Golf with the Mindanao leaders at Pangarap at 8:00 AM. [Alejandro] Landring Almendras, [Mohammad] Ali Dimaporo, Cong. Lorenzo Sarmiento, Gov. Mandangan Dimacuta, Mayor Omar Dianatan.
The oath-taking of radio commentators who want time. But [Benigno] Ninoy Aquino [Jr.] claims subsidy for radio commentators so we are not giving this publicity. I stopped the aid to radio commentators time after the campaign of 1969.
Conference and speech at 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
Then speech at the Manufacturers and Producers Convention under the auspices of the Phil. Chamber of Industries. They kept speaking of crisis so I reminded them that in 1965 2,000 of them were moribund or closed and they recovered only under the Distressed Industries Re-Financing Program of the DBP [Development Bank of the Philippines]. Then I gave a projection of the future—and the bills to be taken up in the special session I will call.
Official Gazette for May 23, 1970: President Marcos emphasized the importance of individual responsibility in attaining the objectives of social justice, which he pointed out is a program of action long ago initiated by the government.
Apart from the collective or organized response of various entities to the problems of social justice, he said, the individual has also a real and continuing commitment to social justice.
In a speech delivered at the opening of the 17th national convention of the manufacturers and producers of the Philippine Chamber of Industries, held at the Manila Hotel in the evening, the President took note of the “many searching questions now being raised about the society we live in, its nature and direction.” Social concern, he said, is not new to the nation, having been the concern of the Philippine Revolution and given new impetus by President Manuel L. Quezon, whose regime was marked by social unrest arising from agrarian problems. By the end of World War II, he continued, “it became necessary to take serious steps towards formulating and implementing a land reform program.” (Full text of the President’s speech in OG.)
The President, as is his wont on weekends, devoted his working day mostly to studying and acting on state papers. Among others, he directed the ad hoc committee working with the Financial Policy Council to study how aid to rice and corn farmers, as proposed by the committee, may be funded from new sources of revenue. The President also created a special committee to make the homecoming of Aurora M. Pijuan, the new Miss International, memorable, in appreciation of her triumph in the prestigious global beauty tilt, which had built-in dividends for Philippine tourism, and the nation in general.
In the evening, the President motored to the Manila Hotel where he was guest of honor at the Philippine Chamber of Industries convention.