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1978 Philippine parliamentary election
1st parliamentary elections in the Philippines From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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Reappropriation
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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.
Sectoral representation
An innovation of the 1973 constitution is sectoral representation, of which three sectors are to be represented.
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Campaign
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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.[1]
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.[2] 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."[1]
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.[3]
Kilusang Bagong Lipunan
President Marcos created the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (New Society Movement) as his political vehicle for the elections.
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Results
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District elections
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.[6]
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Aftermath
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.[7] 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."[7]
During a protest rally against the election results on April 9 in Manila, several opposition leaders were arrested: Laban campaign manager Lorenzo Tañada, Laban candidates Teofisto Guingona Jr., Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Soc Rodrigo (arrested with his son Francisco Jr.), and Ernesto Rondon, Laban counsel Joker Arroyo, and Jesuit priest Romeo Intengan.[8][9] President Marcos later ordered them released from police custody a month later.[9]
April 6 Liberation Movement
An anti-Marcos anti-communist guerrilla group called the April 6 Liberation Movement, named after the date of the pre-election noise barrage, would later be formed in 1980.[10] It was deemed a terrorist group for engaging in numerous bombings that year.[10]
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See also
References
Further reading
External links
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