RESEARCHING LEGISLATIVE HISTORY IN THE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SENATE

by Julie Ann Azores

INTRODUCTION:
Bills can be searched by Number, Authorship, Committee Referral, Subject, Title, Abstract, Type of
Legislation and Stage in the Legislative process.
A. STEPS IN RESEARCHING LEGISLATIVE HISTORY USING THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVE (HOR) WEBSITE

Step 1- Visit the House of Representatives website by typing www.congress.gov.ph in the

address
bar.

www.congress.gov.ph

1.1 In the Congress website, under the Navigation Bar we have:

a. House of Members
b. Legislative Documents
c. Legis
d. Site Research
e. About us
f. Media
g. Downloads Center

Navigator Bar

Navigator Bar

1.2 The content of the Main Page includes:

a. Site Search
b. Photo Journals
c. Press Release
d. Pleanary Session Webcast
e. Download Center and others

1.3 House Members drop down button linked to the information of all the Members of the
Congress:
a. All Represenatives
b. District Representatives
c. House Members by Region
d. Party List Representatives
e. House Leaders
f. Congressional Profile
g. Philippine Legislature

House Members

Step 2 In Researching Legislative History, Legislative Documents drop down button

provides the following, available for legal research:
a. House Bills and Resolutions
b. Republic Acts
c. House Journals
d. Congressional Record
e. Committee Daily Bulletin

Legislative Documents

2.1 House Bills and Resolution page has the the following options available for easy searching:
1. HB/HR # Box gives the option for House Bill or House Resolution number
2. Keywords Box gives the option to input keyword
3. Select Congress gives the option to select from 8th to 17th Congress

H
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K
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W
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C
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2.2 For example, Type HB00005 in the HB/HR # then click GO.

H
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5

G
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This will lead to HB00005 of 17th Congress which contains the Title, Principal Authors, Main
Referral and Status.

Title
Principal
Author/s
Main Referral
Status

Click the History Link to go to History of the Bill .

House Bill/ Resolution History

Click text as field link for downloading of the bill.

Downloadable link

2.2 Republic Acts, House Journals, Congressional Record as well as Committee Daily Bulletin has
almost the same steps in searching in the House Bills or Resolution Page.

Step 3 The second way of searching is through LEGIS button

LEGIS or Legislative Information System - is a search-based system that allows access, retrieve,
or save structured bills information and status as well as download full texts of Bills, and Resolutions,
its Authorship, Committee Referrals, and Nature of Bills from the 8th Congress to the present 17th
Congress.

LEGIS

3.1 For example search for House Bill No. 0005 under 17th Congress.
Choose 17th Congress then click search

17th Congress

GO

In Legislative Information System, we have four (4) kinds of query type

1. Number Searchers 2. Authorship
3. Committees
4. Nature of Bills
Choose Number Searches by typing HB00005 then click search.
17th

No.
Searches
Type
HB00005

Authorship

Committees

Nature
of Bills
Click SEARCH

The results will appear in this page.In getting the History and downloading the Bill, same process as
stated in the first example.

Search Results

Details

Step 4 Third way of Searching is through SITE SEARCH option.

Among the others, this is the easiest. It allows the user to search House Members, Press Release,
Photo Journals and Republic Acts or all of them at the same time by just inputting keywords.
4.1 - for example type DRUGS and choose Republic Acr.

Site
Search

Site
Search
DRUGS

4.2 All data in connetion with DRUGS will appear in this page, ready for downloading.

Search
Keyword

RESULTS

B. STEPS IN RESEARCHING LEGISLATIVE HISTORY USING THE SENATE WEBSITE

Step 1- Visit the Senate website by typing www.senate.gov.ph in the address bar.

www.senate.gov.ph

1.1 In the Senate website, under the Navigation Bar we have:

a. Home
b. About
c. Senators
d. Committees
e. Secretariat
f. Legislative documents
g. Publications
h. Gallery

Navigator Bar

1.2 The content of the Main Page includes:

a. Photos
b. History of the Senate
c. Presidents Corner
d. Services
e. Publications and etc.

Photos

H
I
S
T
O
R
Y
Presidents
Corner

Services

Publications

Live
Webcast of
Plenary
Session

Step. 2 In Researching Legislative History go to Legislative Documents drop down

button then choose Bills
There are two ways in searching:
1. by number
2. by title/subject

C
o
n
g
r
e
s
s

B
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Change Congress
Type of Bill

Senate
Bills

N
u
m
b
e
r

Title /
Subject

2.1 - For example, search for Drugs using the Title/Subject box under Senate Bill and 17th
Congress.
The image below shows the Result:

17th
Congress

Senate Bill

RESULTS

Drugs

2.3 Bills, Resolution, Journals, Committee Reports, Republic Acts, Adopted Resolution, Treaties and
Resolution has almost the same steps in searching in the Senate Bill Page or are easy to access.
Step. 3 Another Way of Searching is in the Services Option.
There are two option:
1. Search
2. Bills/Resolution

Search

Services
Bills/
Resolution

3.1 Search Option This option provides for a quick search of Photos, News, About the Senate,
Senators, Committees, Secretariat and SEPO Publications.
For example, input Drugs then click go or enter

GO

Result:

RESULTS

3.2 Bill/Resolutions Option In searching for Senate Bill, Resolution and Journal, the number
must be provided to get a result.
For example, choose Senate Bill (SB) then type 1172 in the box provided for the number, then
click go or enter.

GO

Result:

Other data

Long Title

Scope

Status

Download
options