List of special elections to the Philippine Congress

These are the special elections (known outside the Philippines and the United States as by-elections) to the Congress of the Philippines. The Philippines holds two types of special elections: those that were supposed to be held on election day but were delayed, and those held after an office has become vacant. This article describes the second type.

Scheduling

As stipulated in Republic Act (R.A.) No. 6645 approved on December 28, 1987, once a vacancy occurs in the Senate at least 18 months, or in the House of Representatives at least (1) year, before the next scheduled election, the Commission on Elections, upon receipt of a resolution from the chamber where the vacancy occurred, shall schedule a special election. The special election will then be held not earlier than 45 days and not later than 90 days from the date of the resolution.^[1]

However, Republic Act No. 7166 approved on November 26, 1991, amended parts of R.A. No. 6645. When a vacancy in the House of Representatives occurs before one year before the expiration of the term, the special election shall be held not earlier than 60 days and not later than 90 days after occurrence of the vacancy. For the Senate, if the vacancy occurs one year before the expiration of the term, the special election shall be held on the day of the next succeeding regular election.^[2]

With the passed of Republic Act No. 8295 in 1997, if there is only one candidate running for the position, that candidate would be proclaimed as the winner, and an election would no longer be held.^[3] This is unlike in regularly scheduled elections where voting would still be held, and the candidate has to get one vote in order to be elected.

Not all vacancies that occurred a year before the next regular election resulted in a special election. To save money, the Speaker appoints a caretaker representative from a nearby district. In same cases a caretaker representative was appointed while an election date was considered.

As with general elections, special elections are usually scheduled on a Monday. In some cases, election days are declared as holidays.

House of Representatives

Since the 1998 elections, there have been two types of elected representatives, those who represent single-member districts and those elected via the party-list system. When a vacancy occurs for a party-list representative, the next-ranked nominee from the party replaces his predecessor. For district representatives, a special election will be held to determine who shall succeed the predecessor. During the Third Philippine Republic, where representatives had four-year terms, the special election was held together with the mid-term election.

A special election will not be held if the vacancy occurred less than a year before the next regularly scheduled election.

Statistics

Death is the most common reason to trigger a special election, causing almost half of the instances. Resignation is the second most common, both from leaving office to assume another position, and for other reasons. There had been two disqualifications, or the representative should not have been able to run at all, and one was "dropped from the rolls", or removed from office after being convicted with finality of a crime. No special election has yet been held after a member had been expelled by the House of Representatives.

Senate

From 1917 to 1934, senators are elected via senatorial districts; a vacancy mid-term will be filled up by a special election.

Starting from 1941, senators elected at-large nationwide, have 6-year terms, with senators elected via staggered elections: every two years, eight out of the 24 senators were elected from 1940 to 1972, and 12 out of 24 senators every three years since 1987. In cases where a senator left office before the expiration of his term, a special election on the day of the next regularly scheduled Senate election was held to fill up the vacancy, as long as the seat per se won't be contested on that election day. There had been three cases where that happened:

Statistics

Leaving office to assume another position is the most common reason to trigger a Senate special election; in fact, out of four such instances, three involve the assumption of the vice presidency.

1951

In 1949, Senator Fernando Lopez (who was on his second year of service in the Senate) was elected Vice President of the Philippines. To fill the vacancy, a special election was held separately with Senators whose terms ended in that year:^[4]

1955

In 1953, Senator Carlos P. Garcia (who was on his second year of service in the Senate) was elected Vice President of the Philippines. To fill the vacancy, a special election was held separately with Senators whose terms ended in that year:^[5]

2001

In 2001, Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo succeeded Joseph Estrada after the 2001 EDSA Revolution, leaving the office of the vice president vacant. Arroyo appointed Teofisto Guingona (who was serving his second year as senator) as vice president later that year but prior to the 2001 Senate election. The Commission on Elections ruled that instead of twelve, the electorate will vote for thirteen senators, with the thirteenth-placed candidate serving Guingona's unexpired term of three years. In purposes of term limits, that senator would've deemed to have served a full six-year term.

^1 Guest candidate

^2 18,000 votes deducted from Ralph G. Recto from Zamboanga del Norte as per Resolution No. NBC 01-003

^3 Elected to serve the unexpired term (until June 2004) of Teofisto Guingona, Jr., who was appointed Vice President on February 2001.

Former senator Arturo Tolentino and others sued the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to set aside the proclamation of the thirteen senators in 2001. In Tolentino vs. COMELEC, the Supreme Court ruled that the commission did not comply with the requirements of R.A. 6645, nor did the commission "give formal notice that it would proclaim as winner the senatorial candidate receiving the 13th highest number of votes in the special election." However, the court ruled that while the commission failed to give notice of the time of the special election, it did not negate the calling of such election, "indispensable to the election's validity." Since R.A. 6645 as amended "charges the voters with knowledge of this statutory notice and COMELEC's failure to give the additional notice did not negate the calling of such special election, much less invalidate it", the court dismissed the petition for lack of merit and allowed the result of the election to stand.^[6]

The "thirteenth" senator

There had been four instances in the Fifth Republic where a seat was vacated exactly mid-way through the senator's term due to election to another office. In all cases, the thirteenth-placed senator in the immediately preceding election was not given the former's seat since the vacancy occurred after the election.

• In 1998, senator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was elected vice president mid-way through her term,.Arroyo's seat would be up for the 2001 election and no special elections were held, nor was the thirteenth-placed candidate during the 1998 Senate election (Roberto Pagdanganan) proclaimed winner. Later that year, Marcelo Fernan died in office, leaving two vacant seats in the Senate (Fernan's seat would also be up in 2001).
• In 2004, senator Noli de Castro was elected vice president mid-way through his term . De Castro's seat would be up for the 2007 election and no special election was held, nor was the thirteenth-placed candidate during the 2004 Senate election (Robert Barbers) proclaimed winner.
• In 2007, senator Alfredo Lim was elected mayor of Manila mid-way through his term. Lim's seat would be up for the 2010 election and no special election was held, nor was the thirteenth-placed candidate during the 2007 Senate election (Aquilino Pimentel III) proclaimed winner. On August 15, 2011, Pimentel assumed the seat of Juan Miguel Zubiri after allegations of electoral fraud.
• In 2010, senator Benigno Aquino III was elected president mid-way through his term. Aquino's seat would be up for the 2013 election and no special election was held, nor was the thirteenth-placed candidate during the 2010 Senate election (Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel) proclaimed winner.

In all of those cases, the thirteenth-placed candidate was not given the vacant seat as the voters elected for only twelve senators.^[7]

Note that this won't be a problem for senators elected prior to 1971, as long as they are elected to a new position prior to the second senate election of their terms (there were two elections for the senate for senators at that time). For senators elected since 1987, their seats will be vacant since there will be no intervening senate elections from the day they gave up their seat up to the expiration of their term.

References

External links

• Online roster of Philippine legislators (House of Representatives)
• Commission on Elections' special elections webpage

Elections and referendums in the Philippines
Presidential elections	1935 1941 1946 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1981 1986 1992 1998 2004 2010 2016
Senate elections	1916 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1941 1946 1947 1949 1951 1953 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1987 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 Special elections
House elections	1898 1907 1909 1912 1916 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1935 1938 1941 1943 1946 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1978 1984 1987 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 Special elections
Constitutional Conventions	1934 1970
Local elections	1895 1899 1905 1909 1912 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1941 1943 1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1980 1988 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019
Referendums	1935 1937 1939 1940 1947 1967 1973 (Jan) 1973 (Jul) 1975 1976 1977 1981 (Apr) 1981 (Jun) 1984 1987
General topics	Elections Timeline Electoral process Voter registration Vote counting Commission on Elections
See also: Local elections and referendums in the Philippines

General elections in the Philippines
1935 1941 1946 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1978 1984 1987 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016
Commission on Elections Barangay elections Presidential elections Senatorial elections Special elections to Congress