1978 Philippine parliamentary election
April 7 and 27, 1978
179 (of the 189) seats in the Interim Batasang Pambansa
90 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Ferdinand Marcos Benigno Aquino Jr. Hilario Davide Jr.
Party KBL LABAN Pusyon Bisaya
Leader's seat none Region IV-A (lost) Region VII
Last election new party new party new party
Seats won 150 0 13
Seat change Increase 150 Steady Increase 13
Popular vote 147,885,493 21,541,600 9,495,416
Percentage 71.13% 10.36% 4.57%
Prime Minister-designate

Ferdinand Marcos
KBL

A parliamentary election was held in the Philippines on April 7, 1978, for the election of the 165 regional representatives to the Interim Batasang Pambansa (the nation's first parliament). The elections were participated in by the leading opposition party, the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN), which had twenty-one candidates for the Metro Manila area while the leading candidate was the jailed opposition leader Ninoy Aquino, and the Marcos regime's party known as the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), which was led by the then-First Lady Imelda Marcos. Ninoy was allowed to run by his fellow partymates under the Liberal Party, who boycotted the election and was not allowed to campaign, and so his family campaigned for him. The night before the election on April 6, 1978, a noise barrage was organized by the supporters of (LABAN) which occurred up to dawn.

These elections were followed by the sectoral election on April 27, which elected additional 14 representatives. Another 10 representatives were appointed, bringing up the total number of representatives to 189.

Background

The Philippines had been under martial law since 1972, with incumbent president Ferdinand Marcos ruling by decree. Prior to this, the Constitution of the Philippines was being drafted by the Constitutional Convention, whose delegates were elected in 1970. The Constitutional Convention approved the final draft of the constitution, which consisted of the abolition of the Philippine Congress and its replacement with an interim National Assembly consisting of the President, the Vice-President, the President of the Constitutional Convention, and members of the Senate and the House of Representatives in November 1972 and was later ratified on January 17, 1973, through so-called "citizens' assemblies". The Constitution was amended twice, on July 27–28, 1973 and February 27–28, 1975. The Constitution was amended once again on October 16–17, 1976 with the passage of "Amendment No. 6", which changed the name of the Interim National Assembly into the "Interim Batasang Pambansa", more commonly as the "Batasan".

Campaign

Lakas ng Bayan

In 1978, from his prison cell, Aquino was allowed to take part in the elections. Although his friends, former Senators Gerry Roxas and Jovito Salonga, preferred to boycott the elections, Aquino urged his supporters to field 21 candidates in Metro Manila. Thus, his political party, dubbed Lakas ng Bayan ("People's Power"), was born. The party's acronym was "LABAN" ("fight" in Tagalog). He was entitled to one television interview on GTV's Face the Nation (hosted by Ronnie Nathanielsz), and proved to a startled and impressed populace that imprisonment had neither dulled his rapier-like tongue nor dampened his fighting spirit. Foreign correspondents and diplomats asked what would happen to the LABAN ticket. People agreed with him that his party would win overwhelmingly in an honest election. On April 6, 1978, supporters of the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN), the opposition party headed by former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. who was still in jail and twenty other candidates contesting the Region IV-A (Metro Manila) seats, came out in protest by asking bystanders and cars to make noise in support the opposition.

Kilusang Bagong Lipunan

President Marcos created the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (New Society Movement) as his political vehicle for the elections.

Results

District elections

PartyVotes%Seats
Kilusang Bagong Lipunan147,885,49371.13137
Lakas ng Bayan21,541,60010.360
Pusyon Bisaya9,495,4164.5713
Bagong Lipunan-Kilusan ng Nagkakaisang Nacionalista, Liberal7,981,0603.8414
Mindanao Alliance6,685,2243.221
Bicol Saro2,105,5991.010
Young Philippines1,471,3810.710
Concerned Citizens' Aggrupation1,374,5490.660
Nacionalista Party688,1300.330
Emancipated Scientists392,8190.190
Partido ng Bagong Pilipino140,3650.070
Democratic Party112,1400.050
Philippine Labor Party94,2870.050
Confederation of Ilocano Associations81,5940.040
Consumers Party69,2160.030
Citizens Union Progress Party44,8930.020
Youth Democratic Movement40,5710.020
Sovereign Citizens Party18,8140.010
Partido Sambayanang Pilipino15,0500.010
Lapiang Bagong Silang11,4570.010
Bagong Anyo ng Buhay11,1900.010
Independent7,633,8513.671
Sectoral seats14
Appointed seats10
Total207,894,699100.00190
Registered voters/turnout21,464,21385.52
Source: Nohlen, Grotz, Hartmann, Graham and Santos[1] and Teehankee[2]
Vote share
KBL
 
 71.13%
LABAN
 
 10.36%
PB
 
 4.57%
BLKNNL
 
 3.84%
MA
 
 3.22%
Others
 
 6.88%
District seats
KBL
 
 82.53%
LABAN
 
 0.00%
PB
 
 7.83%
BLKNNL
 
 8.43%
MA
 
 0.60%
Others
 
 0.60%

Sectoral election

A separate election was held for the 14 members of the Batasang Pambansa's sectoral representatives.

This was via electoral college, with youth, industrial labor and agricultural labor as the three sectors. Each sector shall elect among themselves an electoral council, the members coming from provinces and cities. Each electoral council elected two members from Luzon, and a member each from Visayas and Mindanao, with two additional seats from the youth sector elected at-large, for a total of 14 seats.[3]

Allegations of fraud

Marcos said that fraud was committed by "both sides" during the elections, but not on a scale that would have affected the results.[4] Jovito Salonga disagreed with the assessment and said that he did not observe people celebrating KBL’s victory because they felt "like they’ve been cheated."[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen; Florian Grotz; Christof Hartmann; Graham Hassall; Soliman M. Santos (November 15, 2001).
    Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook: Volume II: South East Asia, East Asia, and the South Pacific    . ISBN 9780199249596.
  2. ↑ Julio Teehankee. "Electoral Politics in the Philippines" (PDF). quezon.ph.
  3. ↑ "Presidential Decree No. 1296, s. 1978 | GOVPH". Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Miguel Paolo, Reyes (November 27, 2020). "The Marcoses: A history of rejecting election defeats". VERA Files. Retrieved September 22, 2022.

Further reading

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