Zamboanga's at-large congressional district may refer to several occasions when a provincewide at-large district was used for elections to the various Philippine national legislatures from the undivided province of Zamboanga.
The Spanish colonial province of Zamboanga was represented in the Malolos Congress following its reorganization in 1898 for the National Assembly of the First Philippine Republic.[1] Three representatives from Luzon were appointed by the assembly to represent the province, namely Felipe Buencamino and Lázaro Tañedo from Tarlac, and Tomás Mascardo from Pampanga.[2] After the fall of the First Republic, the province was abolished with its territory reduced to a district annexed to Moro Province under U.S. civilian rule in 1903.[3] Moro Province was unrepresented in the Philippine Assembly.[4]
Provincial government was re-established in Zamboanga in 1914 but was not entitled to its own representation in the national legislature.[5] Instead, it remained a part of the larger constituency of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu under the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes whose representatives were appointed by the Governor General beginning in 1916. In 1934, following the passage of the Tydings–McDuffie Act, Zamboanga elected its own delegate for the first time to the 1934 Philippine Constitutional Convention which was charged with the drafting of a new constitution for the Commonwealth of the Philippines.[6] The province then began to send a representative to the Commonwealth National Assembly from its single-member at-large district created under the 1935 constitution.[7]
Zamboanga was also represented in the Second Republic National Assembly during the Pacific War. It also elected a representative to the restored House of Representatives and to the first two congresses of the Third Philippine Republic. It was last represented by Roseller T. Lim. After the 1952 partition of Zamboanga, the district was abolished and replaced by Zamboanga del Norte's and Zamboanga del Sur's at-large districts.[4]
- ^ "Decree of June 18, 1898, establishing the Dictatorial Government" (PDF). Official Gazette (Philippines). Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ "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 February 18, 2021.
- ^ Act No. 787 (June 1, 1903), An Act Providing for the Organization and Government of the Moro Province, retrieved February 18, 2021
- ^ a b "Roster of Philippine legislators". House of Representatives of the Philippines. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ Act No. 2408 (July 23, 1914), n act providing a temporary form of government for the territory known as the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, making applicable thereto, with certain exceptions, the provisions of general laws now in force in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes, Lawyerly, retrieved February 18, 2021
- ^ Act No. 4125 (May 26, 1934), An Act to Provide for the Election and Holding of the Constitutional Convention Authorized by the Act of the Congress of the United States of March Twenty-fourth, Nineteen Hundred and Thirty-four, Appropriate Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes, retrieved February 18, 2021
- ^ "The 1935 Constitution". Official Gazette (Philippines). Retrieved February 18, 2021.