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.
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.
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.
Jalosjos defeated Hofer's brother George in the 2010 general election.
Open seat gains
Liberal Party
Albay–1st
Agusan del Norte–1st
Caloocan–1st
Camarines Sur–3rd
Cavite–1st (vacant seat originally held by the Liberals)
Cavite-7th
Dinagat Islands (vacant seat originally held by Lakas)*
Maguindanao–2nd
Occidental Mindoro
Quezon City–5th (new seat notionally held by the Liberals)
Quezon City–6th (new seat notionally held by the Liberals)
Siquijor
Tawi-Tawi
Zamboanga del Norte–3rd
Zamboanga Sibugay–1st
Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino
Zamboanga City–1st
Nacionalista Party
Batangas–2nd
Taguig–2nd
Nationalist People's Coalition
Bohol–2nd (vacant seat originally held by the NPC)
Bukidnon–4th (new seat notionally held by the NPC)
Camiguin (vacant seat originally held by the NPC)
Palawan–3rd (new seat notionally held by the NUP)
Sorsogon–1st (vacant seat originally held by the Liberals)
Zambales–1st
United Nationalist Alliance
Cebu–3rd
Parañaque–2nd
Local parties
Nueva Ecija–1st (Unang Sigaw)
Palawan–2nd (PPP)
PPP's candidate is a member of the NUP, the party it gained the seat from.
Pampanga–1st (Kambilan)
Kambilan's candidate is connected to Lakas–CMD, the party it gained the seat from.
San Juan (Magdiwang)
Magdiwang is the local affiliate of UNA, the party it gained the seat from.
Independents
Aklan
Cotabato–3rd (new seat notionally held by the Liberals)
Misamis Oriental–2nd
Zamboanga City–2nd
*Kaka Bag-ao is a party-list representative for Akbayan who ran in Dinagat Islands district under the Liberal Party and won.
Results
2013 Philippine House district elections chart of votes (inner ring) compared to seats won (outer ring).
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.
^Originally, only 58 seats were up in the party-list election. An additional seat was then seated, then two seats were ultimately not seated until the end of the congressional term.
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]
^An Waray was initially entitled to two seats following the 2013 election. However after a re-computation ordered by the Supreme Court it was determined that An Waray only secured one seat.[10] Victoria Noel assumed position as An Waray's second representative without a proclamation from the Commission on Elections.[11][12]
Same as above, but showing district gains and losses.
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.[13]
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.[15] 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.
