The official roster of the House of Representatives in the 20th Congress decreased to 316 members on Monday night, May 18, following the unexpected resignations of two majority party-list lawmakers.
1Tahanan Party-list Representative Nathaniel Oducado and Pinoy Workers Party-list Representative Franz Legazpi formally stepped down from their posts, informing the House Committee on Rules of their decisions through separate letters. During the plenary session, Zamboanga del Sur 2nd District Representative Jeyzel Victoria Yu officially read the correspondence into the congressional record.
Yu subsequently moved for the immediate administrative removal of both lawmakers from the chamber’s official roster.
”Mr. Speaker, in view of the resignation…may we request that the secretary-general be directed to drop [the representatives’ names] from the roll of members of the House of Representatives,” Yu said during the session.
Lanao del Sur 2nd District Representative Yasser Balindong, who was presiding over the plenary at the time, approved Yu’s motion without objection, officially striking Oducado and Legazpi from the legislative roll.
Prior to his resignation, Oducado had completed nearly two years of his term, notably serving as the vice chairperson for three major house panels: the Committee on Climate Change, the Committee on Housing and Urban Development, and the Committee on National Defense and Security. Meanwhile, Legazpi held a single leadership role as the vice chairperson of the Committee on Land Use during his tenure in the lower chamber.
Despite the sudden vacancies, the seats are expected to be filled quickly. Unlike district representatives whose vacancies typically require special elections, party-list seats follow a streamlined succession process where the respective political organizations only need to submit the next nominee in line to the Commission on Elections to assume the vacated post.