[1][2] As part of a cult of personality, longtime President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr made gradual changes to the borders of Kalinga-Apayao over the course of his dictatorship, with the aim of making the outline of the province on a map resemble the silhouette of his own head facing towards his own native Ilocos Norte.

[10] During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of public works projects.

[20] The Kalinga-Apayao became known as a flashpoint of conflict between the Marcos dictatorship and the various indigenous peoples who lived in the area, because of the Chico River Dam Project,[21][22] which, even if only the most essential part of it were built, would have encompassed the municipalities of Tinglayan, Lubuagan, Pasil, and parts of Tabuk in Kalinga Province, as well as numerous municipalities in Mountain Province; and would have displaced about 100,000 indigenous people.

In 1977 alone, numerous Kalinga dam protesters — including tribal leaders Lumbaya Aliga Gayudan and Macli-ing Dulag,[21] and even a 12-year-old child[22] — were rounded up by these forces and incarcerated for up to two months.

[25] As a result, the Chico River Dam Project is now considered a landmark case study concerning ancestral domain issues in the Philippines.

[26][27] After Marcos was finally deposed by the civilian-led People Power Revolution in 1986, many of the activists who had joined the underground movement decided to "surface," as the new administration of Corazon Aquino released political prisoners and initiated peace talks.

[28] However, anti-left sentiment in Aquino's new cabinet, which included figures who had sided with the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, made the peace process difficult, and negotiations eventually collapsed, and the insurgency in Kalinga-Apayao persisted.

[29][30] By December 1988, 52% of the barangays in the province were controlled by the New People's Army communist insurgent group while 43% are "under its influence" according to the House of Representatives Committee on National Defense.