How the Philippine House of Representatives grew from an 1898 revolutionary assembly
No Asian country has a longer run with democratic institutions than the Philippines, and its lower house carries that history. The chamber traces its roots to a 1907 assembly under American rule and, earlier still, to a revolutionary congress that met in a church in Malolos in 1898.
The Malolos Congress, set up under Emilio Aguinaldo's short-lived First Philippine Republic, ratified the independence declared on June 12, 1898, and convened at Barasoain Church. War with the United States followed, and the congress dissolved in 1901 after Aguinaldo, captured, pledged allegiance to the Americans. For several years the only national lawmaking body was the Philippine Commission, appointed by the US president and first led by William Howard Taft. In October 1907 an elected Philippine Assembly joined it as a lower house, with Sergio Osmeña as speaker and Manuel Quezon as floor leader; their Nacionalista Party campaigned for independence and kept winning.
Structure shifted repeatedly. The Jones Act of 1916 created a fully elected two-chamber legislature. A 1935 constitution switched to a single National Assembly, and a 1940 amendment restored two chambers. After independence in 1946, a near two-party contest between Nacionalistas and Liberals emerged, with legislators often defecting to whichever party held the presidency. Ferdinand Marcos's martial law abolished Congress, and a single-chamber parliament dominated by his movement lasted until the People Power Revolution of 1986. The 1987 constitution brought back two houses, now amid a looser multi-party scene where the president's party still tends to control the chamber.
Today representatives serve three-year terms, capped at three in a row. Around 80 percent represent geographic districts, elected by plurality vote; the rest come from a nationwide party-list ballot with a 2 percent threshold, where no party can win more than three seats. In the 2025 elections 318 seats were contested, 254 of them districts. District races are intensely local, while party-list groups campaign nationally to specific constituencies.
The House must approve every bill, can impeach certain officials, and alone can originate money and franchise bills. Its speaker stands third in line for the presidency, and its headquarters, the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City, gives the chamber its nickname, Batasan.
Source: House of Representatives of the Philippines
