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]

The Philippines uses parallel voting for its lower house elections. For this election, there shall be 308 seats in the House; 247 of these are district representatives, and 61 are party-list representatives. Philippine law mandates that there should be one party-list representative for every four district representatives. District representatives are elected under the plurality voting system from single-member districts. Party-list representatives are elected via the nationwide vote with a 2% "soft" election threshold, with a 3-seat cap. The party in the party-list election with the most votes usually wins three seats, the other parties with more than 2% of the vote two seats, and the parties with less than 2% of the vote winning a seat each if the 20% quota is not met.

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

These are the new districts that will be contested in 2022, based from redistricting laws passed by the 17th Congress:

• Southern Leyte's 1st congressional district, from Southern Leyte's at-large congressional district[3]
• Southern Leyte's 2nd congressional district, Southern Leyte's at-large congressional district[3]
• General Santos's at-large congressional district, from South Cotabato's 1st congressional district[3]
• Santa Rosa's at-large congressional district, from Laguna's 1st congressional district[4]
• Mandaue's at-large congressional district, from Cebu's 6th congressional district[5]

It will also be the first election for Davao de Oro in that name, after the successful renaming plebiscite in 2019 from "Compostela Valley".[6]

As there shall be 247 districts in the election to date, and that party-list seats shall be 20% of the seats in the chamber, there shall be 61 seats to be disputed under the party-list system. If there are 248 districts, there shall be 62 party-list seats.

Other districts may be created by Congress before the election. The following reapportionment bills have been passed the House of Representatives, and is now pending on the Senate:

• Reapportioning Rizal's 2nd congressional district to three districts
  • This involves giving Rodriguez and San Mateo its own congressional districts each as the 4th and 3rd districts respectively, while leaving the rest of the 2nd district intact.[7]
• Dividing Maguindanao into two provinces
  • Each new province will get its own congressional district, with Cotabato City being grouped with Northern Maguindanao's at-large district. This involves no changes in the number of districts as Maguindanao is already divided into two districts.[8]

Other bills have not passed through 1st reading.

There is a pending plebiscite to partition Palawan into three provinces. Palawan, together with the city of Puerto Princesa, is grouped into three congressional districts. If the voters approve Palawan's partition, each province, and Puerto Princesa, will get its own congressional district, or an addition of another district. The plebiscite has been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mimaropa.[9]

The following are "third-termers", who are term limited. Others may retire or opt to run for other positions in 2022.

These are the marginal seats that had a winning margin of 5% or less in the 2019 elections, in ascending order:

*Contested as Compostela Valley–2nd in 2019.