Sulu's at-large congressional district may refer to several instances when a provincewide at-large district was used for elections to Philippine national legislatures from the province of Sulu before 1987.
The single-member district was first created ahead of the 1935 Philippine legislative election following the 1934 constitutional convention where voters had been selected in electing a delegate for the province.[1] Sulu had been admitted as a special province under the Department of Mindanao and Sulu since 1914 but was only previously represented through a multi-member delegation appointed by the Governor General covering all of Mindanao territory except Misamis and Surigao beginning in 1916.[2] The district encompassed the entire territory of the Jolo and Tawi-Tawi island groups that was formerly known as the Sulu District and which was previously organized under Moro Province in 1903 from the same Spanish politico-military district (Distrito de Jolo) that existed since the Madrid Protocol of 1885.[3] The Spanish district of Jolo was earlier represented in the Malolos Congress of the nascent First Philippine Republic by two delegates from Luzon.[4]
Datu Ombra Amilbangsa of the Nacionalista Democrático was elected as the district's first representative in 1935 by a select group of electors composed of municipal and municipal district presidents, vice-presidents and councilors, among others.[5] [6] The first time a representative from the province was elected through popular vote was during the succeeding 1938 Philippine legislative election after the passage of Commonwealth Act No. 44 in 1936 which removed the restrictions on qualified voters in the former Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes-designated jurisdiction.[7]
Sulu was also represented in the Second Republic National Assembly by two members during the Pacific War. It reverted to single-member representation for the restored Commonwealth and subsequent Third Republic House of Representatives. It continued to elect representatives until the dissolution of Congress in 1972. Following a shift to parliamentary system, districts were replaced by multi-member regional constituencies where Sulu, reduced to the Jolo island group following the separation of Tawi-Tawi in 1973, was represented as part of Region IX's at-large district.[8] When provincial and city district representation was restored in 1984, Sulu was represented by one assemblyman, with a separate representation created for Tawi-Tawi.[9] [5] It was made obsolete by the 1987 reapportionment that established two districts in the province under a new constitution.[10]
| Term of office | National Assembly | Seat A | Seat B | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | End | Member | Party | Electoral history | Member | Party | Electoral history | ||||||
Jolo's at-large district for the Malolos Congress | |||||||||||||
| District created June 18, 1898.[11] | |||||||||||||
| – | September 15, 1898 | March 23, 1901 | 1st | Benito Legarda | Independent | Appointed. | Victor Papa | Independent | Appointed. | ||||
| Term of office | National Assembly | Single seat | Seats eliminated | ||||||||||
| Start | End | Member | Party | Electoral history | |||||||||
Sulu's at-large district for the National Assembly (Commonwealth of the Philippines) | |||||||||||||
| District re-created February 8, 1935. | |||||||||||||
| 1 | September 16, 1935 | December 30, 1938 | 1st | Ombra Amilbangsa | Nacionalista Democrático | Elected in 1935. | |||||||
| 2 | December 30, 1938 | December 30, 1941 | 2nd | Gulamu Rasul | Nacionalista | Elected in 1938. | |||||||
| Term of office | National Assembly | Seat A | Seat B | ||||||||||
| Start | End | Member | Party | Electoral history | Member | Party | Electoral history | ||||||
Sulu's at-large district for the National Assembly (Second Philippine Republic) | |||||||||||||
| District re-created September 7, 1943.[12] | |||||||||||||
| – | September 25, 1943 | February 2, 1944 | 1st | Gulamu Rasul | KALIBAPI | Elected in 1943. | Ombra Amilbangsa | KALIBAPI | Appointed as an ex officio member. | ||||
| Term of office | Common wealth Congress | Single seat | Seats eliminated | ||||||||||
| Start | End | Member | Party | Electoral history | |||||||||
Sulu's at-large district for the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of the Philippines | |||||||||||||
| District re-created May 24, 1945. | |||||||||||||
| (1) | June 9, 1945 | May 25, 1946 | 1st | Ombra Amilbangsa | Nacionalista | Elected in 1941. | |||||||
| Term of office | Congress | Single seat | |||||||||||
| Start | End | Member | Party | Electoral history | |||||||||
Sulu's at-large district for the House of Representatives of the Philippines | |||||||||||||
| (1) | May 25, 1946 | December 30, 1949 | 1st | Ombra Amilbangsa | Liberal | Re-elected in 1946. | |||||||
| (2) | December 30, 1949 | May 5, 1951 | 2nd | Gulamu Rasul | Nacionalista | Elected in 1949. Election annulled by House electoral tribunal after an electoral protest. | |||||||
| (1) | May 5, 1951 | December 30, 1961 | Ombra Amilbangsa | Liberal | Declared winner of 1949 elections. | ||||||||
| 3rd | Re-elected in 1953. | ||||||||||||
| 4th | Re-elected in 1957. | ||||||||||||
| 3 | December 30, 1961 | April 23, 1969 | 5th | Salih Ututalum | Nacionalista | Elected in 1961. | |||||||
| 6th | Liberal | Re-elected in 1965. Election annulled by House electoral tribunal after an electoral protest. | |||||||||||
| 4 | April 23, 1969 | September 23, 1972 | Indanan M. Anni | Nacionalista | Declared winner of 1965 elections. | ||||||||
| 7th | Re-elected in 1969. Removed from office after imposition of martial law. | ||||||||||||
| District dissolved into the eight-seat Region IX's at-large district for the Interim Batasang Pambansa. | |||||||||||||
| Term of office | Batasang Pambansa | Single seat | |||||||||||
| Start | End | Member | Party | Electoral history | |||||||||
Sulu's at-large district for the Regular Batasang Pambansa | |||||||||||||
| District re-created February 1, 1984.[13] | |||||||||||||
| 5 | July 23, 1984 | March 25, 1986 | 2nd | Hussin T. Loong | KBL | Elected in 1984. | |||||||
| District dissolved into Sulu's 1st and 2nd districts. | |||||||||||||