The Legislative districts of South Cotabato are the representations of the province of South Cotabato and the highly urbanized city of General Santos in the various national legislatures of the Philippines. The province and General Santos City are currently represented in the lower house of the Congress of the Philippines through the first and second congressional districts of South Cotabato.
Contents
The province of Sarangani last formed part of its representation in 1995.
History
Prior to gaining separate representation, areas now under the jurisdiction of South Cotabato were represented under the Department of Mindanao and Sulu (1917–1935) and the undivided province of Cotabato (1935–1967). Republic Act No. 4849, enacted on 18 June 1966, created the province of South Cotabato from the southern municipalities of the old Cotabato province. Normally chartered cities—by virtue of being independently governed—are not explicitly enumerated as part of new provinces. However, given that the legality of the plebiscite results which ratified the city charter of the City of Rajah Buayan (Republic Act No. 4413, enacted on 19 June 1965) was still being decided in the courts at the time of R.A. 4849's approval, Sec. 1 of the explicitly included the City of Rajah Buayan's territory in the new province in case it reverts to its former status as the municipality of General Santos. When the Supreme Court unanimously declared R.A. 4413 null and void on 29 October 1966, the City of Rajah Buayan was disestablished and reverted to its former municipal status under the name of General Santos.
Per Section 5 of R.A. 4849, South Cotabato's separate representative was elected in a special election held on the same day as the 1967 senatorial elections. When General Santos finally became a city under the same name on 15 June 1968 by virtue of Republic Act No. 5412, it remained part of the representation of South Cotabato per Section 104 of its city charter.
South Cotabato was represented in the Interim Batasang Pambansa as part of Region XI from 1978 to 1984. The province, including General Santos City, returned three representatives, elected at-large to the Regular Batasang Pambansa in 1984. The province and General Santos City were reapportioned into three congressional districts under the new Constitution which was proclaimed on 11 February 1987, and elected members to the restored House of Representatives starting that same year.
The passage of Republic Act No. 7228 and its subsequent ratification by plebiscite on 11 May 1992 separated South Cotabato's entire third district to create the new province of Sarangani. This reduced the province's representation to two districts. The former third district began to elect its representative as Sarangani's lone congressional district in the 1995 elections.
House Bill No. 4678, filed on 13 December 2016 by the last-term incumbent representative of the first district, seeks to segregate the independent city of General Santos from the said district to form its own congressional district, separate from the representation of South Cotabato. This bill is yet to be approved into law.