In December 1945, the House Insular Affairs Committee of the US Congress approved the joint resolution, setting the election date by April 23, 1946.

[17] Prompted by this congressional action, President Sergio Osmeña called the Philippine Congress to a three-day special session.

[18][19][20] On January 22, 1946, former Rizal congressman and Senator Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez was nominated as Osmeña's running mate for vice president, in a convention held at Ciro's Club in Manila.

[21] In 1949 presidential elections, Nacionalista fielded former "collaborator" and political veteran Jose P. Laurel, with former Senator and Supreme Court Associate Justice Manuel Briones as his running-mate.

Former general and future diplomat Carlos P. Romulo and Marvin M. Gray considered 1949 edition as the dirtiest election in Philippine electoral history.

He then proposed to endorse then-Secretary of National Defense Ramon Magsaysay, whose successful anti-insurgency and anti-communist initiatives had strained his relations with President Quirino and the Liberal Party.

Manunggal riding a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, Carlos Garcia assumed the presidency for the last months of Magsaysay's unfinished term.

He won a re-election in 1957, but for the first time in electoral history of the Philippines, Garcia have a vice president did not have the same party or his opponent's running-mate as Garcia's running mate, Jose P. Laurel's son and former House Speaker Pepito Laurel defeated by Kapampangan Senator Diosdado Macapagal.

Also, Senator Gil Puyat, Garcia's running-mate lost to Emmanuel Pelaez, and behind of Serging Osmeña, the son of the party's founder.

In April 1964, Senate President Ferdinand Marcos resigned from the Liberal Party, and joined Nacionalista ship.

He cited President Macapagal's unfulfilled promise of not running for re-election as the main reason of leaving his former party.

[32][33] With selecting Quirino's former Vice President Fernando Lopez as his running mate, Marcos defeated Macapagal in a three-way 1965 elections.

[35] Ramon Magsaysay's brother Genaro was recruited by Liberal from Nacionalista to be Serging Osmeña's running mate.

But Marcos's second term was characterized by social unrest, beginning with the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, which was already underway during the second inauguration.

In 1971, Marcos' State of the Nation Address, there is a sign on his speech that if the country's condition worse, it is time to declare Martial Law.So I come to speak of a society that is sick, so sick that it must either be cured and cured now or buried in a deluge of reforms.Marcos also suspended the writ of habeas corpus by virtue of Proclamation No.

[46] For the incomning 1978 parliamentary elections, some Nacionalista members joined the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, a regime-controlled coalition, akin to the Japanese occupation's KALIBAPI.

[47] With the lifing of Martial Law by Proclamation 2045, on January 17, 1981,[48] Jose Roy, was asked by Marcos to find an opponent against him, as Lakas ng Bayan and United Nationalist Democratic Organization declared a boycott on the election, as the opposition, as early as April.

[49] The Nacionalista Party chose former Defense Secretary and Bulacan governor Alejo Santos as their standard bearer.

Gringo Honasan and backed by former Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile had plotted a coup d'état to seize Malacañang and kill Marcos and his family.

[59] Years later, in the late 1980s, the party was revived under the leadership of Laurel, who resigned as Secretary of Foreign affairs due to conflict with President Cory Aquino.

But after the party nominated Laurel, a pro-Danding Cojuangco/Marcos faction broke away and established the Nationalist People's Coalition by Amang Rodriguez's son Isidro in 1991.

[63] The party almost return in hibernation for the next years, with Valenzuela congressman Antonio Serapio as its only member in the both chambers of congress.

[64] But even though Adaza lost, in the House of Representatives, Nacionalista joined de Venecia's Sunshine Coalition.

At first, they have a tight race, with the popularity of Manny Villar's jingle Naging Mahirap (or Nakaligo ka na ba sa Dagat ng Basura),[73][74] is which prompted to creation of internet and Facebook memes about it.

[79] Villar organized the Senate slate of his ticket, composed of Pia Cayetano, Bongbong Marcos (who joined Nacionalista with his family due to dispute with KBL members), Susan Ople, former Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin, former news reporter and congressman Gilbert Remulla, former military captain Ramon Mitra III, and Adel Tamano.

[90] In 2016, Alan Peter Cayetano, Bongbong Marcos and Antonio Trillanes originally ambitioned to get Nacionalista's nomination for presidency.

[91] Nacionalista fielded re-electionist Cynthia Villar, and Bongbong's older sister Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos to be senatorial candidates, under the Hugpong ng Pagbabago.

[96][97] In late 2021, Bongbong Marcos leave Nacionalista and joined Partido Federal ng Pilipinas to start his presidential bid.