After Marcos declared Martial Law, Lucman went into self-exile in Saudi Arabia in 1976 and worked closely with opposition Senator Ninoy Aquino to push proposals of Autonomy for the Moro people. Lucman's health began to fail soon after he learned of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, and he died less than a year later in Riyadh in 1984 – two years before the establishment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao under Aquino's widow President Corazon Aquino.