After the declaration of
martial law in September 1972, Intengan saw that President Marcos was not fulfilling the reformist agenda which he claimed as the justification of martial law. Intengan stood with the other leaders of the PDSP and led the party to oppose the Marcos dictatorship in May 1973. The PDSP worked underground to expand and consolidate its ranks. Its cadres organized workers, farmers, the urban poor and youth and students. Party branches in Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and Davao was established. They eventually formed a network of allies among the various groups and persons opposing the Marcos regime.
Gathering of the opposition In 1976, the late Jesuit priests
Horacio de la Costa and Antonio Olaguer, introduced the PDSP to some of the leaders of the democratic opposition to the Marcos regime, such as
Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr., Sen.
Jovito R. Salonga, Sen.
Francisco A. Rodrigo, and Mr. Luis José, and through the latter, to Sen.
Raul S. Manglapus. Meanwhile, Intengan was teaching
theology as an instructor at the Theology Department of the College of Arts and Sciences of the
Ateneo de Manila University. In December 1976 he was ordained to the diaconate, and three months after, on 27 March 1977, to the priesthood. In 1977, the PDSP with its allies in the democratic opposition founded the Katipunan ng Bayan para sa Kalayaan or KABAKA where the social democratic program of government, Alternatibo ng Sambayanan, was adopted. In 1978 the Marcos dictatorship decided to try to appear legitimate by holding elections for an interim
Batasang Pambansa on 7 April 1978. The Marcos regime imposed conditions that hampered any real campaign of the opposition. The various elements of the opposition, including the PDSP and some well-known opposition figures, gathered and organized the
Lakas ng Bayan (Laban) as the political party that would be their collective vehicle to attain the goals they had set in participating in those elections. By 1978, the PDSP was entrusted with a major part of the planning and execution of
Laban campaign and poll watching efforts of. Among the activities planned and executed was the Metro Manila-wide noise barrage on the eve of the elections on 6 April. On 7 April, the election was discovered to be rigged; the Marcos regime expelled opposition poll watchers from the precincts, arrested them, and arranged vote tabulation to be in favor of the regime. On 9 April, the PDSP consisted of the majority of the participants in a march protesting the electoral fraud and violence committed by the regime. When the marchers refused to disperse on orders of police officers who blocked them on España Street inside Manila, they arrested the over 600-person group. Among those arrested were nine leaders of the opposition, including Intengan.
Incarceration As an immediate consequence of the protest march, the Marcos dictatorship detained Intengan for two months—early April to early June 1978—at
Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig. Among his fellow detainees for various lengths of time were former Vice-president
Teofisto T. Guingona, Senators
Lorenzo M. Tañada,
Francisco A. Rodrigo,
Aquilino Q. Pimentel, and
Joker P. Arroyo, and Attorney Ernesto Rondon. In June 1978, Intengan was released to the custody of José A. Cruz, S.J., then President of the
Ateneo de Manila University, on the promise that he refrained from political activity, and be confined to Metro Manila. Within two months of his release, he was constrained in resuming work with the PDSP and other forces in the democratic opposition. He disregarded the promise he made under duress as the PDSP was in disarray from the Marcos regime's manhunt and detention of its members. Some of its members either went missing or perished under various circumstances. The Marxist–Leninist activist group took advantage of these events and took the lead in organizing and expanded exponentially. This alarmed Intengan as the basic ideology of the extreme left is incompatible with his faith and Catholic Christian foundation. Meanwhile, the Marcos dictatorship kept Intengan under surveillance and discovered that he had resumed work with the democratic opposition. Signs of intensified surveillance, such as the monitoring of his theology class notes and the enrollment of a government agent in one of his theology classes, began to accumulate, with explicit threats of renewed detention. In September 1980, Mrs.
Imelda R. Marcos summoned Cruz and Intengan to the
Presidential Guest House on Arlegui Street, and demanded that the Ateneo de Manila University turn over effective control of its "Office for Social Concern and Involvement" (OSCI) and similar social outreach agencies to the "Ministry of Human Settlements", of which Mrs. Marcos was the Minister. She stated that her aim was to give the students a correct understanding of Philippine reality. She illustrated her point by using
Iran as an example, in which the militantly powerful regime of the
Shah of Iran was overthrown by a popular revolution led by Islamic teachers, with
Ayatullah Ruhullah Khomeini at the forefront. Cruz refused her demands and stated that "The independence of the social outreach programs of the Ateneo de Manila University is needed for their credibility and efficacy". Intengan pointed out that the social ills to which some Jesuits and their friends were responding were real and not imagined.
Alliance with the Sultan of Sulu and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) By this time, Intengan and the PDSP leadership allied with the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). This alliance between the MNLF and the PDSP had the following goals: • address the abuse by the Marcos dictatorship • restoration of democracy • redress of the grievances of the Bangsa Moro • the fulfillment of their common legitimate aspirations On 10 October 1978, Intengan left Manila for
Zamboanga and then for
Jolo. He was accompanied by members of the Kiram family, one of whom held the title of
Sultan of Sulu, and by MNLF sympathizers. In December 1978, accompanied by two PDSP cadres including the Chairman Norberto B. Gonzales, and escorted by two MNLF intelligence operatives, Intengan crossed over to the island of
Sabah.
In Sabah Intengan stayed in Sabah for more than a year. From December 1980 to early February 1982 he served as physician-in-residence at the MNLF camp, chaplain and political officer to the PDSP cadres who crossed over to Sabah. In November 1981, military operatives of the Marcos regime captured the PDSP's Secretary General, Marianito "Mar" Canonigo just as he had crossed over from Sabah into
Tawi-Tawi. He was carrying PDSP's Batayang Kurso (Party Basic Course) which Intengan developed for the PDSP. This forced the Malaysian government to no longer ignore the protests that they were harboring Filipino rebels from the Marcos regime. In February 1982 the Malaysian Home Ministry and Special Branch took Intengan and the other PDSP members into custody and interrogated them at the Special Branch headquarters at Kampong Kepayan,
Kota Kinabalu.
Preparations for exile In June 1982, the Malaysian government was convinced that the PDSP were neither Marxist nor advocating extremist, violent action and released them. Chairman Gonzales and Intengan were provided with Philippine passports (
nom de guerre) by their underground connections and made their way to
Hong Kong.
Across Asia to Europe Intengan travelled to the General Curia in
Rome, then to
Madrid, Spain in August 1982. Gonzales proceeded to
Frankfurt in
West Germany and joined Intengan in Madrid by September 1982. Their other PDSP companions Teddy Lopez, Marcial Cacdac and Gregorio "Ka Tiks" Nazarrea also made their own way to Madrid. Madrid became the center of PDSP's overseas planning and operations, which was facilitated by the
Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE), a fraternal party in the
Socialist International, that rose to state power in Spain late in 1982. During his time in Madrid from August 1982 to March 1987, he finished the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) (summa cum laude) at the
Universidad Pontificia Comillas in March 1987, with a specialization in Moral Theology (also known as Christian Ethics), while helping to organize the overseas democratic opposition to the Marcos regime. Norberto B. Gonzales of the PDSP;
Tomas F. Concepción and Fathers Robert Reyes and Edwin Mercado (based in Italy);
Alberto and Carmen N. Pedrosa (based in the United Kingdom); and
Raul S. Manglapus,
Heherson and Cecile Alvarez, and
Raúl A. Daza (in the United States), and many others in the democratic opposition actively collaborated with Intengan. == Restoration of democracy (1986) ==