province and Ilagan as a town followed a similar path to the rest of the country's history as a commonwealth nation and as a free republic in 1942, the Japanese occupation, liberation, political and military independence to this day. On June 19, 1945, Ilagan town was liberated under the Japanese Army as part of the liberation campaign with the combined forces of 14th Infantry, United States Army Forces in the Philippines – Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL), under the command of Lt Col. Romulo A. Manriquez, and the 37th Division of the U.S. Sixth Army against the Japanese. During this era, a man-made tunnel was constructed from the sweat and blood of detained Ilagueños and it is now a tourist destination in the city. The tunnels are believed to have served as headquarters of the Japanese soldiers. Philippine independence By the turn of the 1950s, the new Poblacion was located uphill from the old Saint Ferdinand Parish Church, formerly known as Saint Ferdinand Cathedral in barangay Bagumbayan to barangay San Vicente, which is the site of the current City Hall. The Martial Law era When Ferdinand Marcos' September 1972 declaration of Martial Law began a 14-year period of authoritarian rule, the province of Isabela - including Ilagan - became a center of both conflict and protest when Marcos crony Danding Cojuangco and his associate Antonio Carag managed to block a Spanish-era grant which was supposed to see the return of Hacienda San Antonio and Hacienda Santa Isabel in Ilagan to local farmers. Cojuangco and Carag purchased the two haciendas themselves, displacing tens of thousands of farmers who were supposed to get those lands back a hundred years after the Spanish acquired them. In its desire to serve its parishioners, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ilagan hosted a Social Action Center which would help the farmers. In the Social Action Center's newsletter, the "Courier," researcher Sabino Padilla Jr. documented and exposed the ways by which Cojuangco, Carag, the provincial government and the military harassed the farmers who were supposed to get the land. This all led to a protest march in joined by 12,000 protesters from all over Isabela, and eventually, for 4,000 farmers to finally get the titles to their land. But it also earned the ire of the administration. In 1982, Padilla and 12 others were arrested by the regime and jailed under poor conditions at the Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya Stockade