It was first formed in 1978 as an umbrella coalition of parties supporting then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos for the Interim Batasang Pambansa (the unicameral parliament) and was his political vehicle during his 20-year regime.

[9] Since 1986, the KBL has contested in most of the national and local elections in the Philippines, but retained a single seat in the House of Representatives in Ilocos Norte, which was held by former First Lady Imelda Marcos until 2019.

The ideological roots of the "Bagong Lipunan" ("new society") concept can be traced to one Marcos' rationalizations for the declaration of Martial Law in September 23, 1972.

[10]: "29" [11][12] Six years after the declaration of Martial Law, Marcos adopted this rhetoric and used the phrase as the name of the umbrella coalition of administration parties running in the 1978 Philippine parliamentary election.

Marcos' party machinery quickly began to break into numerous factions, the most successful of which were Blas Ople's Partido Nacionalista ng Pilipinas, a reorganized Nacionalista Party led by Rafael Palmares and Renato Cayetano after the death of Senator Jose Roy, and a reorganized Kilusang Bagong Lipunan led by Nicanor Yñiguez.