11:15 PM
On board the 777
on the way to Surigao
We have just come from Tagbilaran where we docked at 1:00 PM in a strong rain that delayed us for half an hour.
Again a riotous reception with people running out into the streets to greet us and shake our hands.
But the one most mobbed was Bongbong with the boys and girls calling and grabbing at his hand. Some of the girls tried to embrace and kiss him. This was a repetition of Bacolod, specially when he wore the North Luzon cap and went down the stage to meet them.
Irene who was in the car kept pinching me when I answered the query of the crowd asking for her by pointing her out. She is still the shy little girl.
This enthusiasm moved the Manila reporters to ask if the explosive response made me change my mind about Imelda’s running for public office. I, of course, answered in the negative.
PRESIDENT MARCOS received a rousing reception on his arrival in Tagbilaran City on the second leg of his five-day visit to Visayan and Mindanao provinces.
Accompanied by the First Lady, Imelda R. Marcos, and children, lmee, Bongbong and Irene, the President arrived in Tagbilaran at 1:30 PM He was met at the local wharf by a large crowd which waited in spite of a driving rain.
“This is a showering reception,” the President quipped as he shook hands with his official welcomers headed by Gov. Lino Chatto, Reps. Natalio P. Castillo, Pablo Malasarte and Teodoro Galagar; City Mayor Venancio lnting, and mayors of Bohol.
From the wharf, the motorcade of officials took about an hour to negotiate the one kilometer distance to the city church because of the enthusiastic, jostling crowds that closed in on the President’s car along the route, to get a glimpse of him and the First Lady.
Te Deum was sung in honor of the First Family, after which the President proceeded to the Bohol Cultural Center where he addressed an audience which included national, provincial, municipal and barrio officials as well as public school teachers and students who had converged at the Center.
In his speech, the President appealed for public support to the democratic revolution he enunciated in his state-of-the-nation address to Congress. Then the President invited the local officials to the residence of the provincial governor, where they discussed with him local problems.
While at work on official papers in his cabin in the morning, the President signed the designation papers of Secretary of Finance Cesar E. A. Virata as chairman of the Philippine delegations to two international conferences scheduled to be held in Paris in April and Kuala Lumpur in May.
The President named Secretary Virata as chairman, with NEC Chairman Gerardo Sicat as vice-chairman of the Philippine delegation to the Inaugural Meeting of the Consultative Group in Paris.
At the same time, the President designated Secretary Virata head, with Ambassador to Malaysia Romeo Busuego and PES Director-General Apolinario Orosa as vice-chairmen of the Philippine delegation to the Sixth Ministerial Conference for Economic Development of Southeast Asia, to be held in Kuala Lumpur.
Among others, the President submitted to the Commission on Appointments for confirmation the nomination of Minister Alejandro D. Yango as chief of mission, class III, in the Department of Foreign Affairs.
And in the course of my speech I amplified this with the statement that I was on my yearly summer tour of the country—not for an election but for the democratic revolution, the alternative to a violent revolution. This has become my favorite topic on this trip—We know war (Reference to my stay in Tubigon where I landed and Carmen where Maj. Euginiero had his headquarters [he was the Bohol guerrilla commander] and to some of these who were still around.
The son of Mayor Venancio Inting who is a radio announcer of DZXT and under the influence of Baluyot of the Free Farmers Federation (who is apparently some kind of radical although I would guess he is not a Communist) tried to dampen the show by interviewing Imelda in the presence of the Manila reporters and asking how she felt about the “negative response” of the people “who hated her and me.” This just brought a laugh from everyone for it was apparent that the people were falling over each other trying to get close to us and shake our hands, greet us or just touch our arms.
Mayor Inting told me that the boy is apparently out of control but that he had stopped him from causing an embarrassment with a demonstration.
Imee and Irene are studying native dances in the lounging room from Mary Ann and Mary Rose Mendoza, Bayanihan girls. Right now they are mimicking Japanese dances, singing and having a grand time.
While Imelda is at the helideck chatting with Father Mafalen {MacPhelin}, [Maria Luisa] Ising Madrigal Vazquez, Lulu Tinio, Zita Feliciano and Governor [Jose] Sering of Surigao.
Sec. Onofre D. Corpuz insists on his resignation. The unfair and unjust charges filed by Sen. A[lejandro] Almendras has caused him such pain that he is at his lowest ebb.
I attach his letter. It will be difficult to get a replacement.
He has been marked by some as weak in the handling of the UP affair, in the handling of the student demonstrations in general. But he has shown a consistency of liberality.
The civil war in Pakistan in which the West Pakistan leader Yaya Khan used tanks and aircraft against armed civilians resulting in the death of about 10,000 men convinces me of the need to abort any revolution by a fast and bloodless arrest of all the communists before they can go far. Otherwise there would be too many casualties.
It would be more compassionate to adopt this course.