Friday
Imelda is suffering from pain and from a deep sense of loss and sorrow for the abortion about which I have told her. She feels inadequate and has been crying her eyes out.
I have shed no tears for my unborn child but I have vowed that I shall cure this sick and ailing society that has brought about the anguish of my wife which caused the abortion. For the media has been vicious—it has condemned for a crime not charged, foisted gossip as truth and disregarded the rights of fair and impartial trial.
And this sick man who has committed perjury, libel and bribery has done me at least one favor. He has opened my eyes to this illness of our society that may yet destroy it. And my duty and mission is now to cure that illness.
Imelda will go to the Makati Medical Center tomorrow at 7:00 AM for D and C (Dilatation and Cur[ettage]) then rest the whole day and go to Malacañan in the evening.
We have just discovered that notwithstanding his protestations that he is a poor man, he has a one-year time deposit of P100,000 in the Ermita Branch of the Philippine National Bank.
This was confirmed tonight at 11:00 PM by Pres. [Eusebio] Villatuya of PNB who woke up his cashier who remembered this transaction.
But the cashier remembers it was a treasury warrant that was deposited of over P103,000.
However, there is something strange here because he is supposed to receive only P46,000 as retirement pay which he declared in his latest income tax return and which he declared as spent.
So where did the P100,000 come from?
And so he is not as poor as he claims.
His house in Japan was declared by him for $10,000 in 1960, $12,000 in 1963 and P20,000 in 1966 although the exchange rate was about P4 to the dollar.
Then he had deposits of $37,500 in the United States which he has not declared and now it cannot be traced in his declarations of income as well as property.
Makati Medical Center
10:30 PM June 3, 1972[1]
We brought Imelda to the hospital at 7:00 AM. She went direct to the operating room. Drs. Quintin Gomez and Dr. Paciencia Escalin Dicini anaesthetized her by 7:40 AM when Dras. [Gloria] Aragon and Isidro started the D and C (Dilatation and Curettage) the removal of the remnants of the aborted fetus from the uterus. They were through with the operation by 8:00 AM. And she woke up at 8:30 AM.
A medical bulletin was issued at 12:00 AM. I attach a copy.
We scarcely slept last night.
Studied the evidence and dictated an outline for trial and cross examination to [Francisco] Kits Tatad.
Pres. [Eusebio] Villatuya came to show the evidence of the P100,000 time deposit of [Eduardo] Quintero as of January 1972. But it was his gratuity of about P96,000.
Com. [Misael] Vera came to show his income tax returns showing Quintero had been cheating in his taxes, concealing his income and assets.
Met the media in a TV interview at 8:00 PM. I admitted I was bitter because I had lost a child and this was due to our sick society which I would try to reform within the short time that I had.
I hope the public does not give all kinds of meanings to this statement.
But I am bitter and angry!
Makati Medical Center
11:10 PM June 4, 1972[2]
Sunday
I have just answered a letter of Concon [Constitutional Convention] President [Diosdado] Macapagal wherein he asks whether I or Imelda are running for President in 1972. I wrote him through Kits [Francisco] Tatad that neither Imelda or I intend to run—I because I am disqualified by the constitution from a third term and Imelda because she has no intention to do so.
I asked him to do me the honor of furnishing me the original of his letter which he sent to media, so that I could answer him in more detail. And that he should expose the leadership that is sadly lacking in the convention.
Apparently Pres. Macapagal has decided to lay the blame on me for the failure of the convention.
Typical traitor and coward!
But from my point of view the Concon has become useless. Anything they will approve now will be rejected by the people in a plebiscite.
Judge Asuncion and Director [Jolly] Bugarin appeared at 9:40 PM in the Channel 9 TV program. Background on the search warrant on the [Eduardo] Quintero residence.
Creditable appearance.
Chief State Prosecutor [Emilio] Gancayco and Fiscal Mabutas appeared on Channel 5 in Raul Goco’s how on Justice. They also explained how the requisites for the issuance of a search warrant were complied with.
But the Times and the Herald as well as the Chronicle have been specially vicious printing alleged PNS [Philippine News Service] reports that the people and civic organizations believe the money in the Quintero residence was “planted.”
Transparent attempt to usurp judicial function and place me and the government in discredit.
[Joaquin] Chino Roces is behind all this. But the Sorianos are apparently behind him also. So I am beginning to believe that the plan is to completely discredit the Concon so that their interests are not prejudiced by a new and socially-oriented constitution.
It would be wise to look into this. The American Lobby is suspect here. Because under the plans of the Concon, the real estate owned by American firms would have to revert to the Republic in 3 to 5 years.
The Chinese Lobby is also suspect because of the problems of nationalization or Filipinization.
But everybody is taking advantage of it—Liberals, activists, Americans, Chinese etc. They are all fishing in troubled waters.
The American Embassy is also interested in the failure of the Convention because of the threat to abolish the American bases in the Philippines.
Delegate Miguel Cuaderno was one of the principal movants and mentors of Quintero. And Cuaderno has many American clients. So has Pio Pedrosa of Prudential Bank.
Cuaderno is supposed to have said that “Ang bata mo ay tila walang lakas loob gumawa ng expose,” referring to Quintero. This was addressed to Delegate Dioscoroso [Decoroso] Rosales of Samar.
All the prospective presidential candidates are now bonding together against me.[3]
As soon as my letter to Macapagal to the effect that Imelda and I have no intention of running in 1973 comes out tomorrow they will start quarreling among themselves all over again.
There will soon be a crisis in government because of the non-passage of the budget.
Then the communists will over-react and start violence. And the elements in the military long preparing for a coup d’etat will execute their plans.
If these happen, then we would have to make a decision to use emergency powers.
1:00 PM June 5,[4] 1972[5]
[1] Official Gazette for June 3, 1972: THE PRESIDENT had one of those setbacks in life, when the First Lady suffered an abortion at about 1 a.m. aboard RPS Ang Pangulo, where the First Lady has been staying since early May. At 7 a.m., the President and Dr. Gloria Aragon, Mrs. Marcos attending obstetrician, took the First Lady to the Makati Medical Center where under general anaesthesia she underwent completion of abortion by curretage. He worked on urgent matters of state, even as he kept the First Lady company at the hospital.
[2] Official Gazette for June 4, 1972: THE PRESIDENT issued an executive order classifying the entry of foreign correspondents into the Philippines under the category of temporary visitors. The President classified, for the guidance of all government agencies concerned, the entry of foreign correspondents, and their families, into the Philippines as falling exclusively under the category of temporary visitors as provided for in Section 9(a) of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, as amended. The President stayed the whole day at the Makati Medical Center where the First Lady underwent completion of abortion by curretage. In the course of the day, the President, among others, addressed a letter to Constitutional Convention President Diosdado Macapagal who had asked in a letter released to the media, that the President and the First Lady declare publicly that they would retire from active political life at the end of 1973. In his letter, which was also released directly to the media as a means of getting it to the president of the Constitutional Convention, the President said: “You are well aware of the fact that under our present Constitution, I am disallowed from running for the Presidency after 1973, and I have repeatedly stated in the past, and I state it once again now, that I have no intention whatsoever of running for the Presidency in 1973.” Speaking for the First Lady, the President said that “she has no intention of running for the Presidency in 1973,” adding that “the First Lady and I have stated this repeatedly in writing, in interviews with media and in public statements. Unfortunately you and others have seen it fit to disregard these statements and believe only what you have chosen to believe.” Continuing, the President said: “I do not know what your real motives are, inasmuch as I cannot see the connection between the matter of our candidacy or non-candidacy and the function of the convention. But I have one appeal to make. I now appeal to you to perform your duties at the convention, irrespective of any views that have been or will be expressed from any source, including myself.”
[3] It is unknown where this and subsequent sentences come from, because the last page of this entry is missing from PCGG.
[4] The second page of this entry is misdated as June 6.
[5] Official Gazette for June 5, 1972: THE PRESIDENT took Mrs. Marcos home at 11 a.m. after the First Lady was allowed to leave the Makati Medical Center upon her request. After making sure that Mrs. Marcos was resting well following the short trip from the hospital to the Palace, the President resumed his desk work.