Leyte was originally divided into four
congressional districts from 1907 until 1931, when it was redistricted to five
congressional districts by virtue of Act No. 3788. When seats for the
upper house of the
Philippine Legislature were elected from territory-based districts between 1916 and 1935, the province formed part of the
ninth senatorial district which elected two out of the 24-member senate. In the disruption caused by the
Second World War,
two delegates represented the province in the
National Assembly of the Japanese-sponsored
Second Philippine Republic: one was the provincial governor (an
ex officio member), while the other was elected through a provincial assembly of
KALIBAPI members during the
Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Upon the restoration of the
Philippine Commonwealth in 1945, the province retained its five pre-war representative districts. Even after receiving their own city charters,
Ormoc and
Tacloban remained part of the representation of the Province of Leyte by virtue of Section 90 of Republic Act No. 179 (June 21, 1947), and Section 91 of Republic Act No. 760 (June 20, 1952), respectively. Republic Act No. 2227, enacted on May 22, 1959, created the province of
Southern Leyte from the southern municipalities of Leyte that constituted its
third congressional district. Per Section 5 of R.A. 2227, the incumbent representatives of all five districts of Leyte continued to serve for the remainder of
4th Congress. Starting in the
1961 elections, Leyte's remaining four districts were renumbered; the
first,
second,
fourth and
fifth districts were re-designated as the
third,
fourth,
first and
second districts, respectively. Leyte was represented in the
Interim Batasang Pambansa as part of
Region VIII from 1978 to 1984. The province returned
five representatives, elected at-large, to the
Regular Batasang Pambansa in
1984. Under the new Constitution which was proclaimed on February 11, 1987, the province was re-apportioned into five districts, each of which elected its member to the restored
House of Representatives starting
that same year. A plebiscite held on May 11, 1992, approved the establishment of Biliran (a sub-province of Leyte since 1959) as a regular province, by virtue of Section 462 of Republic Act No. 7160 (Local Government Code of 1991). Biliran continued to be represented as part of the
third district of Leyte until it elected its
own representative in the
1995 elections. == Current districts ==