[9][10] Marcos eventually suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in 1971,[8] and then finally placed the entire Philippine archipelago under Martial Law in September 1972.
However, Marcos' ambition to be the first Philippine postwar president to be elected led to his use of extreme measures, including massive borrowing to fund government projects during the 1969 presidential campaign.
They joined forces and established coalitions with reformists and radical factions of working classes and even participated in 76 demonstrations alongside farmers and workers.
[5][6] The "Moderates", which included church groups, civil libertarians, and mainstream nationalists, were those who wanted to create change through political reforms.
[5] The "radicals", including a number of labor and student groups associated with the National Democracy movement, wanted broader, more systemic political reforms.
[15] During the time when the Marxist Leninist Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) was the dominant communist formation in the Philippines, its mostly dismissed students as "unneeded."
[18] Marcos and his wife Imelda were eventually able to escape to the presidential limousine, leaving the Manila Police District (MPD) and elements of the Philippine Constabulary Metropolitan Command (METROCOM) to disperse the crowd.
Numerous student activists were arrested, but those who got away were radicalized – convinced that there was no other way to bring about social change but to join the armed resistance against the Marcos administration.
[27][28] Marcos' initial suspension of the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus in 1971 after the Plaza Miranda Bombing involved the arrest of both moderate and radical activists, compelling many of them to go into hiding.
Although a few of those who went into hiding did so individually, many felt compelled to join the armed resistance organized by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People's Army.
[7] Martial Law under Ferdinand Marcos saw the extensive use of military abuse to suppress of dissent, and captured activists often became the subject of the dictatorship's many human rights violations.
[6] Journalist Gregg Jones writes that "Martial law left the once-formidable legal protest movement in disarray, its leaders in hiding or in prison, its activists driven into the underground or cowering in fear.
[34] It was through such groups that news of corruption, military abuse, and human rights violations was able to reach the international community, which put pressure on Marcos to enact reforms.
When the 150 soldiers who conducted the raid found that the communist leader they were looking for was not at the seminary, they arrested 21 leaders of a youth group called Student Catholic Action (SCA), who were at the seminary to attend a workshop,[29][38] as well as the head of the Jesuit order in the Philippines at the time, Benigno "Benny" Mayo, and a priest, Jose Blanco, whom they falsely accused of being the "secretary general of an allegedly anti-government organization.
[46] Several activists from the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), most notably Edgardo Gil "Edjop" Jopson, founder of the single biggest student union at the time, National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and Ferdidand "Ferdie" Arceo, founder of Ligang Demokratiko ng Ateneo (LDA), played vital roles in campaigning to overthrow the dictatorship.
When delegates returned to Manila, they led a huge rally in front of congress; all while President Marcos was delivering his State of the Nation Address (SONA).
[15] Under Edjop's two-term tenure, the National Union became participative in socio-political issues amidst the First Quarter Storm that brought forth the Second Propaganda Movement.
Included in this was their call for the "Filipinization of education" by ousting non-Filipino presidents of schools, colleges, and universities, and appointing qualified Filipinos to head the institutions in their place.
[52] On Friday afternoon of December 6, 1968, more than 600 students held a four-hour demonstration to show their support for Brother Edward Becker FSC who was dismissed by the college.
Arthur Aguilar, Student Council chairman, eventually managed to steer the dialogue away from the Becker case, in a meeting with Brother H. Gabriel Connon FSC and Dr. Waldo Perfecto, academic vice-president, on December 8, 1968, during the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
[54] The significance Escribano's work would later be recognized by the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which honors the martyrs and heroes that fought to restore democracy during the regime.
Three days later, the Hilao family was informed that Liliosa had died of suicide, but her body showed signs of severe torture, leading her to be acknowledged as one of the early victims of the human rights abuses of the Marcos dictatorship.
It began with a typical protest, where the UM Student Council denounced tuition and miscellaneous fee increases and the slow progress of improvements to school facilities.
[63] It comes as no surprise, then, that in the 1960s and 1970s, the university played an active role in conducting demonstrations, marches, and rallies to raise awareness of sectoral struggles and to campaign against the Marcos dictatorship and land reform policy, among others.
[64] Student activists from the university stirred up the masses of youth and the working class to conduct protest actions, from the March 1961 demonstration of 5,000 UP student demonstrators that scuttled the anti-communist witch-hunt of the Committee on Anti-Filipino Activities (CAFA) to the 1970 First Quarter Storm that rocked the National Capital Region with almost weekly marches and rallies of 50,000 to 100,000 people campaigning against the administration.
[65] When martial law was declared in September 1972, Marcos cracked down on any form of criticism or activism, leading to the arrest, torture and/or killing of numerous UP Los Baños students and faculty members.
[72] Those who went missing ("desaparecidos"), meanwhile, included Tish Ladlad, Cristina Catalla, Gerardo "Gerry" Faustino, Rizalina Ilagan, Ramon Jasul, and Jessica Sales.
Some of the more prominent examples of high school students who became activists were Alexander Belone II,[73] Francis Sontillano, Lorenzo "Nik" Lansang, Marcelino Villanueva, Nimfa "Nona" B. del Rosario, Pastor Mesina, Rodelo "Delo" Manaog, and Ronald Jan Quimpo, all of whom would later be honored by having their names inscribed at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani.