House of Representatives of the Philippines Directory

The House of Representatives of the Philippines is the lower house of the Congress of the Philippines. The Senate is the upper house. The House is often informally called Congress. Members of the house are called Congressmen and their title is Representative. Congressmen are elected to a three-year term and can be reelected, but cannot serve more than three consecutive terms. Around eighty percent of congressmen are district representatives, representing a particular geographical area. There are 229 legislative districts in the country, each composed of about 250,000 people. There are also party-list representatives elected through the party-list system who constitute not more than twenty percent of the total number of Representatives.

Senate of the Philippines Directory

The Senate of the Philippines is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, the Congress; the House of Representatives is the lower house. It is composed of 24 senators who are elected at-large with the country as one district under plurality-at-large voting. Senators serve 6-year terms, with half of the senators elected every three years to ensure that the Senate is maintained as a continuous body, though staggered. The Senate, as the Upper House of the bicameral Congress of the Philippines, exercises legislative power (with the House of Representatives) “except to the extent reserved to the people by the provision on initiative and referendum.” Aside from having its concurrence on every bill in order to be passed for the president's signature to become a law, the Senate is the only body that can concur with treaties, and can try impeachment cases.