 The assassination attempt was widely believed to have been staged; Enrile himself admitted to the assassination attempt to have been staged but he would later retract his claim.Rigoberto Tiglao, former press secretary and a former communist incarcerated during the martial law, argued that the liberal and communist parties provoked martial law imposition.Enrile said that "The most significant event that made President Marcos decide to declare martial law was the MV Karagatan incident on July 1972.