We have just given a dinner for Mr. and Mrs. [A. A.] Thomason, the UPI [United Press International] president since 1962, who are our guests at the palace.
We had lunch with them upon their arrival and tomorrow I give them and the publishers and editors breakfast then an interview.
The UPI printed the story that appeared in Sterns from that crazy woman, Dovie Boehms [Beams].
In toasting him I said, the world is constricted into one family or society by the wire services and media so that a giggle in one country is heard as an uproarious laughter throughout the world. The ripple of human activity in Asia is felt even in the remotest corner of Africa and Europe. What the diplomat and the statesman has failed to do, the wire services has attained—the oneness of humanity—no matter how tenuous that may be.
But we are happy to have them. They are a pleasant couple.
Although my popularity rating has gone high, I am not content with it. It is higher in the provinces than in the cities. The issue most held against me is high cost of living and prices.
I attach the Princeton survey.
Official Gazette for March 17, 1971: PRESIDENT MARCOS had a busy day with callers, including many provincial delegations who came to discuss local problems.
Early in the morning, the President as usual worked at his desk, to act on urgent state matters.
Then toward midmorning, he began receiving visitors. The first to see him was a group of Reparations Commission officials, led by Chief of Mission Eulogio Balao.
They took up with the President the financing, through the Reparations Commission, of priority projects.
Next, the President received Senator Ambrosio Padilla, who accompanied Mayors Perfecto Lim and Graciano Lim of Pintuyan and Liloan towns, respectively, both in Southern Leyte.
The President also inducted the new officials, namely: Jose Evangelista as chief of mission Class III and career ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary; and Recio Garcia as member of the board of governors of the DBP. Among those who witnessed Garcia’s oath taking were Dr. Pacifico Marcos, and close friends and relatives. Present at the induction of Evangelista were Mrs. Evangelista, BIR Deputy Commissioner and Mrs. Conrado P. Diaz, Brig. Gen. Antonio D. Evangelista and Undersecretary of National Defense Manuel Salientes.
At noon, the President and the First Lady, Imelda R. Marcos, were hosts at luncheon for UPI President A. A. Thomason and Mrs. Thomason. The U.S. press mogul arrived in Manila in the course of a survey of Asia. Other guests at the luncheon were representatives of local mass media.
Later in the day, the President received delegations from Samar, Bukidnon and South Cotabato. Again, they came to consult with the President on local problems.
In the evening, the First Couple tendered an informal dinner in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Thomason, with newspaper and magazine publishers and editors as guests.
Most people including sympathizers and friends do not realize that after the elections of 1969 I decided to govern properly no matter what the consequences, and this included making the unpopular decisions like the floating rate, the removal of subsidies, the increase of wages but a corresponding increase in prices, withdrawing the privileges of politicians and newspapermen, stopping the monthly payments to media, etc.
I have had to do a lot of castigating and punishing lately.
Got the Immigration Commission to reassess its problems. There is internal dissension.
Established the priorities of releases of the 15th year Reparations schedule and ordered the new specifications of Marcos-type schoolhouses that would withstand typhoons.
And ordered the listing of the 16th year reparations.
Finished reorganizing the board of the Philippine Veterans Bank after a golf game at [Bahay] Pangarap in the afternoon.