Am writing this at Suite I as I am all alone at the Palace and our living quarters are ghostly quiet when the family is away.
Have just arrived from the house of Elvira Manahan who has given dinner for J.V. Cruz, new ambassador of the Philippines to West Germany. But came home as I am down with Laryngitis. Had to cut my exercise to half an hour after my nap and the luncheon-conference with the Congressional leaders on the budget and the legislative program for this special session which resumes on Monday the 22nd and ends the 25th. And I call another special session the following day.
Official Gazette for June 20, 1970: President Marcos conferred at length with members of Congress and other ranking officials on the urgent bills that must be passed when the recessed special session is resumed next week.
In the morning, however, he was unable to meet two engagements—a golf tournament with newsmen and a speech before the Veterans Federation because of developing sore throat. On advice of doctors he stayed indoors until he felt rested enough.
At 12:30 he met with Congress leaders to discuss, among others the national budget and other bills to be included in the special session. The conference lusted through lunch and long afterward.
Present at the meeting were Senate President Gil J. Puyat, Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr., Senate President Protempore Jose J. Roy, House Majority Floorleader Marcelino Veloso; Senators Dominador Aytona and Lorenzo Teves, chairman and member, respectively, of the Senate committee on finance; Reps. Jose Alberto and Nicanor Yñiguez, chairman and member, respectively, of the House appropriations committee; Reps. Pablo Ocampo of Manila and Pablo Roman of Bataan. Secretary of Finance Cesar E. A. Virata and Commissioner of the Budget Faustino Sy-Changco also attended the meeting.
In the afternoon, the President had a clear schedule and thus was able to concentrate on his desk work. Earlier, the President ordered a study and review of present policies embodied in land laws as well as administrative rules and regulations in the same area, with an eye to relating them to the need for land of peasants and farmers, small settlers, and the agro-industrial sector.
The President’s order also created a committee to study, evolve, and recommend policies which would swiftly and equitably settle land disputes and assign priorities in the granting of titles to public lands. The primary aim of the order was to “relieve the ‘small man’ of the complexities of existing laws, rules and regulations relative to land disputes and the award of land titles.”
In the speech read for him by Secretary of Finance Cesar E. A. Virata at} the opening of the 10th annual convention of Philippine lumbermen, held at the Hotel Inter-Continental, the President squarely set before lumbermen the responsibility of policing their own rank in order to apprehend despoilers of forestlands, saying that many loggers are culpable for the denudation of the nation’s forests. In default of such responsibility, he said, he would be forced to close valuable logging concessions to lumber firms, particularly those in watershed areas.
The President vigorously urged greater collective effort in conserving forestlands and other natural resources, including wildlife, emphasizing that the diminution to a critical degree of any of these elements will make life for the nation virtually untenable. He particularly said that “the time is now” to escalate conservation efforts, and that it is “our duty not only to country and to our children but to life itself.”
Among the lumber industry groups participating in the convention are: off Philippine Chamber of Wood Industries (PCWI), the Philippine r Lumber Producers’ Association (PLPA), the Plywood Manufacturer’s Association of the Philippines (PMAP), the Permanent Forests Association of the Philippines (PERMAFOR), and the Society of Filipino Foresters (SFF).