Official Gazette for April 16, 1971: PRESIDENT MARCOS had three farewell calls, including that of General and Madame Abdul Haris Nasution, who ended a six-day unofficial visit here.
In the morning, the President received Italian Ambassador Dante Matacotta, who bade goodbye after a four-and-a-half-year tour of duty in the Philippines. He intimated to the President during the call that he was being reassigned to Jordan. As a parting gift, he gave the President a folio of reproductions of Italian paintings.
Also in the morning, the President received Ambassador Rogelio de la Rosa, who paid a farewell call prior to his departure for The Hague, where he was assigned as this country’s envoy. De la Rosa spent six years in Cambodia: as Philippine ambassador.
Among other callers in the morning was a group of officials from Palembang, Cotabato. In the group were Mayor Druz Ali and Councilors Sixto Maluyo, Tranquilino Ramos, Sabino Manalo, and Salamin Martin, a lawyer with the Commission on National Integration. The officials discussed with him local problems, including the need for a survey of public lands in the municipality, and the issuance of titles to legal occupants of several parcels of land. The group also requested the President to initiate road construction projects in the locality, with assistance from armed forces engineers.
In the afternoon, the President and the First Lady, Imelda R. Marcos, had a pleasant 30-minute visit with General and Madame Nasution. The visiting couple went direct from Malacañang to the MIA, where they boarded their plane for Jakarta.
In-between all these calls, the President as usual worked on state papers and otherwise attended to state business.
Earlier, the President approved the hosting by the Philippine government of a course on the new United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA) and its data requirements and uses, scheduled to be held from the last week of April to the third week of May.
The new system provides a detailed and comprehensive framework for the systematic and integrated recording of the flows and stocks of an economy urgently required for planning and policy-making purposes in the developing countries.
The pressure of work prevented the President to attend the closing ceremony of Inventors Week. He sent Labor Secretary Blas F. Ople to deliver his speech for him, in which the President thanked the inventors for their contributions to the enrichment of Filipino life and said that the awards conferred on Filipino inventors for distinguished work are not alone a recognition of excellence but one way of honoring the “spirit of discovery,” the
What really happened in the [Jose B.] Laurel and [Fernando] Lopez cases? This was asked by Sen. [Alejandro] Almendras and Sen. [Dominador] Aytona last night and this morning by Sens. [Ambrosio] Padilla, [Magnolia] Antonino and [Wenceslao] Lagumbay.
“Why did you not help Laurel,” Almendras inquired almost arrogantly.
So I had to patiently explain to them the actual happenings in these two cases, pushing down my natural reaction to the impertinence.
I had to tell them that Laurel lost the speakership because he had gotten drunk and had publicly insulted from the rostrum and on the floor with curses that were unprintable.
We had called him up to find out if he needed help in keeping the speakership (Imelda phoned him) but he said that he had everything under control and there was no need for me to help him. Imelda even asked him if it was necessary for us to have a conference and he said no. So we left for the South by boat (Negros Occidental, Bohol, Surigao del Norte, Leyte del Sur and ______ Sur).
And while we were away from Manila, the incident of drunkenness and unprintable words occurred. And fed up, the congressmen deposed him.
With respect to the Lopezes, they libeled and slandered me in their media (The Manila Chronicle and the ABS-CBN TV-Radio) because they could not get from me the economic favors that they demanded.
Then the VP just resigned from the position of Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, released his resignation to the press before it was presented to me.
And since then, they have refused to meet with me except at the Meralco [Manila Electric Company] Bldg.
Gen. [Abdul Haris] Nasution departed at 4:30 PM.
Then golf up to 7:00PM. And the businessmans’ conference.
“seeking of new horizons.” He asserted that the government pledged to provide “the widest assistance and encouragement” to promote inventions and build up the body of inventors in the country.