11:45 PM June 13th
Official Gazette for June 11, 1973: MUSLIM WORLD League delegation which has just returned to Manila from a fact-finding mission in Mindanao said they were very much impressed by the progress in the island’s development. The visiting Muslim leaders told the President they were convinced of the Government’s sincerity in its efforts to uplift the lot of Muslim Filipinos. The President received the members of the delegation in Malacañang following their three-day-tour of Marawi City, Lanao and Cotabato where they talked with government officials, Filipino Muslim leaders and returning refugees. Datu Syed Ibrahim Alsagof, head of the delegation, said he and the members of his party witnessed actual proof of the rapid pace of development as they toured the Muslim areas. He added that local Muslim leaders they had talked with spoke highly of the President’s concern for their welfare and expressed favor for the continuation of Martial Law. The President, on the other hand, assured the delegation that the Government will continue with its program of development in Mindanao.
THE GOVERNMENT has expanded its campaign against business mal-practices to include erring gasoline service stations and dealers of petroleum products. Secretary of Trade Troadio T. Quiazon Jr. directed agents of the Fair Trade Board to carry out the campaign against erring service station operators and dealers of oil products, particularly liquefied petroleum products. In another move, the trade department ordered provincial commercial and regional supervising commercial agents to coordinate in the apprehension of rice and corn dealers and outlets who do not attach price tags on the cereals. The Trade department also directed authorized Price Control Council agents to coordinate in the apprehension of distributors, retailers, and outlets of rice and corn who fail to indicate the prices as pegged by the PCC.
THE GOVERNMENT has launched a nationwide information drive to keep consumers posted everyday on the actual market prices of basic commodities. The drive was launched jointly by the Bureau of Commerce and the Philippine Constabulary. Commerce Director Epifanio B. Castillejos and Brig. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, PC chief, signed a memorandum agreement which would facilitate a daily compilation of data on market prices and supply of selected commodities throughout the country. The information drive was in response to the clamor of the consuming public for a more up-to-date and accurate information on the actual market price of commodities in all cities, provincial capitals and key areas of the Philippines.
LAGUNA LAKE Development Authority’s water-quality laboratory—a P1 million project built to help harness the water resources of the Laguna de Bay is now in operation. Located in Pasig, Rizal, the LLDA’s water-quality laboratory will help determine whether the lake could provide the Greater Manila Area with potable water supply. The laboratory will also be used in determining the feasibility of constructing a system of hydraulic control to be installed at the Marikina tributary of the Pasig River to prevent pollution of the lake by salt water from Manila Kay and the polluted Pasig River. The LLDA laboratory is a joint project of the Philippine Government, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
THE GOVERNMENT has finally solved the country’s cement glut (excess production) through export promotions. This was announced by the Cement Industry Authority, an agency created recently by Presidential Decree No. 94. The problem of excess production of cement was solved following export offers from Okinawa, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Hongkong, Australia, Bangladesh, Libya, Nigeria, Persian Gulf countries, Africa, West Germany, the United States and the Trust Territories (Guam, Marianas Islands, Saipan, Micronesia and others). With a yearly total exportation of some two million metric tons of cement to these countries, the Philippines expects to earn some S40 million annually in foreign exchange. These export commitments abroad would solve the local cement over-production problem of some 2.5 million tons annually.
THE GOVERNMENT has adopted a mailed-fist policy in the drive against the drug menace in •’view of the seriousness of the problem. But while the Government is uncompromising against drug traffickers, it is forgiving and helpful to unfortunate victims of drug addiction. The Government program against drug abuse was spelled out by Health Secretary Clemente S. Gatmaitan during the turnover of narcotics equipment to the Philippines by the USAID. Secretary Gatmaitan said that unfortunate victims are receiving rehabilitation treatment jointly from the Government and private sectors.
THE GOVERNMENT has already funneled some P567,815, in the massive road construction projects in Sulu to hasten the socio-economic growth in the predominantly Muslim area. Only recently, Bureau of Public Highways Commissioner Baltazar Aquino released a total of P67,815 to the provincial district highway engineer for the development and beautification of the five-kilometer Jolo-Gandasuli-Caonayan road; Jolo-Bud Daho; Jolo-Taglibi; Jolo-Airport road; Marina Street-Scott road and Loay street. According to the plan drawn up by Commissioner Aquino, box culverts along the sidewalks of these roads will be put up. The sidewalks will be cemented in order to protect the box culverts from breaking. The latest Government beautification projects are expected to be completed at the end of the month.
Official Gazette for June 12, 1973: THE PRESIDENT articulated the true meaning of independence as the triumph of the Filipino people over injustice, oppression and corruption after centuries of frustration and despair. Highlighting the 75th anniversary celebration of Freedom Day at the Luneta the President, m a 10-minute speech, traced the travails of the nation which said, has pushed away with one swift and single blow “the dark of night.” Speaking extemporaneously in English and Tagalog, the President said “there was rebellion in our country every other year during that long, long period, but there was no freedom, there was just nope and dreams.” The country seemed doomed to sufferings and suppressions—freedom was like an elusive bird that slipped from our hand, the President said. “We had an independent Republic but that Republic was neither democratic nor strong. It seemed we could not rise from failures. We didn’t have the courage to change ourselves’ he said. The people had overcome all of these this year, he said. “This is our true independence.” (See pp. 5592-J to 5592-L for full text of the President’s Independence Day address.)
THE PRESIDENT said that the army has developed not only into an army of warriors but also into a legion of builders and has emerged as an agent of reforms. The President voiced these sentiments in a speech during the induction of the new officers of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association aboard the presidential yacht Ang Pangulo. He attributed part of the reforms in the New Society to the dedication and wide-ranging capabilities of the army, in the execution of the reform program, and in stabilizing society in general.
DEPARTMENT of Public Information Secretary Francisco S. Tatad deplored the bitter irony in the fact that the very reason for which media were help up by the West as a shining example of press freedom and independence, was also a major factor in the continued imprisonment of the people in conditions that negated and restricted our independence. He made this statement during the third and last day of the symposium, “Dynamics of Development” which was sponsored by the Department of Public Information. He stressed that the organs of communications must not only be engaged, they must at the same time be professionally prepared, which is particularly true of the new media of communications that are highly technical, such as radio, television and film. As for the print media, Mr. Tatad urged that the media must adopt for themselves a system of professional training, not unlike the training that lawyers and doctors have to go through. He said the training must be both technical and cultural; technical insofar as media skills must be learned, cultural in the sense that the media practitioner must be acculturated to the ways of the new.
BUREAU of Plant Industry researchers have developed a new highyielding peanut variety suitable for processing into quality products. Named BPI P-9, the new peanut variety is well-suited for the manufacture of peanut butter. The bean yielding of BPI P-9 ranged from 1.99 to 2.33 metric tons per hectare with an average of 1.52 m.t. per hectare. It consistently outyielded EG bunch and CES 101, both approved by the Philippine Seed Board, by an average of 320 kg. per hectare and 150 kg. per hectare, respectively. The variety is a cross between EG Red and Fante No. 7, It has an upright growth habit (bunchy) with central stems usually reaching an average height of 63 cm. when growth under conditions favorable to planting peanuts. It matures in 100 to 110 days.
Official Gazette for June 13, 1973: THE PRESIDENT issued a general order prescribing staggered schedules of office hours for industries, factories, plants, public and private offices and commercial establishments and schools in the Metropolitan Manila area. The revised schedule of working hours will be enforced starting June 18 except on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. It will remain in force in Manila, Pasay City, Quezon City and Caloocan City and in the towns of Las Pinas, Marikina, Malabon, Parañaque, Makati, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pasig, Navotas and Valenzuela. Under General Order No. 31, the staggered schedules would mean the full utilization of constricted highways facilities within 24-hour day period, thereby eliminating the buildup of traffic congestion. Until otherwise ordered by the President, the revised schedule will continue for the duration of the national emergency.
SECRETARY of Trade Troadio T. Quiazon Jr. announced that corporations and establishments whose shares of stocks are sold or offered for sale to the public will have to conform with the new rules and regulations covering in the form and content of financial statements starting July 1, 1973. The new rules were drafted by the Securities and Exchange Commission in line with the changes and development taking place in the New Society to spur economic growth. The rules were finalized after several public hearings conducted by the SEC. Affected by the regulations are issuers of securities traded in securities exchanges or over-the-counter markets, as well as corporations with 20 or more stockholders.
DEPARTMENT of Labor issued a warning against the employment of young laborers in hazardous occupations. Acting Secretary of Labor Amado G. Inciong issued this order in connection with Presidential Decree No. 148, which provides that any person between 14 and 18 years old may be employed without discrimination on account of age but in non-hazardous occupations. The department issued a list of hazardous occupations: 1) farming, fishing, hunting, logging and related occupations; 2) Mining, quarrying and related works; 3) transport, communication and navigational occupations; 4) service, sports, and related work; 5) Professional, technical and related work; 6) All
Written at the Heroes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Hall during the dinner for
our guests
We have been occupied by the arrival of Van Cliburn on Monday noon. After the Mecca Muslim delegation who had gone to the south (Marawi and the Mindanao State University) and are favorably disposed to the plants and actuations of government, I attended to the routine work.
Lunch with the new guests (Van Cliburn is accompanied by Harvey Shrafman, a textile and insurance man who is his general factotum).
We gave a formal dinner for “the outstanding mortal of our times whose name is indelibly stamped for all time on music.”
Tuesday was Independence Day. We raised the flag at 7:00 AM, offered a wreath at the
occupations in the processing and preparation of drugs and chemical products involving exposure to dangerous chemicals; 7) All occupations in the manufacturing, handling and transporting of explosives, toxic, corrosive, poisonous and noxious components and flammable liquids in bulk; 8) All activities in any workroom, building, premises or any place where medium is stored, kept or processed or used in the manufacture of self-luminous or other radioactive substances.
THE PRESIDENT paid tribute to seven national artists “who are in the vanguard of the nation’s march toward the fulfillment of its destiny and the establishment of its true identity through their vision and integrity.” The President delivered his remarks after the First Lady had presented the awards to the widows of Mr. Carlos V. Francisco and Mr. Amado V. Hernandez and to the other national artists: Mrs. Francisca Reyes Aquino, Mr. Antonio J. Molina, Mr. Juan F. Nakpil, Mr. Guillermo Tolentino and Mr. Jose Garcia Villa.
INFORMATION SECRETARY Francisco S. Tatad said that the fulfillment of the country’s destiny “lies in the attainment of the humanist future in which, the wealth of the nation is equivalent in all its aspects to the wealth of the people.” Speaking before the Philippine Executive Academy at the Sulu Hotel in Quezon City, Secretary Tatad said that this humanist future was one “in which the Gross National Product is not increased at the expense of the per capita income, neither one in which individual progress will have been made totally incompatible with national progress.” In pursuit of the modernization of the economy, the secretary urged the following: 1) Total commitment of Government to planning economic development, to centralize planning in the National Economic and Development Authority. 2) Formulation of a program that would interest foreign capital to operate in the economy. 3) Direction of private enterprise and foreign investments to areas that yield high production and exploit to the maximum the country’s hidden mineral wealth.
DEPARTMENT of Justice issued a ruling in effect making it easier for the Bureau of Census and Statistics to gather data from government and private persons or entities, Justice Secretary Vicente Abad that the census bureau can secure data from persons or entities by addressing them merely by their designations or position and not by their true name or surname. But if a criminal action is brought against a person or entity for refusing to accomplish the questionnaire or form sent by the Bureau, the complaint or information sheet must state the true name or surname of the person or entity. The Secretary of Justice issued this opinion in reply to a question from Director Tito Mijares of the Bureau of Census and Statistics.
THE PRESIDENT conveyed the nation’s gratitude to other nations of the world for their sympathetic understanding of “our aspirations as a people.” He made the statement during the traditional exchange of toast with members of the diplomatic corps at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in connection with the observance of the Philippine Independence. “On this day, the 75th anniversary of our nation, we stand proud to be able to deal with your countries as an independent and free nation,” he said in response to a toast offered by the chiefs of diplomatic missions.
DEPARTMENT of Trade has banned the exportation of narra logs and palasan poles (rattan) to prevent the depletion of the vital raw materials. Acting on the complaints of furniture-makers and exporters, Secretary of Trade Troadio T. Quiazon Jr. directed the National Cottage Industries Development Authority to take the necessary steps to ban the export of the products until the domestic requirements are first fully supplied.
monument of Rizal. Then parade at 9:00 AM. And I spoke for ten minutes at 11:00 AM. Very hot and humid.
I delivered the shortest Independence Day on record.
I followed the theme that at last with “one single bold sweep we have cast away the nightmare of the past, the heartbreak, the sorrow and the tears.
We have burst out into the light of day—a new sunrise, a new land, a new people with a new heart.
Yesterday was despair, today we are truly redeemed and free.”
At 4:00 PM, the award ceremonies “Parangal sa Alagad nang [sic] Sining” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines to the Seven National Artists.
Then Dinner at Ang Maharlika for Van Cliburn with the crowd of Imelda up to 3:00 PM.
Slept at 4:00 AM.
Worked on the procurement of crude oil from Saudi Arabia and Iran through the Saudi Arabian ambassador here and the Iranian ambassador in Tokyo through Amb. [Roberto] Benedicto.
Exercised for the first time in three days.