Lakas ng Bayan ( or People Power), abbreviated as Laban, was an

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

, later a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

, in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

formed by Senator

Ninoy Aquino Benigno "Ninoy" Simeón Aquino Jr., (, ; November 27, 1932 – August 21, 1983) was a Filipino politician who served as a senator of the Philippines (1967–1972) and governor of the province of Tarlac (1963–1967). Aquino was the husban ...

for the 1978 Interim Batasang Pambansa regional elections. The party had 21 candidates for the

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

area, all of whom lost, including Ninoy. The party's acronym (Laban) is a Filipino word meaning "fight". After Aquino's exile to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the party was managed by his brother-in-law,

Peping Cojuangco José "Peping" Sumulong Cojuangco Jr. (born September 19, 1934) is a Filipino politician, sports administrator, and businessman. He served as the 9th president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) from 2004 to 2018. He previously served a ...

. By 1984, the party had formed a coalition with the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino of

Nene Pimentel Aquilino Quilinging Pimentel Jr. (, December 11, 1933 – October 20, 2019), commonly known as Nene Pimentel, was a Filipino politician and human rights lawyer who was one of the leading political opposition leaders during the regime of Ferdin ...

, himself a Laban party member. By 1986, the two parties were completely merged to form the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan party or

PDP–Laban The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP, ) is a populist political party in the Philippines founded in 1982. It was previously known as Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP–Laban) from 1983 to 2024 as a result of a merger with L ...

. The name "Lakas ng Bayan" would eventually be reused in the

1987 Philippine legislative election The 1987 Philippine legislative election was the first general election in the Philippines since the People Power Revolution and the approval of the 1987 constitution. The election was for the restored bicameral Congress of the Philippines. All w ...

s as the name of a

coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

led by the

United Nationalist Democratic Organization The United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) was the main political multi-party electoral alliance of the traditional political opposition during the turbulent last years of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in the mid-1980s. It w ...

party of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Corazon C. Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from 1986 to 1992. She was ...

and

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

Salvador H. Laurel.

Organization

In a letter sent by Aquino to Senator

Lorenzo Tañada Lorenzo Martinez "Ka Tanny" Tañada Sr. (, August 10, 1898 – May 28, 1992) was a Filipino statesman, lawyer, human and civil rights defender, and national athlete. He is often referred to as the "Grand Old Man of Philippine Politics." He s ...

dated March 16, 1982, Aquino emphasized that LABAN was a "mere umbrella organization formed to accommodate people affiliated with various parties." For Aquino, the advantage of having the LABAN umbrella was that its members could "belong to LP, NP, CSM, Citizens,

PDP PDP may refer to: Computing and technology * Packet Data Protocol in wireless GPRS/HSDPA networks * Parallel distributed processing in Connectionism#Parallel distributed processing, connectionism * Plasma display panel * Policy Decision Point in t ...

or whatever without losing their individual party affiliations."

Noise barrage

On April 6, 1978, supporters of the party came out in protest by asking bystanders and cars to make noise in support of the opposition. However, on April 7, 1978, the first national election under martial law held for the 165-members to the

Interim Batasang Pambansa The Interim Batasang Pambansa ( English: Interim National Assembly) was the legislature of the Republic of the Philippines from its inauguration on June 12, 1978, to June 5, 1984. It served as a transitional legislative body mandated by the 1 ...

resulted in the massive victory of the administration coalition party, the “

Kilusang Bagong Lipunan The New Society Movement (, KBL), formerly named the New Society Movement of United Nationalists, Liberals, et cetera (, KBLNNL), is a Right-wing politics, right-wing political party in the Philippines. It was first formed in 1978 as an umbrel ...

ng Nagkakaisang Nacionalista, Liberal, at iba pa” or KBL. Only 15 opposition candidates in other parts of the country won. None of the members of LABAN were elected. The opposition denounced the massive vote buying and cheating in that elections. On June 12, 1978, the

was convened with Marcos as President-Prime Minister and

Querube Makalintal Querube Cortinas Makalintal (December 22, 1910 – November 8, 2002) was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 1973 to 1975 and Speaker of the Interim Batasang Pambansa from 1978 to 1984. Early life Makalintal was born ...

as Speaker. Some opposition members went into exile or were driven underground fighting against the Marcos dictatorship. Labor leader Alex Boncayao became guerrilla and was killed by government security forces in 1983.

Electoral performance

As LABAN was a coalition, the results below are combined totals of the parties under LABAN.

Parliamentary results

Congressional results

Notelist

1978 Interim Batasang Pambansa candidates

Region IV-A (Metro Manila)

Source:

References

{{Reflist Defunct political parties in the Philippines Political parties established in 1978 Political parties disestablished in 1986 1978 establishments in the Philippines 1986 disestablishments in the Philippines