We have just come from the NP [Nationalista Party] Bandwagon 71’. I believe we have made a good presentation of the issues and a final appeal. I attach my notes.
This is the meeting de avance by television which is nationwide through radio.
The candidates also presented good appeals.
Sen. Pres. [Gil] Puyat was there. So was Sen. Pres. Pro Temp. [Tempore] [Jose] Roy, Sen. Floor Leader [Arturo] Tolentino (for a time Sen. Doy [Salvador] Laurel), the senatorial candidates except Sen. [Alejandro] Almendras who is in Davao and Former First Lady Inday [Leonila] Silay Garcia who is in Bohol.
Instead of the dull speeches after speeches of the LP [Liberal Party], we had dances and skits and songs.
Luncheon for Dame Margot Fonteyn at 1:00 PM, then I attended to the many requests for funds which were all rejected as we would be exceeding the legal limit of expenditure.
No golf today as we made the last-minute preparations for the elections.
I fly at 7:00 AM tomorrow to vote in Batac and return before noon.
2:00 AM November 8, 1971[1]
[1] Official Gazette for November 8, 1971: PRESIDENT MARCOS left Malacañang at 8 a.m. for the Manila International Airport where he boarded a light plane for his hometown of Batac to vote. As in previous years, the President cast his vote at the town’s Precinct No. 11-A, located in a small industrial shop of the Batac Central Elementary School, across the street from the Marcos’ residence. He was assigned Ballot No. 3777 and was the. 72nd elector to cast his vote, out of a total 154 voters registered in the precinct. Interviewed by media men upon emerging from the polling place, the President said that every election, especially after being elected to public office, he had taken every available means of transportation to reach his hometown, regardless of where he happened to be at the time. He said he would like to hold it as a symbol for the Filipino people to appreciate the value of the right to vote. Landing at the Gabu airport in Laoag at 9:35 a.in. aboard a light “Kingaire” plane, the President was met by local leaders headed by Gov. Elizabeth Marcos-Keon, Reps. Roque Ablan, Jr. and Simeon Valdez, Laoag City Mayor Eulalio Siazon and Mayor Feliciano Asuncion of Batac. From the airport, the President motored direct to Batac, some 17 kilometers away, and upon arrival, he first dropped at the town church to offer a brief prayer, a ritual he had followed for years before proceeding to the nearby schoolhouse to vote. The President was in the polling place for 10 minutes. With him was his mother, Mrs. Josefa Edralin-Marcos, who was assigned the next ballot, No. 3778. The President was listed down as No. 13 in the voters’ registry and his mother No. 14. The President was back in Malacañang at 2 p.m. After a belated lunch, the President rested briefly and then worked on official papers in his private study. Toward evening, the President followed the trend of voting as reported by various television election programs.