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179 (of the 189) seats in the Interim Batasang Pambansa 90 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 leading opposition party, the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN), ran twenty-one candidates for the Metro Manila area. Their leading candidate was the jailed opposition leader Ninoy Aquino. 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.
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".
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.
President Marcos created the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (New Society Movement) as his political vehicle for the elections.
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| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
| Kilusang Bagong Lipunan | 147,885,493 | 71.13 | 137 | |
| Lakas ng Bayan | 21,541,600 | 10.36 | 0 | |
| Pusyon Bisaya | 9,495,416 | 4.57 | 13 | |
| Bagong Lipunan-Kilusan ng Nagkakaisang Nacionalista, Liberal | 7,981,060 | 3.84 | 14 | |
| Mindanao Alliance | 6,685,224 | 3.22 | 1 | |
| Bicol Saro | 2,105,599 | 1.01 | 0 | |
| Young Philippines | 1,471,381 | 0.71 | 0 | |
| Concerned Citizens' Aggrupation | 1,374,549 | 0.66 | 0 | |
| Nacionalista Party | 688,130 | 0.33 | 0 | |
| Emancipated Scientists | 392,819 | 0.19 | 0 | |
| Partido ng Bagong Pilipino | 140,365 | 0.07 | 0 | |
| Democratic Party | 112,140 | 0.05 | 0 | |
| Philippine Labor Party | 94,287 | 0.05 | 0 | |
| Confederation of Ilocano Associations | 81,594 | 0.04 | 0 | |
| Consumers Party | 69,216 | 0.03 | 0 | |
| Citizens Union Progress Party | 44,893 | 0.02 | 0 | |
| Youth Democratic Movement | 40,571 | 0.02 | 0 | |
| Sovereign Citizens Party | 18,814 | 0.01 | 0 | |
| Partido Sambayanang Pilipino | 15,050 | 0.01 | 0 | |
| Lapiang Bagong Silang | 11,457 | 0.01 | 0 | |
| Bagong Anyo ng Buhay | 11,190 | 0.01 | 0 | |
| Independent | 7,633,851 | 3.67 | 1 | |
| Sectoral seats | 14 | |||
| Appointed seats | 10 | |||
| Total | 207,894,699 | 100.00 | 190 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 21,464,213 | 85.52 | ||
| Source: Nohlen, Grotz, Hartmann, Graham and Santos[1] and Teehankee[2] | ||||
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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]
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]
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| General elections |
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| Presidential elections |
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| Senate elections |
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| House elections |
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| Constitutional conventions |
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| Local elections |
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| Barangay elections |
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| Referendums |
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