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 Philippines portal |
A parliamentary election was held on May 14, 1984, in thePhilippines. Like past elections, charges of bribery, protests and complaints on irregularities marred the elections. FormerManila Times publisherChino Roces and former senator and opposition leaderJose W. Diokno supported the campaign boycotting the election. TheNational Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) helped mitigate electoral fraud during the election.
The rulingKilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) retained a majority in parliament, but the oppositionUnited Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) made massive gains, winning 60 seats and reducing the KBL's majority to 114 compared to the 150 they had in1978. This was the first Philippine election to happen after the end of the controversialmartial law period from 1972 to 1981.
The opposition's success was due in most part to the public fallout after theassassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. on August 21, 1983. His murder exposed an increasingly incapable administration under PresidentFerdinand Marcos, exposing serious corruption and nepotism within, including from Marcos' wifeImelda, as well as exposing Marcos' worsening health at that time. As a result of Aquino's assassination and subsequent investigation, the political opposition became more widespread and united, rallying behind his widowCorazon Aquino. The economy was also in crisis with severe poverty and debt dragging down growth, which was attributed to theReagan administration's decision to distance itself from Marcos following Aquino's death, resulting in fewer investments that boosted the regime earlier before.
The gains from UNIDO, among other factors would force Marcos to call the for the1986 snap presidential election, which would ultimately see himousted following accusations of fraud, leading to Corazon Aquino becoming president.
The Batasang Pambansa has not more than 200 members, of which 183 are elected via multi-member districts viaplurality block vote, similar to thePhilippine Senate elections in the past. Eachprovince orcity corresponds to a parliamentary district, with the number of seats dependent on the province's or city's population, with each province guaranteed at least 1 seat..
An additional 14 members arereserved forsectoral seats. There are three sectors: agricultural labor, industrial labor, and youth, each having 1 seat each fromVisayas andMindanao, 2 seats forLuzon, and the youth sector having an additional 2 seats electedat-large. The seats are determined by electoral college within each sector, with the electoral colleges voting viafirst-past-the-post system.
Finally, the president may choose members of the Cabinet to be members.
After the assassination of opposition leader SenatorBenigno Aquino Jr. in 1983, the opposition ran for theRegular Batasang Pambansa under theUnited Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) and thePartido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP–Laban) against the rulingKilusang Bagong Lipunan ofFerdinand Marcos.
Reapportionment (redistricting) is carried out by theBatasang Pambansa (transl. National Legislature). Voting forInterim Batasang Pambansa in1978 was viamulti-member districts based on the then newly establishedregions, viaplurality block voting.
In January 1984,a plebiscite asked the voters to revert the Batasang Pambansa's representation viaprovinces andcities, as last seen in 1972. The voters approved the proposal, and the Interim Batasang Pambansa passed Batas Pambansa Bilang (transl. National Law No.) 697 reinstituting representation by province and city. This means the regional at-large districts have been divided as follows:
A total of 17 new seats were disputed.
The number of sectoral representatives were not changed.
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| Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– | |
| Kilusang Bagong Lipunan | 27,237,315 | 46.01 | −25.12 | 110 | −40 | |
| United Nationalist Democratic Organization | 20,352,815 | 34.38 | New | 35 | New | |
| Nacionalista Party | 2,084,331 | 3.52 | +3.19 | 2 | 0 | |
| Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (independent) | 1,596,900 | 2.70 | New | 4 | +4 | |
| PDP–Laban | 1,344,607 | 2.27 | New | 6 | +6 | |
| Partido Panaghiusa | 471,551 | 0.80 | New | 1 | +1 | |
| Social Democratic Party | 349,891 | 0.59 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Mindanao Alliance | 202,945 | 0.34 | −2.88 | 1 | 0 | |
| Pusyon Bisaya | 161,944 | 0.27 | -4.30 | 0 | −13 | |
| United Nationalist Democratic Organization (independent) | 140,539 | 0.24 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Liberal Party | 127,243 | 0.21 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Pundok Sugboanon (independent) | 107,745 | 0.18 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Nacionalista Party (independent) | 102,776 | 0.17 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Konsensiya ng Bayan | 94,592 | 0.16 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Federal Party of the Philippines | 91,082 | 0.15 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Bicol Saro | 83,656 | 0.14 | -0.87 | 0 | 0 | |
| Lapiang Manggagawa | 69,007 | 0.12 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Concerned Citizens' Aggrupation | 41,735 | 0.07 | -0.59 | 1 | +1 | |
| Other parties | 191,683 | 0.32 | New | 0 | 0 | |
| Independent | 4,352,328 | 7.35 | +3.68 | 6 | +5 | |
| Coalitions | 17 | +17 | ||||
| Sectoral seats | 14 | 0 | ||||
| Appointed seats | 3 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 59,204,685 | 100.00 | – | 200 | +10 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 24,824,934 | 83.74 | ||||
| Source: Teehankee,[1] COMELEC[2] | ||||||
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