section_path: History/The Marcos administration/Before Martial Law
section_name: Before Martial Law
paragraph_text: Before Martial Law
  
  When Ferdinand Marcos ' economic policy of using foreign loans to fund government projects during his second term resulted in the 1969 balance of payments crisis, students from Quezon City-based universities, notably the University of the Philippines Diliman and Ateneo de Manila University were among the first to call for change, ranging from moderate policy reforms to radical changes in form of government.
  
  Students from these Quezon City schools, representing a spectrum of positions, were thus at the front lines of the major protests of the first three months of 1970 – what would later be called the " First Quarter Storm." A year later in 1971, this was followed up by the Diliman Commune, in which the students, faculty, and residents of UP Diliman initially planned to protest an impending oil price hike, but because of violent attempts to disperse them, also later demanded that Marcos' military pledge not to assault the campus in the future.