In 1972, while Hilao-Enriquez was a student, Ferdinand Marcos, the
President of the Philippines announced that he had placed the country under martial law in response to a "communist threat" and a "sectarian rebellion" posed by the
Communist Party of the Philippines and the
Muslim Independence Movement, respectively. Hilao-Enriquez subsequently joined the Kamuning chapter of Kabataang Makabayan, a communist youth organisation that had been forced underground by Marcos' declaration of martial law; she later dropped out of university in order to become a full-time community organiser. Several of Hilao-Enriquez's siblings were vocal critics of martial law, including her sister Liliosa, who was a student journalist at the
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and had criticised Marcos' measures in student newspapers.
1973 killing of Liliosa Hilao On 4 April 1973, officers from the
Philippine Constabulary raided the Hilao family home in Manila without a warrant. Hilao-Enriquez, who was at home at the time, was able to escape by jumping over a wall while the officer supervising her fell asleep. She warned her sisters about the officers' presence at the home, but Liliosa opted to return home that evening; Hilao-Enriquez stated that this was due to her concerns for their mother's health. Liliosa was subsequently arrested, and on 7 April the family were informed that she had died of cardio-respiratory arrest. Liliosa is widely considered to have been the first woman and the first activist to die in detention during the martial law period, with it assumed that she died as a result of torture while in custody.
1974 arrest and detention Following Liliosa's death, Hilao-Enriquez and her husband, Romy Enriquez, continued to work for Kabataang Makabayan in rural areas of the Philippines. On 7 October 1974, the couple were arrested and detained in
Pampanga in
Central Luzon, where they were tortured and detained; several other of Hilao-Enriquez's family members, including her brother and sister-in-law, were also arrested. Hilao-Enriquez was released on 6 July 1976. She subsequently joined Kapisinan para sa Pagpapalaya at Amnestiya ng mga Detenidong Pulitikal sa Pilipinas in order to call for the release of her husband from custody. In 1995, Hilao-Enriquez co-founded
Karapatan, a human rights organisation that documented human rights abuses by the Philippines government. Hilao-Enriquez became Karapatan's chairperson in 2009, and contributed to reports on human rights abuses during the presidencies of
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and
Rodrigo Duterte. In 2007, Hilao-Enriquez spoke on extrajudicial police killings before the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Committee of the
United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. That same year, she petitioned the
United Nations Human Rights Council to direct the Philippine government to end extrajudicial killings, citing 60 cases of killings reported to Karapatan between January and June 2007. In 2007, Hilao-Enriquez became a member of the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines, an alliance of faith and human rights groups. She was nominated by the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines to act as an independent observer of peace talks in
Oslo. == Death ==