1:40 AM Dec. 21st
Conference with 68 governors, 61 city mayors and 1451 mayors with senators and congressmen.
I will have a transcript made of the speech I delivered.
Met the governors, city mayors and municipal mayors in the afternoon in a private conference. Announced that there will be no release of cash or of public works funds to follow the standards of the new society.
Met Justice Fred Ruiz Castro, [Claudio] Dindong Teehankee [Sr.], Felix Makasiar, [Antonio] Tony Barredo, Salvador Esguerra and Felix Antonio.
They recommended:
- Suspension of the effects of martial law during the campaign for the constitution.
Official Gazette for December 20, 1972: PRESIDENT MARCOS issued a Letter of Instructions to the secretaries of national defense, public information and justice that “for the purposes of the free and open debate on the new Constitution … you will see to it that the effects of my Proclamation No. 1081 are temporarily suspended.” The letter said that “you will ensure that all media will give an opportunity to those opposing and those favoring the ratification of the new Constitution to meet face to face in a formal debate in this subject. You will direct all printing presses to print all forms of propaganda whether in favor or against the new Constitution and see to it that all military personnel allow their open and free distribution. You will submit weekly reports to me on the implementation of this order.”
ONE GREAT significance of the Medicare Program is that it has relieved employes of the problem of taking care of their own expenses when they are hospitalized. Dr. Pacifico E. Marcos, Medicare chairman, said that in the past, government employes, except for those in government corporations, personally spent for their hospitalization. This is the reason why many government employees went to the charity wards of government hospitals when they became sick and were hospitalized, he said.
PAYING TRIBUTE to the Filipino soldier “whose sense of responsibility, devotion to duty, forebearance, and humane touch characterized the enforcement of my instructions and made martial law in our country unique,” President Marcos said that the initial objectives of Proclamation 1081 were attained because of the good qualities of said Filipino soldier.
The President said, “the character of the Filipino soldier is sound not only because of his deep grounding in the democratic precepts but also because of his basic enlightenment and training made possible by institutions such as this we are formally inaugurating here today.”
The President made these observations in a speech read for him by Secretary Enrile at the inauguration of the PC Training Center at Camp General Mariano N. Castañeda in Silang, Cavite.
FOR ILLEGAL possession of firearms, a resident of San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City was sentenced to 20 years at hard labor by Military Commission No. 5. Convicted was Rogelio Aquino y Santos who was arrested last October 14 at the basement of the General Bank and Trust Co at Rosario Street in Binondo, Manila while in possession of a Colt cal .9 mm pistol by members of the Manila Metropolitan Police. The gun was licensed but was being carried outside of the licensee’s residence which is a violation of the firearm ban.
2. Farther implementation in the lowest level.
3. Time.
4. Ratification by Congress.
Only the call to a session of Congress would mean the admission of the weakness of my position in issuing decrees with the effect of law.