The leading opposition party, the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN), ran twenty-one candidates for the Metro Manila area.

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").

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.

[3] President Marcos created the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (New Society Movement) as his political vehicle for the elections.

[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.