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.

District	Legislature	Date	Predecessor	Winner	Reason
Philippine Legislature
Manila–1st	1st	August 11, 1908	Dominador Gomez	Justo Lukban	Resigned on June 18, 1908
Cavite		January 19, 1909	Rafael Palma	Emiliano Tria Tirona	Left office after being appointed to the Philippine Commission on July 1, 1908.
Surigao	2nd	October 14, 1910	Manuel Gavieres	Inocencio Cortes	Died in 1912.
La Laguna–1st		December 13, 1910	Potenciano Malvar	Marcos Paulino	Left office after being appointed as governor of La Laguna
Batanes		September 5, 1911	Teofilo Castillejos	Vicente Barsana	Died in 1912.
Zambales		October 3, 1911	Alberto Barreto	Gabriel Alba	Left office after being appointed judge of the Court of First Instance on July 20, 1911.
Ilocos Sur–1st	3rd	October 13, 1913	Vicente Singson Encarnacion	Alberto Reyes	Left office after being appointed to the Philippine Commission.
Mindoro		March 26, 1914	Macario Adriatico	Mariano Leuterio	Resigned on March 1, 1914.
Bulacan–1st		May 15, 1914	Aguedo Velarde	Ambrosio Santos	Died in 1914.
Zambales		July 22, 1914	Rafael Corpus	Gabriel Alba	Left office after being appointed as Director of Lands.
Iloilo–4th		August 28, 1914	Amando Avanceña	Tiburcio Lutero	Resigned on June 30, 1914.
Negros Oriental–2nd		October 1, 1914	Teofisto Guingona, Sr.	Leopoldo Rovira	Resigned on April 9, 1914.
Capiz–2nd		October 10, 1914	Simeon Dadivas	Emilio Acevedo	Died in 1914.
Cebu–7th		November 21, 1914	Eulalio Causing	Tomas Alonso	Resigned on October 13, 1914
Rizal–2nd		July 12, 1915	Sixto de los Angeles		Died in 1915.
Leyte–4th		September 18, 1915	Francisco Enage	Ruperto Kapunan	Resigned in 1915.
Negros Occidental–1st			Melecio Severino		Died in 1915.
Cebu–3rd	4th	1916	Filemon Sotto	Vicente Urgello	Left office after winning Senate seat in 1916.
Cavite	7th	August 15, 1925	Augusto Reyes	Antero Soriano	Died on July 3, 1925.
Nueva Ecija		March 22, 1926	Isauro Gabaldon	Feliciano Ramoso	Disqualified.
Tayabas–2nd	8th	October 6, 1928	León G. Guinto, Sr.	Marcelo Boncan	Left office after being appointed governor of Tayabas.
Cavite		1929	Antero Soriano	Fidel Ibañez	Died in 1929.
Albay–3rd	9th	1932	Froilan Paverico	Exequiel Kare	Died on August 9, 1931; Julian Locsin was originally declared the winner, but Kare won on an election protest.
Mindoro		April 23, 1932	Mariano Leuterio	Juan L. Luna	Died.
Batangas–1st		February 18, 1933	Antonio de las Alas	Ramon Diokno	Left office after being appointed Secretary of Public Works and Communications.
National Assembly of the Philippines
Ilocos Norte–2nd	1st	July 22, 1936	(none)	Ulpiano Arzadon	General election winner Julio Nalundasan died on September 20, 1935, prior to taking office.
Samar–2nd		1936	Serafin Marabut	Pascual Azanza	Left office after being appointed Secretary of Budget.
Leyte–4th		1936	Francisco Enage	Norberto Romualdez	Left office after being appointed technical adviser to President Manuel L. Quezon
Albay–3rd	2nd	December 10, 1940	Pedro Sabido		Left office after being appointed as Manager of the National Abaca and other Fibers Corporation.
Iloilo–2nd			Ruperto Montinola		Died.
Leyte–5th			Ruperto Kapunan		Died on February 4, 1939.
Nueva Ecija–2nd			Felipe Buencamino		Resigned in 1940.
Congress of the Philippines
Pangasinan–5th	1st	March 3, 1947	Narciso Ramos	Cipriano Allas	Left office after being appointed Minister-counsellor to the United Nations on July 15, 1946
Bukidnon		March 11, 1947	Carlos Fortich, Sr.	Remedios Fortich	Died on October 12, 1946.
Iloilo–1st			Jose Zulueta	Mateo Nonato	Resigned on May 28, 1945, subsequently appointed Secretary of the Interior on June 4, 1946.
Cebu–6th		November 11, 1947	Nicolas Rafols	Manuel Zosa	Died on May 2, 1947.
Iloilo–4th		March 23, 1948	Gaudencio Dimaisip	Mariano Peñaflorida	Left office after winning Iloilo governorship on a November 11, 1947 special election.
Leyte–1st			Carlos S. Tan	Jose Martinez	Left office after winning Senate seat in 1947.
Rizal–2nd	2nd	November 13, 1951	Emilio de la Paz	Isaias R. Salonga	Died on August 30, 1951
Albay–1st	3rd	November 8, 1955	Lorenzo P. Ziga	Tecla San Andres Ziga	Died on November 4, 1954
Samar–1st			Gregorio Tan	Eladio Balite
Batangas–1st	5th	November 12, 1963	Apolinario Apacible	Luis Lopez	Died in 1963.
Negros Occidental–1st			Vicente Gustillo, Sr.	Armando Gustillo	Died on December 17, 1962.
Iloilo–3rd		November 9, 1965	Ramon Tabiana	Gloria Tabiana	Died on December 20, 1964.
Ilocos Norte–1st	6th	November 4, 1967	Antonio Raquiza	Roque Ablan, Jr.	Left office after being appointed Secretary of Public Works on August 24, 1966.
Northern Samar		November 14, 1967	Eladio Balite	Eusebio Moore	Died in 1967.
Agusan del Norte–2nd	9th	August 30, 1993	Edelmiro Amante	Edelmiro Amante	Amante resigned on September 14, 1992 after being appointed as Executive Secretary. Amante then resigned as Executive Secretary on 1993 after being rejected by the Commission on Appointments.
Capiz–1st			Gerardo Roxas, Jr.	Mar Roxas	Died on April 4, 1993
Rizal–1st		March 7, 1994	Manuel Sanchez	Gilberto Duavit	Disqualified for not being a Filipino citizen on December 7, 1993.
Zamboanga del Norte–1st	12th	August 26, 2002	Romeo Jalosjos	Cecilia Jalosjos Carreon	Dropped from the rolls
Isabela–4th		May 12, 2003	Antonio Abaya	Giorgidi Aggabao	Died on February 26, 2003
Cebu–5th	13th	May 30, 2005	Joseph Ace Durano	Ramon Durano VI	Left office after being appointed Secretary of Tourism on November 30, 2004.
Cagayan–2nd	15th	March 12, 2011	Florencio Vargas	Baby Aline Vargas-Alfonso	Died on July 22, 2010.
Ilocos Sur–1st		May 28, 2011	Ronald Singson	Ryan Singson	Resigned on March 1, 2011.
Zambales–2nd		February 4, 2012	Antonio M. Diaz	Jun Omar Ebdane	Died on August 3, 2011.
Negros Occidental–5th		June 2, 2012	Iggy Arroyo	Alejandro Mirasol	Died on January 26, 2012.

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.

Reason for vacancy	Total	%
Death	26	48%
Left office to assume another position	17	31%
Resigned for a reason other than leaving office to assume another position	8	15%
Disqualified	2	4%
Dropped from the rolls	1	2%
Total	54	100%

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:

Original		Winner		Congress	Term ending
Senator	Vacancy event	Senator	Date
Aquilino Calvo	Resigned February 26, 1917	Matias Gonzales	May 5, 1917	4th PL	October 3, 1919
Francisco Liongson	Died February 20, 1919	Ceferino de Leon	October 25, 1919	5th PL	1922
Pedro Guevara	Appointed Resident Commissioner to the U.S.	Ramon J. Fernandez	October 3, 1923	6th PL	June 6, 1925
Santiago Lucero	Died November 2, 1925	Luis Morales	March 23, 1926	7th PL	June 2, 1928
Tomas Gomez	Died July 28, 1926	Pastor Salazar		7th PL	June 2, 1928
Jose Ma. Arroyo	Died March 8, 1927	Jose B. Ledesma	July 21, 1927	7th PL	June 2, 1928
Fernando Lopez (Liberal)	Elected as Vice president, gave up seat on December 30, 1949	Felisberto Verano (Nacionalista)	November 13, 1951	2nd	December 30, 1953
Carlos P. Garcia (Nacionalista)	Elected as Vice president, gave up seat on December 30, 1953	Roseller T. Lim (Nacionalista)	November 8, 1955	3rd	December 30, 1957
Teofisto Guingona (Lakas-NUCD-UMDP)	Appointed as Vice president on February 7, 2001	Gregorio Honasan (Independent)	May 14, 2001	12th	June 30, 2004

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.

Reason for vacancy	Total	%
Left office to assume another position	4	57%
Death	2	29%
Resigned for a reason other than leaving office to assume another position	1	14%
Total	7	100%

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]

 Summary of the November 13, 1951 Philippine Senate special election result

Rank	Candidate	Party		Votes	%
1.	Felixberto Verano		Nacionalista	873,457	47.7%
2.	Cornelio Villareal		Liberal	609,303	33.3%
3.	Prospero Sanidad		Liberal (Independent)	223,810	12.2%
4.	Carlos Tan		Liberal (Independent)	124,975	6.8%
Note: A total of 5 candidates ran for senator.

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]

 Summary of the November 8, 1955 Senate special election result

Rank	Candidate	Party		Votes	%
1.	Roseller T. Lim		Nacionalista	1,102,979	61.4%
2.	Simeon Toribio		Liberal	688,913	38.4%
3.	Avelino P. Garcia		Independent	4,378	0.2%
Total valid votes				1,796,270	100.0%
Source: Commission on Elections

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.

 Summary of the May 14, 2001 Philippine Senate election results

Rank	Candidate	Coalition	Party		Votes	%
1.	Noli de Castro	Puwersa ng Masa^1		Independent	16,237,386	55.09%
2.	Juan Flavier	PPC		Lakas	11,735,897	39.82%
3.	Sergio Osmeña III	PPC		PDP-Laban	11,593,389	39.33%
4.	Franklin Drilon	PPC		Independent	11,301,700	38.34%
5.	Joker Arroyo	PPC		Lakas	11,262,402	38.21%
6.	Ramon Magsaysay Jr.	PPC		Independent	11,250,677	38.17%
7.	Manny Villar	PPC		Independent	11,187,375	37.96%
8.	Kiko Pangilinan	PPC		Liberal	10,971,896	37.23%
9.	Edgardo Angara	Puwersa ng Masa		LDP	10,805,177	36.66%
10.	Ping Lacson	Puwersa ng Masa		LDP	10,535,559	35.74%
11.	Loi Ejercito	Puwersa ng Masa		Independent	10,524,130	35.71%
12.	Ralph Recto	PPC		Lakas	10,480,940	35.56%
13.	Gringo Honasan	Puwersa ng Masa		Independent	10,454,527	35.47%
14.	Juan Ponce Enrile	Puwersa ng Masa		LDP	9,677,209	32.83%
15.	Miriam Defensor Santiago	Puwersa ng Masa		PRP	9,622,742	32.65%
16.	Dong Puno	Puwersa ng Masa		LDP	8,701,205	29.52%
17.	Wigberto Tañada	PPC		Liberal	8,159,836	27.68%
18.	Orly Mercado	Puwersa ng Masa		Independent	7,395,092	25.09%
19.	Obet Pagdanganan	PPC		Lakas	7,185,415	24.38%
20.	Ernesto Herrera	PPC		Lakas	6,801,861	23.08%
21.	Winnie Monsod	PPC		Aksyon	6,728,728	22.83%
22.	Nina Rasul	Puwersa ng Masa		Independent	5,222,490	17.72%
23.	Jamby Madrigal	Puwersa ng Masa		LDP	5,043,043	17.11%
24.	Liwayway Vinzons-Chato	PPC		Independent	4,831,501	16.39%
25.	Perfecto Yasay			Independent	4,557,364	15.46%
26.	Ombra Tamano	Puwersa ng Masa		LDP	3,548,480	12.04%
27.	Reuben Canoy	Puwersa ng Masa		LDP	3,542,460	12.02%
28.	Homobono Adaza			Nacionalista	770,647	2.61%
29.	Rod Navarro			Independent	652,012	2.21%
30.	Manuel Morato			Independent	625,789	2.12%
31.	Moner Bajunaid			PDSP	503,437	1.71%
32.	Oliver Lozano			KBL	470,572	1.60%
33.	Melchor Chavez			KBL	244,553	0.83%
34.	Camilo Sabio			Independent	230,759	0.78%
35.	Norma Nueva			KBL	83,700	0.28%
37.	Juan Casil			KBL	74,481	0.25%
38.	Eddie Gil			Partido Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa	15,522	0.05%
Turnout					29,474,309	86.39%
Note: A total of 38 candidates ran for senator.			Source: COMELEC (vote totals), NCSB (turnout)

^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

1. "REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6645 - AN ACT PRESCRIBING THE MANNER OF FILING A VACANCY IN THE CONGRESS OF THE PHILIPPINES". Chan Robles Virtual Law Library. 1998-07-19. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
2. "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR SYNCHRONIZED NATIONAL AND LOCAL ELECTIONS AND FOR ELECTORAL REFORMS, AUTHORIZING APPROPRIATIONS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES". The Lawphil Project. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
3. "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE PROCLAMATION OF A LONE CANDIDATE FOR ANY ELECTIVE OFFICE IN A SPECIAL ELECTION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES". Commission on Elections. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
4. "Clam Victory Amid Violence". The Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. 1951-11-17. Retrieved 2012-12-06.
5. "List of Previous Senators". Senate.gov.ph. Retrieved 2012-12-06.
6. "ARTURO M. TOLENTINO and ARTURO C. MOJICA, petitioners, vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, SENATOR RALPH G. RECTO and SENATOR GREGORIO B. HONASAN, respondents.". Supreme Court of the Philippines. 2004-01-21. Retrieved 2010-11-25.
7. Coronel Ferrer, Miriam (2010-06-17). "Senate facts - Miriam Coronel Ferrer". ABS-CBNNews.com. Retrieved 2010-11-22.

External links

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