The opening of the 19th Congress on Monday, July 25 will be eventful not only because of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the afternoon; the day will also feature the reorganization of both chambers of Congress.

This only happens during the first session day of the new Congress, when the sitting lawmakers are fresh out of the elections.

These two chambers, which make up the Philippine legislative system, are the House of Representatives and the Senate. The former has 315 members, while the latter has 24 members.

The two chambers will convene separately for their first session of the 19th Congress on Monday at 10 a.m.

From there, the House members or congresmen will elect their Speaker of the House, while the Senators will elect their Senate President. This will pave the way for the designation of committee chairmanships and committee members in the succeeding session dates.

Candidates for the two positions will be elected on their respective plenary floors, afterwhich the members will express their choice via nominal voting.

As of this posting, Leyte 1st district Rep. Martin Romualdez is believed to have a lock on the position of speaker. Romualdez, chairman of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), was the majority leader during the previous 18th Congress.

As for the Senate presidency, the acting Senate President pro tempore, Senator Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri, is expected to get the nod of his colleagues. He is an independent.

But what about the minority bloc leaders of the two chambers? If both the House and Senate follow tradition, then determining the minority leadership will be easy.

Traditionally, the person who loses the speakership vote will automatically become the House minority leader, while the Senate minority leader will be the one who ends up short in the Senarte presidency vote.

The congressmen who voted for the eventual House minority leader will automatically comprise the House minority bloc, while the senators who voted for the eventual Senate minority leader will make up the Senate minority bloc.

Conversely, the House majority bloc will be composed of those who voted for the winning House Speaker, while the Senate majority bloc will be represented by those who voted for the elected Senate President.

However, this doesn't necessarily limit the solons from either forming or joining just two factions (majority and minority). This is especially true in the House, which is the bigger chamber of the two in terms of its membership.

There have been instances in the past when a group of congressmen have comprised a so-called independent or "authentic" minority, making them the third bloc in the House.

Suffice it to say that by 4 p.m. Monday, or when Marcos delivers his first ever SONA before a joint session of the House and Senate at Batasang Pambansa Complex, we would already know where most of the solons stand.