How are Philippine party-list seats allocated?

Per Banat v. COMELEC (2009): parties with at least 2% of votes get one guaranteed seat, remaining seats follow an additional-seat formula, and no party may hold more than three seats. The 2022 House had 63 party-list seats.

COMELEC seat arithmetic

50 party-lists. 63 seats. Who clears the 2% bar?

Drag concentration and watch the vote redistribute. Parties below the 2% line win nothing; those above earn a guaranteed seat, then fight over the rest — until the 3-seat cap forces the surplus back down the ladder.

Total seats

2022 House

Qualified

—

≥ 2% of votes

At the cap

—

holding 3 seats

Shut out

—

below 2%

Seat allocation · top 30 party-lists — / 63

qualified (≥2%) at 3-seat cap below threshold 2% line

Vote concentration

SkewBalanced

Spread outA few dominate

Presets

How to use

Drag the concentration slider. 50 simulated party-lists redistribute their vote share along a power law. Watch which clear the 2% threshold (the red line), how the additional-seat formula hands out the remaining seats, and how the 3-seat cap shoves surplus seats down to marginal qualifiers who'd never earn them under pure proportionality.

The 3-step formula

Guaranteed seat: Every party with ≥2% of the vote gets one seat.
Additional seats: The remaining seats are distributed by the additional-seat formula: party_share × (total − guaranteed) / qualified_share_total.
Cap: No party-list may hold more than 3 seats. Surplus redistributes to the next-largest under-3 qualifiers.

Why the cap matters

Without the 3-seat cap, top party-lists with 8% share would get ~5 seats each. The cap forces redistribution and lets ~20-25 marginal parties claim seats they wouldn't earn under proportional rules.

Critics argue this rewards "vehicle" party-lists (small fronts for political dynasties). Supporters argue it serves the constitutional intent of representing diverse marginalized sectors.

Citations

RA 7941 (1995) — Party-List System Act.
Banat v. COMELEC (G.R. 179271, 2009) — SC ruling fixing the 3-seat cap formula.
Atong Paglaum v. COMELEC (G.R. 203766, 2013) — qualifications & sectoral representation.
Article VI §5, 1987 Constitution — proportional representation provision.
COMELEC NBOC tabulations (2022) — actual party-list vote & seat results.

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