Written at 2:45 AM
on board the 777 Mar.
29 or the night of Mar. 28
The Sibuyan Sea which we crossed from 8:00 PM to 12:30 PM Saturday night was so rough the boat had a pitch, roll and a yaw which sent everybody to bed without dinner except Father Mafalen [MacPhelin], Zita and Munding Feliciano and me. Bongbong and Irene started to take dinner with us but before they had taken two bites, they lay down on the deck lounging chairs where they slept the whole night. I covered them up with blankets and set up blankets on chairs around them to protect them from the cold wind.
Then Imelda woke up at about 12:00 PM and we ate fried salmon with onions and tomatoes for which I suddenly had a liking.
I seem to be a pretty good sailor.
In Malacañang, it being Bongbong’s first morning with us, we went to the target range to try out our guns. He kidded me about the golf course being turned into a vegetable garden by the Green Revolution.
Then we visited the horses (after he tried out fast shooting on cans at the bull ring) where he showed surprise at Urdujas’ growth and how yabang Abo Nazir was.
We took a car so I could get to [Bahay] Pangarap to meet my visitors whom we had called from the palace, but we dropped by the kennels to see the three German shepherd puppies of Urduja (the female German shepherd) and he fell in love with them immediately.
PRESIDENT MARCOS had a busy schedule conferring with his close advisers and working on state papers.
The President started early in the morning clearing his desk of pending state papers preparatory to his leaving for the South on a five-day trip and his traditional Holy Week retreat in Baguio City.
At 11 AM, the President inducted into office Undersecretary of Agriculture Jose Drilon, Jr. as chairman of the board of the Rice and Corn Administration.
Present at the induction ceremony were Secretary of Finance Cesar E. A. Virata, Secretary of Education Onofre D. Corpuz, and Philippine Virginia Tobacco Administration Board Chairman Federico B. Moreno who had earlier submitted his resignation to the President.
After the induction, the President met with Secretary Virata, Secretary of Public Works and Communications Manuel B. Syquio, PCAD Officer-In-Charge Rosendo Marquez, Commissioner of Public Highways Baltazar Aquino and Budget Commissioner Faustino Sy-Changco.
At about 1:45 PM, the President and his family left the Palace for Pier 15 in Manila’s South Harbor where they boarded the RPS 777 for the trip to Bacolod City, the first leg of a five-day journey to the South.
Among the papers signed by the President in the morning were the nominations of the following:
1. Isabel de la Puerta, as branch clerk of court in the Court of First Instance of Quezon, with official station at Lucena City;
2. Cresencio P. Dalocanog, as municipal judge of General Luna and Pilar, Surigao del Norte; and
3. Alejandro R. Bongcaros, as municipal judge of Dapa and Socorro, Surigao del Norte.
I then met Sec. [Juan] Ponce Enrile, Gen. [Manuel] Yan and Gen. [Eduardo] Garcia on the update contingency plan, the volunteer student project for summer to counteract the radical sitins in the barrios and finally the Cotabato situation with the mayors under Dequeña and Dormelo sitting in. We agreed that we would start reservist training in Cotabato to build up a dependable reserve, work up to BSDU’s [Barrio Self-Defense Unit] and keep the policemen armed.
But I prevent the mounting of a religious Moslem war, I directed that the Ampatuans, the Sinsuats and the Christian mayors be brought together.
Met the oil refinery people on their request that they be allowed to increase prices by 2 to 2.5 per litter across the board this summer when school is out so that there would not be any riots or demonstrations by students.
And worked out the releases for infrastructure for the 3rd and 4th quarter – P101 million this 3rd quarter ending March and P162 million on the last quarter ending June.
We left pier 15 at 2:00 PM