Sangguniang Panlalawigan
Encomiendas were organized only for the purposes of collecting tribute that went in part to the Roman Catholic Church, the Spanish army, and to the Royal Treasury.
Later on areas which were organized and given the designation of "province" (provincia) were led by an appointed alcalde who performed judicial, fiscal and executive functions.
This system of government lasted for almost three hundred years until 1886 when a governor (gobernador) was first appointed in each of the eighteen existing provinces, relegating the alcalde to carry out only judicial functions.
2264 (the "Local Autonomy Act") on June 19, 1959, not only granted greater autonomy to local governments, but also expanded the composition of the Provincial Board by creating a new elective office, the vice-governorship, as well as providing for provinces of the first, second and third income class to have one additional elected board member.
826 issued by President Ferdinand Marcos on November 14, 1975[7] all existing governing boards and councils in each province, city and municipality were renamed Sangguniang Bayan.
The province-level Sangguniang Bayan (later given the name Sangguniang Panlalawigan,[8] commonly abbreviated to SP) consisted of all the incumbent provincial board members (including the governor and vice-governor), plus a representative from each municipality within the province, and the provincial president of the Katipunan ng Mga Kabataang Barangay or Association of Barangay Youth.
The governor served as an ex officio member, who did not vote except only to break a tie, but had the power to veto items within, or entire, Sanggunian ordinances and resolutions.
Since 1992 SP members are elected from districts to ensure geographical representation, and the size of the province's Sanggunian was dependent on its income classification rather than population.
Ex officio members in the Sanggunian include: Reserved seats in the Sanggunian include: The Local Government Code of 1991 also provides for the election of 3 "sectoral representatives,"[1] which are supposed to come from: Although several attempts have been made in the past to provide for the election of these sectoral representatives, the lack of a more concrete enabling law upon which the manner of election of these sectoral representatives can be legally based continues to prevent this feature of local governments from being fully realized.
Each Sangguniang Panlalawigan district in the provinces of Batangas, Cavite, Cebu, Negros Occidental and Pangasinan elect two members to the Sanggunian, resulting in a total number of 16 regularly elected SP members in Cavite, 14 in Cebu, and 12 in the three other provinces.
The COMELEC likewise factors out the population of independent cities which do not elect provincial officials in determining the apportionment of the Sanggunian members among the districts.
