ten years. During Martial Law, Atienza was arrested twice for exposing human rights abuses under the dictatorship regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. He remained with the opposition even if he was on constant threat of incarceration for opposing Marcos. Atienza was first elected as Member of Parliament in the then At-large Congressional District of Manila under the Batasang Pambansa in 1984 and served until Marcos was peacefully ousted during the People Power Revolution of 1986. Under the administration of President Corazon Aquino, Atienza was appointed general manager of the National Housing Authority (Philippines) in 1988 and he promoted low-cost housing for teachers and police officers. Together with former Manila police general Alfredo Lim running for mayor, Atienza ran for vice-mayor of Manila. The two defeated the incumbent slate of then-Mayor Gemiliano Lopez Jr. The tandem won a second term in 1995. When Lim ran for President of the Philippines in 1998, Atienza was elected mayor and took his oath of office on June 24, 1998. Atienza was again re-elected in 2001 and finally in 2004. During his term as mayor, numerous heritage buildings in Manila were demolished, notably the Jai Alai Building, which used to be the best Art Deco building in all of Asia before its demolition. The Supreme Court ruled on April 17, 2007, that Franklin Drilon was the real president of the Liberal Party and not Atienza and has approved the Daza-Drilon Amendments to the LP's Charter. It also ruled that all certificates of nomination signed by Atienza are worthless unless they moved to another political party like Batangas Governor Armando Sanchez and Manny Pacquiao, who moved to KAMPI, and Mike Defensor, who moved to Lakas-CMD, in February 2007. Voting 9–5, the court said the amended Salonga Constitution extended Drilon's term to November 2007. On July 16, 2007, the Supreme Court dismissed with finality a motion for consideration filed by Atienza (en banc resolution dated July 5, 2007). COMELEC earlier ruled that Drilon's term as LP president has already expired and called for the holding of elections to end the leadership vacuum in the country's oldest political party. The ruling came after the poll body invalidated the so-called "rump elections" of LP leaders in March 2006. On November 26, 2007, at Club Filipino, Greenhills, San Juan, LP National Executive Council officials resolved to appoint Senator Mar Roxas as president of the Liberal Party (Philippines). Corazon Aquino and