In commemorating the dark days of Martial Law, activists and Martial Law survivors usually gather on September 21, the infamous day it was announced by the late dictator in 1972. It would be declared ended on January 17, 1981, however days of terror would only really end until Marcos was thrown out of power by the people in the EDSA 1 uprising.
But on September 11, the birth anniversary of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., activists gathered at the monument remembering martyrs of Martial Law and activists of that period who survived but perished years later, to protest the measure to make September 11 a special non-working holiday in Ilocos Norte, the dictator’s birthplace, passed by the Lower House of Congress on September 2.
