2013 Philippine House of Representatives elections explained

Election Name:2013 Philippine House of Representatives elections
Type:parliamentary
Noleader:yes
Ongoing:no
Seats For Election:All 293 seats to the House of Representatives of the Philippines
Majority Seats:147
Country:Philippines
Previous Election:2010
Next Election:2016
Module:
Embed:yes
Election Name:Congressional district elections
Noleader:yes
Party1:Liberal Party (Philippines)
Last Election1:47
Percentage1:37.56
Seats1:109
Party2:Nationalist People's Coalition
Last Election2:29
Percentage2:17.08
Seats2:42
Party3:United Nationalist Alliance
Last Election3:0
Percentage3:11.17
Seats3:8
Party4:National Unity Party (Philippines)
Last Election4:0
Percentage4:8.55
Seats4:24
Party5:Nacionalista Party
Last Election5:25
Percentage5:8.41
Seats5:18
Party6:Lakas–CMD
Last Election6:106
Percentage6:5.24
Seats6:14
Party7:Others
Last Election7:12
Percentage7:9.18
Seats7:19
Module:
Embed:yes
Election Name:Party-list election
Noleader:yes
Party1:Buhay
Last Election1:2
Percentage1:4.59
Seats1:3
Party2:A TEACHER
Last Election2:2
Percentage2:3.77
Seats2:2
Party3:Bayan Muna
Last Election3:2
Percentage3:3.45
Seats3:2
Party4:1-CARE
Last Election4:2
Percentage4:3.38
Seats4:2
Party5:Akbayan
Last Election5:2
Percentage5:2.99
Seats5:2
Party6:Abono
Last Election6:2
Percentage6:2.77
Seats6:2
Party7:Ako Bikol
Last Election7:3
Percentage7:2.76
Seats7:2
Party8:OFW Family Club
Last Election8:0
Percentage8:2.72
Seats8:2
Party9:Gabriela
Last Election9:2
Percentage9:2.58
Seats9:2
Party10:Senior Citizens
Last Election10:2
Percentage10:2.45
Seats10:2
Party11:Coop-NATCCO
Last Election11:2
Percentage11:2.32
Seats11:2
Party12:AGAP
Last Election12:1
Percentage12:2.14
Seats12:2
Party13:Others
Last Election13:19
Percentage13:32.85
Seats13:28
Map:2013 Philippine House of Representatives district election results.png
Speaker
Before Election:Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
Before Party:Liberal Party (Philippines)
After Election:Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
After Party:Liberal Party (Philippines)

The 2013 Philippine House of Representatives elections were the 33rd lower house elections in the Philippines. They were held on May 13, 2013 to elect members to the House of Representatives of the Philippines that would serve in the 16th Congress of the Philippines from June 30, 2013 to June 30, 2016.

The Philippines uses parallel voting for the House of Representatives: first past the post on 234 single member districts, and via closed party lists on a 2% election threshold computed via a modified Hare quota (3-seat cap and no remainders) on 58 seats, with parties with less than 1% of the first preference vote winning one seat each if 20% of the party-list seats are not filled up. Major parties are not allowed to participate in the party-list election.

While the concurrent Senate election features the two major coalitions in Team PNoy and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), the constituent parties of the coalitions contested the lower house election separately, and in some districts, candidates from the same coalition in the Senate are contesting a single seat. Campaigns for the House of Representatives are done on a district-by-district basis; there is no national campaign conducted by the parties. No matter the election result, the party of the president usually controls the House of Representatives, via a grand coalition of almost all parties. Only the ruling Liberal Party can win a majority, as it is the only party to put up candidates in a majority of seats.

After release of preliminary results, the Liberal Party emerged as the largest party in the chamber. Its coalition partners also held most of their seats. Incumbent Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. was easily reelected as the Speaker of the 16th Congress.

Electoral system

The election for seats in the House of Representatives is done via parallel voting. A voter has two votes: one for one's local district, and another via the party-list system. A candidate is not allowed to stand for both ballots, and parties participating in the district elections would have to ask for permission on the Commission on Elections, with major parties not allowed to participate in the party-list election.

Election via the districts

Each district sends one representative to the House of Representatives, with the winner with the highest number of votes winning that district's seat. The representatives from the districts comprise at most 80% of the seats.

Election via the party-list system

In the party-list system, the parties contesting the election represent a sector, or several sectors, or an ethnic group. In determining the winners, the entire country is treated as one "district". Each party that surpasses the 2% election threshold automatically wins one seat, they can win an additional number of seats in proportion to the number of votes they received, but they can't have more than three seats. The representatives elected via the party-list system, also known as "sectoral representatives" should comprise at least 20% of the seats. However, since the winners from the parties that surpass the 2% threshold had not reached the 20% quota ever since the party-list system was instituted, the parties that received less than 1% of the first preference vote are given one seat each until the 20% quota has been filled up.[1]

Campaigning

The parties contesting the district elections campaign at the district level; there is no national-level campaigning. While no party has been able to win a majority of seats in the House of Representatives since the 1987 elections, the party of the incumbent president had usually controlled the chamber in the phenomenon known locally as the "Padrino System" or patronage politics, with other parties aligning themselves with the president's policies in exchange for pork barrel and future political favors.

While the parties contesting the Senate election grouped themselves into two major electoral alliances (Team PNoy and the United Nationalist Alliance), the constituent parties of those alliances separately contested the elections to the House of Representatives. However, as stated above, the parties will again coalesce once the 16th Congress of the Philippines convenes.

Redistricting

Reapportioning (redistricting) the number of seats is either via national reapportionment after the release of every census, or via piecemeal redistricting for every province or city. National reapportionment has not happened since the 1987 constitution took effect, and aside from piecemeal redistricting, the apportionment was based on the ordinance from the constitution, which was in turn based from the 1980 census.

These are the following laws pertaining to redistricting that were passed by Congress. While a locality that has a minimum of 250,000 people is constitutionally entitled to one district representative, Congress should enact a law in order for it to take effect. The creation of new districts may be politically motivated, in order to prevent political allies (or even opponents) from contesting one seat.

Bukidnon, Cotabato, Palawan and Quezon City received additional representatives in the upcoming Congress.

House Bill No. District(s) Current Proposed Note Status
4111 2 3 Signed into law - RA 10177[2]
4245 1 3 Quezon City-2nd to be split into three districts. Signed into law - RA 10170[3]
5236[4] 3 4 Signed into law - RA 10184[5]
5608 1 2 Puerto Princesa and Aborlan to be separated from Palawan-2nd. Signed into law - RA 10171[6]
Potential new districts 16 Approved new districts 5
The number of new legislative districts may also increase the seats allocated for party-list representatives: for every five new legislative districts, one seat for a party-list representative is also created.

Marginal seats

These are seats where the winning margin was 3% or less, politicians may choose to run under a different political party as compared to 2010. This excludes districts where the nearest losing candidate or that candidate's party is not contesting the election, or districts that were redistricted.

width=150pxDistrict !width=140px2010 Winner !width=120px colspan=2Political party on 2010 election day !width=120px colspan=2Current
political party !
width=140px2013 opponent !width=120px colspan=2Political party !width=50px2010 margin !2013 result
Biliran Rogelio EspinaGlenn Chong0.45%Liberal hold
Camarines Sur–5th Salvio FortunoEmmanuel Alfelor0.62%Liberal hold
Batanes Dina AbadCarlo Oliver Diasnes1.06%Liberal hold
Mountain Province Maximo DalogJupiter Dominguez1.54%Liberal hold
Surigao del Norte–2nd Guillermo Romarate, Jr.Robert Ace Barbers1.64%Liberal hold
Manila–6th Sandy OcampoBenny M. Abante1.81%Liberal hold
Zamboanga Sibugay–2nd Romeo Jalosjos, Jr.Dulce Ann Hofer1.85%Liberal gain from Nacionalista
Isabela–2nd Ana Cristina GoEdgar Uy1.93%Nacionalista hold
Cagayan de Oro–1st Jose Benjamin BenaldoRolando Uy2.03%Liberal gain from Nacionalista
Bataan–1st Herminia RomanEnrique T. Garcia2.53%Liberal hold
Northern Samar–2nd Emil OngRamp Nielsen Uy2.67%NUP hold
Batangas–3rd Nelson CollantesVictoria Hernandez-Reyes2.78%Liberal hold
Cotabato–2nd Nancy CatamcoBernardo Piñol, Jr.2.88%Redistricted; Liberal hold
Zamboanga del Norte–2nd Rosendo LabadlabadRolando Yebes2.93%Liberal hold

Retiring and term-limited incumbents

See main article: Retiring and term-limited incumbents in the 2013 Philippine House of Representatives election. These are the incumbents who are not running for a seat in the House of Representatives, and are not term limited:

Defeated incumbents

District Party Incumbent Winner Party Notes
BacolodEvelio LeonardiaGolez is an NPC member running as an independent.
BaguioNicasio Aliping
Batangas–1stEileen Ermita-BuhainApacible defeated Ermita-Buhain's father Eduardo in the 2010 general election.
Bukidnon–1stMaria Lourdes AcostaParas defeated Acosta's mother Socorro in the 2010 general election.
Cagayan de Oro–1stRolando UyBenaldo beat Uy's son Rainier in the 2010 general election.
Caloocan–2ndEdgar Erice
Cebu–2ndWilfredo CamineroGarcia is one of the deputy speakers.
Iloilo–2ndArcadio Gorriceta
Laguna–3rdSol Aragones
Lanao del Sur–1stAnsaruddin Adiong
MarinduqueRegina Ongsiako ReyesVelasco beat Reyes' brother Edmundo in the 2010 general election.
Misamis Occidental–2ndHenry Oaminal
Northern Samar–1stHarlin AbayonDaza is one of the deputy speakers. It was the closest House race with a margin of victory of 52 votes.
Pampanga–3rdOscar Rodriguez
Sulu–2ndMaryam Arbison
Tarlac–3rdNoel Villanueva
Zambales–2ndSulong ZambalesCheryl Delloso-MontallaEbdane beat Delloso-Montalla in the 2012 special election.
Zamboanga Sibugay–2ndDulce Ann HoferJalosjos defeated Hofer's brother George in the 2010 general election.

Open seat gains

*Kaka Bag-ao is a party–list representative for Akbayan who ran in Dinagat Islands district under the Liberal Party and won.

Results

District elections

Only the Liberal Party can win the election outright by placing candidates in a majority of seats. With 292 seats, including seats reserved for sectoral representatives, 147 seats are needed for a majority, and only the Liberal Party is contesting more than 150 seats.

The Liberal Party did win a near majority of the district seats. They are expected to form a coalition with other Team PNoy component parties, other parties, most independents, and most party-list representatives for a large working majority. Lakas-CMD is expected to form the minority bloc anew, while the United Nationalist Alliance and left-leaning representatives may join either bloc.

A total of six independents won, one less than in 2010.

The vote totals below were collected from the results displayed from the COMELEC's "Transparency" server. These are partial and unofficial. The seats won are the ones which had been officially proclaimed by the COMELEC.

Party-list election

See main article: 2013 Philippine House of Representatives election (party-list). The Commission on Elections was supposed to release results for the party-list election along with the results for the Senate election; however, the commission suspended the release of results after questions of whether to include votes for the twelve disqualified parties, although not with finality, were to be included or not.[7] Canvassing of results for the party-list election resumed on May 19 after the 12 senators-elect were already proclaimed, with the commission meeting to determine on what to do with the votes of the twelve disqualified parties.[8] On May 22, the commission announced that they will proclaim the winning parties, but not the number of seats.[9]

Details

DetailsSeats won per party Total seats
Others & ind.
IElections
IIElections
IIIElections
IV–AElections
IV–BElections
VElections
VIElections
VIIElections
VIIIElections
IXElections
XElections
XIElections
XIIElections
CaragaElections
ARMMElections
CARElections
NCRElections
Party-listElection
Total

Seat totals

Party/coalition Seats
width=12.5%District !width=12.5%Party-list !width=12.5%Totals !width=12.5%%
coalition 112 2 114 39.0%
43 0 43 14.7%
24 0 24 8.2%
17 0 17 5.8%
14 0 14 4.8%
coalition 10 0 10 3.4%
0 7 7 2.4%
2 0 2 0.7%
1 0 1 0.3%
1 0 1 0.3%
1 0 1 0.3%
1 0 1 0.3%
1 0 1 0.3%
1 0 1 0.3%
Other party-list representatives 0 49 49 16.8%
6 0 6 2.1%
Totals 234 53 248 98.3%

Aftermath

See main article: 16th Congress of the Philippines. Preliminary results states that President Aquino's allies winning an overwhelming majority of seats in the House of Representatives. This makes Aquino the only president enjoy majorities in both houses of Congress since the People Power Revolution of 1986. This is seen as an endorsement of the voters of Aquino's reformist agenda; although several key wins elsewhere by the United Nationalist Alliance and its allies would mean that Aquino's chosen successor may face a significant challenge in the 2016 presidential election.[10]

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. is seen to keep his speakership position with the Liberals winning at least 100 out of the 234 district seats. Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said that a great majority of incumbents are poised to successfully defend their seats, and that the Liberal Party are to be the single largest party in the lower house. The Nacionalista Party has at least 15 winning representatives, "a substantial number" of the 40 incumbents Nationalist People's Coalition are to hold their seats, and the 34-member National Unity Party House leader Rodolfo Antonino expects Belmonte to be reelected as speaker. The United Nationalist Alliance won three seats in Metro Manila, and at least 2 more seats outside the metropolis.[11]

Election for the Speakership

15th Congress Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. easily won reelection for the speakership. The race for minority leader, usually given to the person finishing second in the speakership race, was narrowly won by Ronaldo Zamora over Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. There was one abstention, from Toby Tiangco, who wanted to be an independent.[12] Belmonte also abstained from voting, while Romaualdez and Zamora voted for themselves; if Belmonte only had one opponent he would've voted for his opponent, and his opponent would've voted for him (as seen in the 15th Congress speakership election). Since there were more than two nominees, the traditional courtesy votes did not push through.

Speakership election
Candidate Party Total %
244 83.6%
UNA/Magdiwang 19 6.5%
16 5.5%
align=left colspan=3Abstention 2 0.7%
Answered to the roll call 271 92.8%
Arrived after the roll call 10 3.4%
Total who voted 281 96.2%
Total proclaimed representatives 289 98.3%
Total representatives 292 100%
Blocs
Bloc Total %
Majority 245 83.9%
Minority 19 6.5%
Independent 16 5.8%
No membership 8 2.7%
Vacancies 3 1.0%
Total 292 100%

Notes and References

  1. News: How to fill the 58 party-list seats . Felix P. II . Muga . Rappler.com . May 20, 2013 . May 23, 2013.
  2. News: Cotabato Province gets third district . Danilo . Doguiles . . September 18, 2012 . September 18, 2012 . dead . https://archive.today/20121221233511/http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=1611347932073 . December 21, 2012 .
  3. News: QC to have two additional districts . Reynaldo Jr. . Santos . Rappler.com . July 10, 2012 . August 11, 2012.
  4. Web site: House Bill 5236 - An Act Reapportioning the Province of Bukidnon into Four (4) Legislative Districts. 15th Congress of the Philippines. September 18, 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20121008053008/http://www.congress.gov.ph/download/billtext_15/hbt5236.pdf. October 8, 2012.
  5. News: 4th legislative district created in Bukidnon . Delon . Porcalla . . October 5, 2012 . October 29, 2012 .
  6. Web site: Republic Act 10171 - An Act Reapportioning the Province of Palawan into Three (3) Legislative Districts . The Official Gazette. July 19, 2012. September 18, 2012.
  7. News: NBOC suspends canvassing for party-list race . RG . Cruz . ABS-CBN News . May 15, 2013 . May 23, 2013.
  8. News: Suspended party-list canvass resumes . Nikko . Dizon . . May 20, 2013 . May 23, 2013.
  9. News: Comelec to proclaim winning party-lists without announcing number of seats obtained . GMA News Online . May 22, 2013 . May 23, 2013.
  10. News: Philippines' Aquino wins rare Congress majority in mid-term polls . . May 14, 2013 . May 20, 2013.
  11. News: SB likely to keep speaker's post with LP bets' victory . . ABS-CBNnews . May 15, 2013 . May 20, 2013.
  12. News: House re-elects Belmonte in overwhelming vote . Karen . Boncocan . INQUIRER.net . July 22, 2013 . July 22, 2013.