Prior to gaining separate representation, areas now under the jurisdiction of Southern Leyte were represented under the undivided province of Leyte. 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. Southern Leyte began to elect a separate representative under its own name starting in the 1961 elections. Southern Leyte was represented in the Interim Batasang Pambansa as part of Region VIII from 1978 to 1984. The province returned [|one representative, elected at-large], to the Regular Batasang Pambansa in 1984. Under the new Constitution which was proclaimed on February 11, 1987, the province constituted a lone district which elected its member to the restored House of Representatives starting that same year. The signing of Republic Act No. 11198 on February 1, 2019 reapportioned Southern Leyte into two legislative districts. Given that it was already too late for the Commission on Elections to change the old congressional district configuration data in the automated election system in time for the May 2019 polls, COMELEC Resolution No. 10524 was promulgated to delay the elections for the two new districts to a date no less than six months from May 13, 2019. By virtue of COMELEC Resolution No. 10552, the date of the elections for the [|first] and [|second] districts of Southern Leyte was set for October 26, 2019. On October 10, 2019, the COMELEC regional office for Eastern Visayas suspended the special elections and delayed it to November 30, pending the Supreme Court of the Philippines issuing a certificate of finality in a related case in which COMELEC was found to violate the law by setting separate special elections for the reconfigured 1st Congressional District of South Cotabato and the newly-created Lone Congressional District of General Santos City instead of the next regular election. Ultimately, no special elections were carried out. Instead, on December 11, 2019, COMELEC — taking into account the September 10, 2019 Supreme Court ruling on the South Cotabato case — adopted the recommendation of its legal department to direct the Special Provincial Board of Canvassers for the Province of Southern Leyte to count the votes cast in the May 2019 elections. Roger Mercado was certified as the duly elected representative on December 16, 2019 by the Southern Leyte Provincial Board of Canvassers, and took his oath as the representative of the Lone Congressional District the next day. The [|1st] and [|2nd] districts will begin electing their respective representatives starting in the 2022 elections.
