[4][9] Through this decree, Marcos seized emergency powers, giving him full control over the military and authority to suppress freedom of speech and of the press, as well as other civil liberties.
[4] He also ordered the immediate arrest of political opponents and critics, including key opposition senators Jose W. Diokno, Benigno Aquino Jr., Jovito Salonga, and Raul Manglapus.
[4] This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses,[11][12] particularly against political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who resisted the dictatorship.
[14][15][page needed][16]: 16 After Marcos was ousted, government investigators discovered that martial law had also enabled the Marcoses to conceal vast stashes of unexplained wealth, which various courts[17] later determined to be "of criminal origin.
[4][19] However, Filipinos who identified as politically "centrist" and wished to avoid aligning with either the extreme left or right generally favored unarmed resistance strategies.
[1] In the wake of the 1978 Philippine parliamentary election, however, some anti-Marcos activists in exile in the United States realized that Marcos' propaganda machine and suppressive political tactics were so effective at concealing his abuses that it would be impossible to force him to restore democracy through diplomatic means alone.
"[6] Nevertheless, these anti-Marcos activists drew inspiration from the noise barrage organized by the opposition on April 6, 1978—the night before the election—which provided a rare opportunity for ordinary citizens to express their protest against the repression of the Marcos regime.
[1] Among those known to be involved in the LAFM were Business Day publisher Eduardo Olaguer, his friends Othoniel and Ester Paredes Jimenez, Asia Institute of Management professor Gaston Ortigas, and Filipino-American businessman Ben Lim—all of whom were later tried by the Marcos regime for their alleged membership in the group.
[20] Some individuals said to have supported the group financially include Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation Chairman Alfonso Yuchengco, industrialists Vicente Puyat and J. Amado Araneta, and former Senator Oscar Ledesma.
They effectively disproved Marcos' claims of broad national support in the Philippines and put pressure on the regime to finally end martial law.
[1] Mindful of potential backlash from arresting respected figures, the Marcos regime chose not to file charges against a Jesuit priest and various businessmen implicated by the documents.