The speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, more popularly known as the House speaker, is the presiding officer and the highest-ranking official of the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, as well as the fourth-highest official of the government of the Philippines. The speaker is elected by a majority of all of the representatives from among themselves. The speaker is the third and last in the line of succession to the presidency, after the vice president and the Senate president. A speaker may be removed from office in a coup, or can be replaced by death or resignation. In some cases, a speaker may be compelled to resign at the middle of a Congress' session after he has lost support of the majority of congressmen; in that case, an election for a new speaker is held. Despite being a partisan official, the speaker (or whoever is presiding) does not vote unless in breaking ties in accordance with the Rules of the House of Representatives. The current House speaker is Martin Romualdez of Leyte-1st congressional district. He was elected as speaker on July 25, 2022, the first day of the 19th Congress.

Election

When the office of speaker is vacant (usually at the beginning of a new Congress), the secretary-general of the House sits as the speaker until a person is elected. A speaker is usually elected via majority vote via roll call of the representatives, after nomination at the start of each new Congress. Usually, despite the current multi-party system used, only two representatives are nominated, with nominations being agreed upon before each Congress during caucuses between the administration and opposition coalitions, with the chosen candidate of the majority coalition being almost certain to win by a large margin. The two competing candidates by tradition vote for each other; those who voted for the speaker-elect is assigned as the "majority" coalition while those who didn't are the minority coalition, with the losing candidate usually being named as minority leader. In the 2013 election, there were three candidates for the speakership. In this case, the candidates didn't vote for each other, and the second-placed candidate became minority leader and headed the minority bloc. The third-placed candidate became the leader of the "independent minority" bloc. Only the majority and minority blocs were given seats in committees. There was a chance that neither candidate would get a majority of votes; it is undetermined on what should be done if that happened.

Role

According to Section 15 of Rule 4 of the House Rules, the Speaker of the House has the following duties and powers: And according to Section 16 of the Rule 4 of the Rules of the House, the speaker must "be the permanent head of delegation and representative of the House in all international parliamentary gatherings and organizations: Provided, that the Speaker may designate any Member to be the representative of the Speaker. The Speaker shall also determine, upon the recommendation of the Majority Leader, in consultation with the Chairperson of the Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Relations and Diplomacy, who shall constitute the House delegation to any international conference or forum of parliamentarians and legislators and the secretariat support staff to be mobilized for the purpose."

List of speakers

Speakers per region

List of speakers per party (24 speakers)

Timeline