# 1978 Philippine parliamentary election

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.

## 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".

## Electoral system

The Batasang Pambansa has not more than 200 members, of which there are 190 seats for this election, of which 166 are elected via multi-member districts via plurality block vote, similar to the Philippine Senate elections in the past. Each region corresponds to a parliamentary district, with the number of seats dependent on the region's population.
An additional 14 members are reserved for sectoral seats. There are three sectors: agricultural labor, industrial labor, and youth, each having 1 seat each from Visayas and Mindanao, 2 seats for Luzon, and the youth sector having an additional 2 seats elected at-large. The seats are determined by electoral college within each sector, with the electoral colleges voting via first-past-the-post system.
Finally, the president may choose members of the Cabinet to be members.

## Reappropriation
### Parliamentary districts

Representation was via multi-member districts composed of regions, with the number of seats determined by population. The old congressional districts were redistricted into parliamentary districts of the region the provinces and cities are now included on.
The districts were determined by Presidential Decree No. 1296, otherwise known as the "1978 Election Code", specifically its Article II.
| District | Seats | Old congressional districts |
| Region I | 12 | Benguet's at-large, Ilocos Norte's 1st and 2nd, Ilocos Sur's 1st and 2nd, La Union's 1st and 2nd, Mountain Province's at-large, Pangasinan's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th |
| Region II | 7 | Batanes's at-large, Cagayan's 1st and 2nd, Ifugao's at-large, Isabela's at-large, Kalinga-Apayao's at-large, Nueva Vizcaya's at-large, Quirino's at-large |
| Region III | 16 | Bataan's at-large, Bulacan's 1st and 2nd, Nueva Ecija's 1st and 2nd, Pampanga's 1st and 2nd, Zambales's at-large |
| Region IV | 19 | Manila's 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, Rizal's 1st, part of Rizal's 2nd |
| Region IV–A | 20 | Batangas's 1st, 2nd and 3rd, Cavite's at-large, Laguna's 1st and 2nd, Marinduque's at-large, Occidental Mindoro's at-large, Oriental Mindoro's at-large, Palawan's at-large, Quezon's 1st and 2nd, part of Rizal's 2nd, Romblon's at-large |
| Region V | 12 | Albay's 1st, 2nd and 3rd, Camarines Norte's at-large, Camarines Sur's 1st and 2nd, Catanduanes's at-large, Masbate's at-large. Sorsogon's 1st and 2nd |
| Region VI | 16 | Aklan's at-large, Antique's at-large, Capiz's 1st and 2nd, Iloilo's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, Negros Occidental's 1st, 2nd and 3rd |
| Region VII | 13 | Bohol's 1st, 2nd and 3rd, Cebu's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, Negros Oriental's 1st and 2nd |
| Region VIII | 10 | Eastern Samar's at-large, Leyte's 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, Northern Samar's at-large, Samar's at-large, Southern Leyte's at-large |
| Region IX | 8 | Sulu's at-large, Zamboanga del Norte's at-large, Zamboanga del Sur's at-large |
| Region X | 9 | Agusan del Norte's at-large, Agusan del Sur's at-large, Bukidnon's at-large, Camiguin's at-large, MIsamis Occidental's at-large, MIsamis Oriental's at-large, Surigao del Norte's at-large |
| Region XI | 10 | Davao del Norte's at-large, Davao del Sur's at-large, Davao Oriental's at-large, South Cotabato's at-large, Surigao del Sur's at-large |
| Region XII | 8 | Cotabato's at-large, Lanao del Norte's at-large, Lanao del Sur's at-large |
| Total | 160 | |

### Sectoral representation

An innovation of the 1973 constitution is sectoral representation, of which three sectors are to be represented.
| Sector | Seats | Divisions |
| Agricultural labor | 4 | Luzon (2 seats), Visayas, Mindanao |
| Industrial labor | 4 | Luzon (2 seats), Visayas, Mindanao |
| Youth | 6 | At-large (2 seats), Luzon (2 seats), Visayas, Mindanao |
| Total | 14 | |

## Campaign
### Lakas ng Bayan

In 1978, former Senators Gerry Roxas and Jovito Salonga opted for the opposition Liberal Party boycott the elections. Having initially agreed to the boycott due to "the government already [having] the forces in its command and the entire machinery of politics which [they] do not have", former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. later changed his mind and opted to take part in the elections to have the chance to "talk to the people," having been imprisoned for almost six (6) years.
Aquino was then able to field twenty other candidates for the seats in Region IV-A (Metro Manila) under a big tent political party, dubbed Lakas ng Bayan ("People's Power"). The party's acronym was "LABAN" ("fight" in Tagalog).
On March 10, 1978, he was entitled to one television interview on GTV's Face the Nation (hosted by Ronnie Nathanielsz) in his prison at Fort Bonifacio, and proved to a startled and impressed populace that imprisonment had neither dulled his rapier-like tongue nor dampened his fighting spirit. According to Aquino, he wanted to give the people a vehicle to express their frustration or their anger "if there is any," while recognizing that should all twenty-one opposition candidates win, as they are a still minority in the Batasan, "the only job in this particular combat now is fiscalization... Mr. Marcos will profound the thesis of government, we will supply the antithesis so that in the clash of ideas, the people will have the synthesis."
On April 6, 1978, the eve of elections, supporters of the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN) 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

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 | Sectoral seats | | | 14 |
| Appointed seats | Appointed seats | | | 10 |
| Total | Total | 207,894,699 | 100.00 | 190 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 21,464,213 | 85.52 | |
| Source: Nohlen, Grotz, Hartmann, Graham and Santos and Teehankee |||||
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.

## 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. 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."