Legislative districts of Palawan

The legislative districts of Palawan are the representations of the province of Palawan and the highly urbanized city of Puerto Princesa in the various national legislatures of the Philippines. The province and the city are currently represented in the lower house of the Congress of the Philippines through their first, second, and third congressional districts.

History

Areas now under the jurisdiction of Palawan were represented under the districts of Calamianes, Paragua, and Balabac in the Malolos Congress from 1898 to 1899. ^[1] Paragua and Balabac had two delegates each, while Calamianes had three. Paragua was later renamed to Palawan in 1903 and Calamianes and Balabac were dissolved and annexed to Palawan. ^[2]

Palawan later comprised a single assembly district from 1907 to 1972. When seats for the upper house of the Philippine Legislature were elected from territory-based districts between 1916 and 1935, the province formed part of the eighth senatorial district which elected two out of the 24-member senate.

In the disruption caused by the Second World War, two delegates represented the province in the National Assembly of the Japanese-sponsored Second Philippine Republic: one was the provincial governor (an ex officio member), while the other was elected through a provincial assembly of KALIBAPI members during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Upon the restoration of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1945, the province continued to comprise a lone district.

The province was represented in the Interim Batasang Pambansa as part of Region IV-A from 1978 to 1984, and elected one representative, at large, to the Regular Batasang Pambansa in 1984. Palawan was reapportioned into two congressional districts under the new Constitution ^[3] which was proclaimed on February 11, 1987, and elected members to the restored House of Representatives starting that same year.

The passage of Republic Act No. 10171 in 2012 separated Puerto Princesa and Aborlan from the second district to form the third district, ^[4] which first elected its own representative in the 2013 elections.

Current districts

The province was last redistricted in 2012, wherein the province gained its third seat in the House. All incumbent representatives are part of the majority bloc.

Legislative districts and representatives of Palawan

District	Current Representative			Party	Constituent LGUs	Population (2020) [5]	Area	Map
	Image		Name
1st			Rosalie A. Salvame (since 2025) Taytay	PRP	List Agutaya Araceli Busuanga Cagayancillo Coron Culion Cuyo Dumaran El Nido Kalayaan Linapacan Magsaysay Roxas San Vicente Taytay	453,897	7,725.90 km2
2nd			Jose Alvarez (since 2022) Rizal	NPC	List Balabac Bataraza Brooke's Point Narra Quezon Rizal Sofronio Española	438,769	6,116.50 km2
3rd			Gil A. Acosta Jr. (since 2025) Bancao-bancao, Puerto Princesa	Lakas-CMD	List Aborlan Puerto Princesa	345,815	3,188.35 km2

Historical districts

Lone District (defunct)

Period	Representative
1st Philippine Legislature 1907–1909	Santiago M. Patero
2nd Philippine Legislature 1909–1912	Manuel Sandoval
3rd Philippine Legislature 1912–1916
4th Philippine Legislature 1916–1919
5th Philippine Legislature 1919–1922	Ramon De Jesus
6th Philippine Legislature 1922–1925	Patricio Fernandez
7th Philippine Legislature 1925–1928
8th Philippine Legislature 1928–1931
9th Philippine Legislature 1931–1934	Claudio R. Sandoval
10th Philippine Legislature 1934–1935
1st National Assembly 1935–1938
2nd National Assembly 1938–1941
1st Commonwealth Congress 1945	Sofronio Española
1st Congress 1946–1949
2nd Congress 1949–1953	Gaudencio E. Abordo [a]
	Sofronio Española
3rd Congress 1953–1957	Gaudencio E. Abordo
4th Congress 1957–1961
5th Congress 1961–1965
6th Congress 1965–1969	Ramon V. Mitra, Jr. [b]
7th Congress 1969–1972
	vacant

Notes

1. Replaced by Sofronio Española as per House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal decision on March 6, 1953.
2. Elected to the Senate in 1971.

At-Large (defunct)

1898–1899

Period	Representatives
Malolos Congress 1898–1899	Felipe Calderón
	Domingo Colmenar

1943–1944

Period	Representative
National Assembly 1943–1944	Iñigo R. Peña
	Patricio Fernandez (ex officio)

1984–1986

Period	Representative
Regular Batasang Pambansa 1984–1986	Ramon V. Mitra, Jr.

References

1. "The Malolos Congress: A Centennial publication on the inauguration of the Philippine Republic (January 23, 1899 - January 3, 1999)". National Historical Commission of the Philippines. 1999. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
2. Act No. 1363 (June 28, 1905), An Act Changing the Name of the Province and Island of Paragua to That of Palawan , retrieved January 13, 2023
3. "1987 Constitution of the Philippines - Apportionment Ordinance" . Retrieved June 13, 2016.
4. Republic Act No. 10171 (July 19, 2012), An Act reapportioning the Province of Palawan into three (3) legislative districts , retrieved August 10, 2016
5. Census of Population (2020). Table B - Population and Annual Growth Rates by Province, City, and Municipality - By Region. Philippine Statistics Authority . Retrieved 8 July 2021.