Despite his party-list winning more than 260,215 votes in the 2013 elections and earning them one seat in the House of Representatives, Paduano's group was disqualified by the Commission on Elections because it "didn't have a track record." However, on October 22, 2013, the Supreme Court reversed the election body's decision saying that the said party-list "need not prove track record."[7] He was later sworn into office by then SpeakerFeliciano Belmonte as the 290th member of the House of Representatives on May 28, 2014.[8]
As the party-list's first nominee, Paduano continued to serve in the House of Representatives after his group was re-elected in the 2016[9] and 2019 elections.[10][11]
He was a co-author to House Bill No. 3713, authored by Parañaque City 2nd district representative Joy Myra Tambunting, which sought to give a fresh 25-year franchise to ABS-CBN. During the 13th hearing on the network's franchise renewal on July 9, 2020, Paduano withdrew his co-authorship of the bill after concurring with the observations of Sagip party-list representative and Deputy SpeakerRodante Marcoleta that the network "has been funneling some of its income to Big Dipper" to "avoid paying taxes".[14]
On October 19, 2020, he was unanimously elected to become the Minority Floor Leader after Abante's resignation on October 16, 2020.[3] He is the first party-list representative to hold such a position.[15]
References
^"The Pride of EB Mag". ebmagalona.gov.ph. Municipality of EB Magalona, Negros Occidental. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
^"NPC stages 'show of force' for Alvarez-Lacson". SunStar. February 3, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2020. Former Revolutionary Proletariat Army (RPA) national commander Stephen Paduano, alias "Carapali Lualhati," the number one nominee of Abang Lingkod, which is seeking a seat in Congress via the party-list route, was also present.
^Bueza, Michael (May 14, 2016). "Regions, provinces deliver votes for party-list groups". Rappler. Retrieved October 21, 2020. Newly-created Negros Island Region also went all out for the Abang Lingkod party list, which has reelectionist Representative Joseph Stephen Paduano and outgoing Negros Oriental Representative Manuel Iway as its first two nominees.
^Canet, Carla (June 28, 2019). "Albee Benitez bids farewell". SunStar Bacolod. Retrieved October 21, 2020. He administered the oath of office of his brother Congressman-elect Kiko Benitez after his SODA including that of re-elected Abang Lingkod Partylist Rep. Stephen Paduano.
^Gascon, Melvin (August 3, 2019). "Pulong, 30 PDP-Laban congressmen join NUP". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved October 21, 2020. For the minority bloc, PCFI members who landed important posts were Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano as deputy minority leader, and Magsasaka Rep. Argel Joseph Cabatbat as assistant minority leader.