:

Changes from the 19th Congress

On June 21, 2024, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) confirmed that there will be 254 congressional districts to be contested in the election and 63 seats apportioned among the party-lists.[7]

CategoryTotal
Congressional districts in the current Congress253
New districts from redistricting laws from previous Congress1
Congressional districts in the next Congress254
Party-list seats for the next Congress63
Total seats for the next Congress317

Participating parties

See also: List of political parties in the Philippines. 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 although 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 19th Congress, the majority bloc is aligned with the administration of President Marcos.

In congressional districts

Party! colspan="2"
2022 resultsSeats before the electionBloc membershipPolitical affiliation
VotesSeat(s) wonSeatsChangeMajorityMinority20222025
66
3
4
2
8
colspan="2"
Others 36colspan="4"
Local parties 21colspan="4"
Independents 2colspan="4"
Vacant 5colspan="7"
Total100%253 / 316253 / 317

In party lists

Retiring and term-limited incumbents

See also: Retiring and term-limited incumbents in the 2025 Philippine House of Representatives elections.

Term-limited

48 representatives have been elected three consecutive times in regular elections and are barred from seeking another term in 2025.

PartyMemberDistrict
Party-list
Party-list
Party-list
Party-list
Party-list
Party-list
Party-list
Albay–2nd
Bataan–1st
Biñan at-large
Lanao del Norte–1st
Pampanga–1st
Pampanga–1st
Pangasinan–4th
Surigao del Norte–1st
Zamboanga City–2nd
Zamboanga del Norte–2nd
Zamboanga del Sur–1st
Albay–1st
Camarines Sur–3rd
Capiz–1st
Negros Oriental–1st
Party-list
Baguio at-large
Batangas–4th
Batangas–5th
Iloilo–5th
Kalinga at-large
Surigao del Norte–2nd
Aklan–1st
Bacolod at-large
Batangas–3rd
Cebu–7th
Makati–2nd
Manila–4th
Marinduque at-large
Negros Oriental–2nd
Rizal–1st
Bulacan–3rd
Camarines Sur–2nd
Negros Occidental–4th district
Sultan Kudarat–2nd
Surigao del Sur–2nd
Nueva Ecija–3rd
San Jose del Monte at-large
Davao de Oro–2nd
Valenzuela–2nd
Davao del Norte–1st

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Gomez . Jim . 2022-05-13 . Allies of Marcos Jr. set to dominate Philippine Congress . 2024-06-29 . AP News . en.
  2. Web site: Palatino . Mong . 2022-05-23 . Political Dynasties Dominate Philippines Election — Again . 2024-06-29 . The Diplomat . en-US.
  3. Web site: Gregorio . Xave . Marcos cousin Martin Romualdez is new House speaker . 2024-06-29 . Philstar.com.
  4. Web site: Cupin . Bea . 2022-08-04 . Who's who: House leaders of the 19th Congress – and their roles . 2024-06-29 . RAPPLER . en-US.
  5. Web site: Cepeda . Mara . 2022-07-29 . Marcos tightens grip on Congress with ‘supermajority’ blocs in Senate and House . 2024-06-29 . RAPPLER . en-US.
  6. Web site: Porcalla . Delon . Marcos son elected senior deputy majority leader . 2024-06-29 . Philstar.com.
  7. Web site: Villanueva . Rhodina . 18,271 posts up for grabs in 2025 polls . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240626235221/https://www.philstar.com/nation/2024/06/22/2364617/18271-posts-grabs-2025-polls . June 26, 2024 . 2024-06-26 . Philstar.com . 2024-06-22 . There are also 63 available seats for party-list representatives and 254 for congressional district representatives..
  8. Web site: IPU PARLINE database: PHILIPPINES (Kapulungan Ng Mga Kinatawan), Electoral system . 2021-09-17 . archive.ipu.org.
  9. Web site: Delizo . Michael Joe . 2019-05-21 . EXPLAINER: The math behind the party-list system . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190521220438/https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/21/19/explainer-the-math-behind-the-party-list-system . May 21, 2019 . 2021-09-17 . ABS-CBN News . en.
  10. Web site: 2019-07-04 . The party-list system in the Philippines: Is it better or worse for democracy? . 2021-09-22 . Asia Dialogue . en-GB.
  11. Web site: Tiongson-Mayrina . Karen . Barrientos-Vallarta . Brenda . Is 'piecemeal' redistricting a questionable process? . 2021-09-17 . GMA News Online . en.
  12. News: Eleksyon sa 3rd district ng So.Cot, tuloy sa 2025. May 28, 2024. Brigada . July 10, 2024. fil.
  13. News: PRRD inks law creating lone district of Butuan. May 4, 2022. Philippine News Agency . July 10, 2024.
  14. Web site: Jaymalin . Mayen . Ramirez . Robertzon . 2022-09-19 . Maguindanao now split into 2 provinces . 2024-06-29 . Philstar.com.
  15. Web site: House Members . September 19, 2022 . House of Representatives of the Philippines.
  16. Web site: Cabato . Luisa . 2024-06-25 . Comelec: Embo barangay residents can vote in 2025 polls . 2024-06-29 . INQUIRER.net . en.