A very often unspoken part of Philippine and Filipino American history is that of the era of martial law in the Philippines. Many people born in the United States understand little about the time period immediately before, during, and immediately following martial law.
One of the events immediately before martial law is the First Quarter Storm, an anti-U.S. and anti-Marcos movement that started in the Philippines on January 26, 1970. It involved a series of demonstrations, protests, and and marches against the government from January to March 1970, two years before the Philippines was placed under martial law.
On January 26, 1970, President Ferdinand Marcos gave his State of the Nation address. Tens of thousands protested, gathering to be symbols of what the nation was going really through, not to be defined in a single speech. On January 30 and 31, 1970, another protest occurred where four protestors were killed, hundreds injured, and hundreds arrested in what is now known as the Battle of Mendiola. Until March, violent confrontations continued to break out between protestors and state police.
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