Election Day. Voted in Batac. Left Baguio by Fokker at 9:40 AM. Left Laoag at 12:40 PM.
I am being blackmailed by a Dovie Boehms [Beams] who has called a press conference at 6:00 PM and said she was my mistress. A damned lie!
Sometime ago she threatened that if she was not paid a big sum of money, she would scandalize me and spread all forms of lies about me.
A diabolical plot. But what a well prepared one it is. And I ______.
And we are impotent to do anything as this woman wants publicity. If we file a libel or blackmail case, she will just thrive in it. And it will blow up the whole thing into an international affair and fair game for everyone.
But if we do not do anything, everyone will believe her stories.
Official Gazette for November 10, 1970: President Marcos left Baguio City early on a short flight to Laoag City, where he arrived at about 10 a.m. He was met by a large delegation of officials, including Gov. Jose Evangelista, Rep. Roque Ablan, Jr., Vice Gov. Elizabeth Keen, Mayor Eulalio Siason and other local officials.
From the airport, the President headed for the city cathedral where a Te Deum was sung for him. Then he drove to Batac, his hometown, arriving at about 11 a.m. He went straight to the public school where he voted at his old precinct. He later presided at a conference with provincial and municipal officials at the Marcos residence. The officials reported on the conditions in their respective constituencies. All said that the situation was peaceful. Brig. Gen. Felizardo Tanabe, 1st PC Zone commander, also saw the President to report on the peace and order situation. He said that Except for two shooting incidents all was peaceful in the 1st PC zone.
The President left Laoag shortly after high noon, arriving in Malacañang at about 2 p.m. For the rest of the day, the President worked on state matters. In the evening, he followed the trend of the elections as reports began pouring into Malacañang. At the night of election day, the President issued the following Post-Election message.
Our people have just gone to the polls to elect their delegates to the coming Constitutional Convention. They have gone to the polls as a free and freedom-loving people should—with dignity, decorum and a high sense of intellectual and moral involvement.
The peaceful and orderly conduct of the ejections is an expression of the maturity of our people and a source of confidence and hope that those who will be elected to take part in the convention will represent the genuine popular will.
In the nationwide election, we have sought to elect men whose first and last aim is to be of service to our people. It is our earnest hope that the results of this election will guarantee a meaningful convention.To all those who have worked for this peaceful and orderly election and to the entire Filipino nation, who deserves such an orderly election, I extend my deepest thanks and congratulations.
I attach all the papers—including pictures which show the extortion.
I have asked the editors to check the story and not use it. Everybody cooperated except Taliba which printed a mean and vicious story.
Attachments not in the files made available to editor, however Juan Ona sent the following information by email on 16 May 2018:
“Sometime in November 1970 I thought Consul General Rafael Gonzales was in Manila helping in the preparations for Pope Paul VI’s visit to the Philippines. He left Consul Sime Hidalgo in charge of the Consulate General. I was therefore surprised when one day I saw him in a huddle with Sime in his office. They did not invite me to join their caucus.
“A couple of hours later, the HK papers were agog with the story, “Philippine Consul General mauled American actress Dovie Beams at Kai Tack airport.” Ralph and Sime then told me what really happened. Dovie had flown in from Manila with her two Pinay maids in tow. Tipped on their imminent flight to HK and upon higher-up instructions, Ralph returned to HK and was at the airport. He and Dovie chatted cordially and then Ralph suddenly tried to grab the two maids’ Philippine passports held by Dovie, but she dodged. Whether Ralph touched her or not, she told the Hong Kong press that Ralph had mauled her. Ka Ralph, did you touch her? Hahaha!
“Dovie allegedly wanted to take her two maids to the US because they were witnesses to President Marcos’ dallying with her in bed, since they served coffee to them. Ralph had been ordered to return to Hong Kong to prevent the maids from proceeding to the US.
“Sime and I then engaged in a Mutt and Jeff or Good Cop – Bad Cop drama. Sime was the good cop, talking like a friend to Dovie and telling her she had nothing to fear from the PH Government. He would see to it that nothing would happen to her and her two maids if she would cooperate with him in this matter.
“I was the bad cop telling the HK Press that a) PH passports – whoever held them –were the property of the PH Government; b) the two maids were wanted by PH courts although I did not know exactly for what reason; c) those passports had therefore been cancelled; d) all airlines and foreign embassies and consulates had been advised not to honor them; and e) Dovie Beams could be prosecuted for abetting wrongdoing in case she did not surrender the maids and their PH passports. Hahaha! In order to discredit Dovie, I was given a portfolio of pornographic photographs purportedly taken of her.
“In the meantime, Dovie expressed to us her demands: $500,000 in cash as a guarantee that she would get a star role in a future sequel to a film – I do not now remember the name of the film, perhaps “Maharlika.” We asked our Foreign Service posts to contact any of the President’s three well-known cronies alias X,Y, and Z (allegedly Roberto Benedicto, Honorio Poblador and Potenciano Ilusorio) to get the $500,000 from them. However, our embassies could not locate any of them.
“Ralph for his part was entertaining emissaries from Manila. A vice-admiral came to Hong Kong to help in the matter. From Ralph’s office, this vice-admiral was in touch with Malacanang, reporting on the up to the minute situation. Another whose name I cannot now remember was gunned down in Makati months later. Too, several PH agencies were also doing their thing in HK. I was afraid that PH agents lurking in the airport who did not know each other might shoot each other unintentionally.
“While these things were happening, the HK Police were doing their own thing. Dovie had told the HK Police that agents from Manila were hunting her. HK Police raided the hotel rooms of suspected PH thugs. One couple complained to the consulate that policemen led by Briitish officers with high caliber arms had barged into their room. I told them I would protest to the HK Government, but that they should remain calm because they had nothing to fear if they had not done anything illegal. Filipinos were all suspect at that time.
“In the end, Dovie must have run out of money. She left for the USA without her PH maids. All is well that ends well!
“ I asked Ralph why the fuss. In the eyes of the general public, President Marcos’ prestige would have risen had they known about this new amorous exploit. Ralph said this scandal on the eve of Pope Paul VI’s visit was not good for the image of the Philippines; furthermore, Marcos was terribly afraid of Imelda’s fury had she known of this fresh unfaithfulness.”
See Rotea, Hermie. Marcos’ Lovey Dovey. Los Angeles, California: Liberty Publishing, 1983. Print.