1:00 AM
Actually May 1st
my wedding anniversary
Finalized the plans of action in the convention with the congressional leaders.
Roseller Lim, as usual, is in bad need of money. He wants to “borrow” P70,000 to publish a telephone directory.
The congressional leaders will see Pres. [Carlos] Garcia and practically give him an ultimatum on the leaders demand that their terms be extended and that the governor’s and mayor’s terms be not out to synchronize the elections.
Then they will meet with Ex. President [Diosdado] Macapagal on the same subject.
They should be able to get an initial 100 delegates as a starting point.
Official Gazette for April 30, 1971: PRESIDENT MARCOS signed Senate Bill No. 98 (House Bill No 1857), now Republic Act No. 6173, declaring a national policy on the petroleum industry and establishing the Oil Industry Commission.
The President, in his State-of-the-Nation message on January 25, urged the creation of a national oil commission to supervise and regulate the importation of crude oil and the production and marketing of gasoline and other oil products, such as to uphold the national interest.
Under this Act, the business of importing, exporting, re-exporting, shipping, transporting, processing, refining, storing, distributing, marketing, and selling of crude oil, gasoline, kerosene, gas and other refined petroleum products and the operations and activities of natural and juridical persons, firms, and entities engaged therein shall be carried out in a manner consistent with the public interest.
The President had a series of conferences late in the morning, mostly with local officials on matters concerning their respective, areas of jurisdiction.
Before meeting with these officials, the President acted on urgent state papers in his study.
At 10:30 a.m., he met with the officials of the Philippine Veterans Administration (PVA), headed by Administrator Atilano Cinco, who apprised him of the accountabilities of the agency in connection with its G.I. Bill of Rights scholarship program.
During this conference, the President ordered the PVA officials to make a complete accounting of its indebtedness to different schools so that this could be settled before the start of the next school year.
Then, he received Ambassador Ibrahim Bakr, Saudi Arabian envoy to Indonesia, who paid a courtesy call prior to his departure for Djakarta.
Ambassador Bakr, who was accompanied to Malacañang by Sen. Mamintal Tamano and Rep. Ali Dimaporo of Lanao del Norte, headed his country’s delegation to the ECAFE conference.
Toward noon, the President conferred with provincial delegations, which lasted up to mid-afternoon.
First to confer with the Chief Executive was the Davao del Sur delegation composed of several town mayors, who were accompanied to the Palace by Rep. Artemio Al. Loyola.
This group was followed by Mayor Norberto Amoranto of Quezon City and Mayor Osmundo de Guzman of Marikina, Rizal, among others.
After receiving the string of callers, the President closeted himself in his private study and devoted the rest of his working hours to paper work.
Senator [Salvador] Doy Laurel has demanded of Gil Puyat that the questionable Judge Abundio Arrieta, notorious now for the Wilwag case which sat a damage judgment of P22 million against the NPC [National Power Corporation] and then issued an execution judgment pending appeal, be appointed to Manila as CFI [Court of First Instance] judge as a condition so that Laurel will not support the move to oust Puyat as Senate President.
Pure and simple blackmail.
We have decided that the cases to be filed for libel should be filed by individual persons like UE [University of the East] Francisco Dalupan, NCC’s [Eduardo] Danding Cojuangco [Jr.], or Rustans Glecy Tantoco etc.
Imelda sent me a greeting card at 5 minutes past 12:00 PM—greeting me on our 17th wedding anniversary.
I immediately adjourned the conference!