Official Gazette for December 1, 1972: PRESIDENT MARCOS issued a decree calling a plebiscite on January 15, 1973 for the ratification or rejection of the proposed new Constitution and appropriating P15 million to carry out the purposes of the decree. The proposed Constitution shall be published in full in English and in Pilipino, to be translated by the Institute of National Language, once in the Official Gazette and in three issues of at least two newspapers of national circulation not later than two weeks before the plebiscite. The decree further directed that printed copies of the Constitution shall be posted in a conspicuous place in local government buildings and in all polling places to be made available to voters during plebiscite day.
TO ASSURE the people of full information and enlightenment on the provisions of the proposed Constitution, the President decreed that the “people may discuss the provisions freely and publicly in order that they can vote intelligently: Provided, however, that the discussion shall be limited to the Constitution and shall not in any manner tend to cause disorder or endanger the security of the state.” The provisions of the Election Code of 1971 regarding rights and obligations of political parties and candidates, shall not apply to the plebiscite.
THE PRESIDENT directed the Secretary of National Defense and the Chief of Staff of the armed forces to “see to it that the people are accorded the fullest opportunity to freely and publicly discuss and debate the various provisions of the new Constitution. He directed that, 1) All members of media now under detention be immediately processed for ultimate release if they are not connected with actual subversion and, 2) The members of the Constitutional Convention now under detention be forthwith released unless facing criminal charges.
RETIRED BRIGADIER General Francisco A. Joves observed in a speech before the Dagupan City Rotary Club that Martial Law under President Marcos is “humane, mild, benevolent, legal, constitutional, yet non-violent and non-oppressive.” Gen. Joves cited several cases of Martial Law he learned as a student officer at the Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas, wherein the chief of state or head “is the legislator, judge and even executioner—all in one hand.” The general cited four cases of Martial Law in the Philippines in the past: 1) Governor General Luke E. Wright proclaimed Martial Law in Cavite and Batangas on January 13, 1905 at a time when the government was fighting the “ladrones” in those two provinces; 2) Spanish Gov. Gen. Polavieja in 1896 against the “insurrectos”; 3) Gen. Arthur MacArthur against the “pulahanas” in Samar in 1903; and Gen. John Pershing against the Muslim “outlaws” in Mindanao and Sulu.
NATIONAL DEFENSE Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile said Martial Law is implemented to balance the relationship between freedom and responsibility and to extirpate the excesses in the exercise of the rights and freedoms in a free society. Secretary Enrile stated in a speech before the Philippine Historical Association that the “postwar period which finally saw us in complete possession of our sovereignty and independence also witnessed the disintegration of our society, so much so that in the end, specifically on the 21st day of last September, the President had to take this last constitutional recourse vested in him by the fundamental law of the land—the declaration of Martial Law.” He gave credit to the wisdom of the framers of the Constitution who had the foresight to anticipate a social ferment in our history that would require a constitutional means effective and strong enough to ward off the dangers to the Republic.
TRADE AND TOURISM Secretary Troadio T. Quiazon Jr. reported substantial decreases in the prices of sugar, rice, fresh fish, meat, shrimps, dried fish, eggs, vegetables, canned goods and salt. Mr. Quiazon reported that the prevailing prices of other prime commodities are well within the levels allowed by the Price Control Law.
SETTLEMENT PROJECTS are being activated by the Department of Agrarian Reform in preparation for the relocation of farmers who may be dispossessed as a result of the re-arrangement of the boundaries of farmlands in accordance with the government’s land reform program. Conceived by DAR Secretary Conrado F. Estrella, the settlement projects were designed to cushion the impact of the land reform program which is expected to cause the temporary dislocation of some 59,000 tenant-farmers. The government, adopting a policy of establishing economic family-size farms as basis of the country’s economy, has granted farmers the right to acquire three hectares of agricultural land, if the land is irrigated, and five hectares, if the land is unirrigated.
MEDICARE MEMBERS are urged to report hospitals which refuse to cooperate with the Medicare Program so that appropriate legal action can be taken against them. Medicom Chairman Pacifico E. Marcos cited an opinion of the legal counsel of the Bureau of Medical Services which stated that “all hospitals duly licensed by the BMS which
10:00 AM—Formal turnover of the proposed constitution for a call to a plebiscite which I set by decree on January 15, 1973.
Order on Free Debate.
Release of media men and Concon [Constitutional Convention] delegates not directly charged with subversion.
Tumult from the audience which included the Vice President, senators, congressmen, concon delegates, cabinet, justices of the Supreme Court and others.
Before that I called the Vice Pres., Sen. Pres., Speaker, Chief Justice, Pres. [Diosdado] Macapagal, Chairman [Jaime] Ferrer, Sec. [Juan] Ponce Enrile and Gen. [Romeo] Espino to my study to tell them of my plan of free debate and for government to print the pros and cons of each innovation in the new constitution for distribution which then would be distributed to the people.
Speaker [Cornelio] Villareal demurred to this but Chief Justice Concepcion supported me. Even if the decree on plebiscite should be questioned by [Lorenzo] Tañada as he is reported to have planned, I believe that the order on free debate will stop its being filed in the first place and if it is, the Supreme Court would not entertain it.
have been selected by medicare patients in the exercise of their freedom of choice of hospitals guaranteed by the provisions of Republic Act 6111 are under legal mandate not to deny them the use of said medical facilities.”
Text in Transcription cannot be verified with handwritten version, pp.2463-2472 ten manuscript pages missing.