1:00 AM
April 18th
Official Gazette for April 17, 1973: THE PRESIDENT has promulgated Presidential Decree No. 175, granting cooperatives the rights and privileges enjoyed by business organizations, including the operation of enterprises and rural banks. The decree also provides for a cooperative development loan fund and the extension of preferential rights to cooperatives in the supply of prime commodities like cereals and agricultural products to government agencies. The decree is envisioned to strengthen the cooperative movement to effect an increase in the income and purchasing power of the low income sector of the population, thereby attaining the administration’s goal for the equitable distribution of the country’s wealth.
SECRETARY OF INFORMATION Francisco S. Tatad said the Government does not intend to transform the people into automatons. Mr. Tatad made the statement to allay fears that the call for the immersion of the individuals in the building of the nation may rob the people of their individuality and transform them into robots or automatons. Speaking during the 23rd commencement exercises at the University of Baguio, the information secretary said that, although the Government seeks to inculcate discipline it does not seek to have a society where individual initiative is discouraged. He stressed that it is the wealth of the spirit that creates equality of life.
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN Affairs has warned Filipinos seeking foreign employment of the illegal operations of job placement agencies based” in the United Kingdom and the United States. The DFA said the Philippine Embassy in London was apprised by the British foreign office of the inadvisability of remitting money to the agencies by Filipino job seekers. The Philippine London embassy reported having received numerous letters from Filipino job seekers regarding the reliability of certain job placement agencies in UK which assure “summer employment” and placement assistance. The DFA said such “assistance” usually rendered is merely a list of jobs and perhaps hints about application procedures, which are virtually useless.
BUREAU OF INTERNAL Revenue has so far collected P639,976,309 through tax amnesty decrees as of 6 p.m. of April 16, according to internal Revenue Commissioner Misael P. Vera. The latest figures showed that 137,579 individuals and corporate income taxpayers have availed of the provisions of Presidential Decree No. 23 granting a 10 per cent amnesty on previously undeclared income or wealth, while 24,402 have so far availed themselves of Presidential Decree No. 157 granting the same immunities and benefits afforded to taxpayers for taxable year 1972 who availed of Presidential Decree No. 23.
DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE reiterated the Government’s policy to protect local manufacturers from injurious competition posed by imported items, when it reaffirmed a previous decision imposing a dumping duty on Japanese electrical resistance welded pipes. The department’s action followed a motion for reconsideration filed by the P. I. Hardware and Mill Supply in connection with a decision of Finance Secretary Cesar E. A. Virata imposing a dumping duty on the imported pipes. In denying the motion for reconsideration, Secretary Virata said there are no new justifiable reasons to warrant the modification of or departure from the decision in Dumping Case No. 70-3. According to an investigation conducted by the Tariff Commission, locally manufactured welded pipes can serve the same purposes as the electric resistance welded steel pipes imported from Japan.
YOUTH VOLUNTEERS who will go to the countryside for their summer civic action workcamps will initially concern themselves with the beautification, health and sanitation, reforestation, literacy and citizenship training and environmental planning. This was announced by the Department of Education and Culture and the National Youth Volunteer Coordinating Center for National Development with the issuance of guidelines and outlines of programs for the summer workcamps. The first wave of Youth Civic Action Program participants will get their assignments from local youth centers which will be established in every school that will determine the respective areas for the participating students. The civic action program will focus mi the adopt-barrio-concept wherein each school youth center pick a particular barrio or area to develop.
DANGEROUS DRUGS Board announced the guidelines in the procurement and purchase of dangerous drugs. The following procedures must be followed: 1) File application form with the DDB 2) Attach the following to application form; a) Copy of registration certificate issued by the board of medical examiner or in the lieu thereof the official receipt of the registrar or certificate, b) Copy of opium license. c) Privilege receipt to practice under the dangerous drug. Prescription forms may be obtained at the DDB office at the Bureau of Quarantine, Port Area, or at the different regional health offices under the Department of Health.
Retreat was terminated at 2:00 PM after mass and meditation before that. All others except Sec. [Clemente] Gatmaitan, Com. [Faustino] Sychangco, Ricky Cu-Unjieng and Father Roque J. Ferriols, SJ our retreat master left for Manila by hydrofoil.
We are now on our way to Poro Point after water skiing up to 5:00 PM. We should be at Poro by 6:30 AM. Imelda is to meet us there. We go to Agoo possibly for lunch after water skiing.
Am finding the interesting book of [Walt Whitman] Rostow, Diffusion of Power, an analysis of “the interplay of American life and the nation’s performance in the world scene”—up to 1972 from 1958—[Dwight D.] Eisenhower, [John F.] Kennedy, [Lyndon B.] Johnson, [Richard] Nixon.
I have finished John Paton Davies Jr.’s Dragon by the Tail whose thesis is U.S. sentimentality towards Chiang’s [Kai Shek] China lost the U.S. Mao’s [Zedong] China, and led to the illusions about Vietnam and Indo China.
He is friendly to Mao and Chou En Lai. He believes in balance of power.