We are still recovering from the shock of my eldest daughter deciding she will not have anymore of Assumption School but wishes to continue schooling in Tacloban. She finds she is in a rut and will end up ether a bitter activist motivated merely by hate or a part of the artist dilettantes. At 15 she seems to know more than my generation did at that age. She says she would like to acquire real values and Assumption cannot impart to her any. “What am I going to Assumption for—connections? Daddy has seen to that. Refinement? Four years of Assumption has given that to me. I do not want to go abroad because I do not wish to train for anything that I could learn there like becoming a Madame Curie. But I do want to acquire a feeling for our country which you do not acquire in Manila!”
The girl is highly intelligent and articulate in a most logical and devastating way. Makes me feel rather old.
She feels that the Assumption School is full of girls who have everything but really do not have anything. And she does not want to end up being a society matron, shallow and insensitive.
But I feel that she has a social conscience and wants to strike out on her own to learn how to make the world a better place to live in.
I believe she also wants to have roots other than Manila where one cannot really have any.
Official Gazette for December 21, 1970: President Marcos worked mostly on state papers with his schedule of callers clean, leaving him free to concentrate on his desk work.
In the morning, the President fulfilled only one outside engagement as Guest of Honor, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, at the rites marking the 35th anniversary of the AFP. In his speech, the Chief Executive once again called on the nation’s soldiers to initiate reforms and other change within the military organization in response to the need of the times for such change. Accompanying the President to Camp Aguinaldo, where the ceremonies were held was the First Lady, Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos, who on her part distributed gift bags to the families of the enlisted men of the AFP.
On returning to Malacañang, the President resumed his office work. He issued among others, a proclamation declaring December 26, December 31, 1970 and January 2, 1971 as special public holidays.
December 26, Saturday, falls between Christmas Day and Sunday; December 31, Thursday, falls between Rizal Day and New Year’s Day which falls on Friday, thus January 2, Saturday, comes in between two holidays. The President declared the special holidays to enable employees to go to their home provinces and enjoy the Yuletide holidays with their families.
The President also went over a formal report on the full implementation by the Development Bank of the Philippines of his directive to assist the victims of typhoon “Yoling.” DBP Chairman Leonides S. Virata said in his report that the bank is granting a maximum loan of ₱10,000 per calamity victim for the repair and restoration of damaged houses. Chairman Virata also said that the DBP is granting assistance to government projects and public utilities.
And she was sobbing and in tears when she told her mother this and me later on when I pulled he[r] aside to talk to her.
So we have consulted her Uncle Kokoy [Benjamin Romualdez], governor of Leyte who is all for it but wishes to look into the standards of the Holy Infant Academy, Imelda’s school and where Irish nuns handle the administration and the teaching.
Woke up at 9:00 AM, the ship standing off the pier so that we would not be disturbed. Hurriedly breakfasted on corn flakes with milk and honey as usual, dressed up and dragged Imelda to the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] formal parade and review on its 35th inauguration.
She also distributed gifts to the children of the enlisted men and the veterans’ wives.
Promoted six colonels to generals—Fidel Ramos for chief of Intelligence; [Teodorico] Almuete, 2nd Inf. Brigade Commander; [Domingo] Tutaan, 4th PC Zone Commander; [Edilberto] Bernales, Air Division Commander; [Leovigildo] Gantioqui, Coast Guard Commander and [Octavio] Posadas, Naval Shore Installation Commander. Announced this during my speech.
Also announced the creation of a veterans bureau under the Dept. of National Defense, the bureau to administer all the different offices now attending to veterans affairs like the Veterans’ Administration, Veterans Bank, Veterans Memorial Hospital, etc. This bureau would also help in the placement of retired personnel and administer the skills development program and manpower training program for the officer[s] and enlisted personnel.
I must finish the reorganization of the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
And we must never allow the recession in the United States to contaminate the Philippines. Kokoy who has just arrived reports that 5th Avenue in New York is bleak and inactive while [Roberto] Bobby Benedicto reports that in the Guinsha [Ginza] in Tokyo, sales for one day reach one billion dollars!!