The export incentives bill conference committee report has just been approved by the senate. They are now taking up the peace and order fund.
Sec. Felix Makasiar of Justice whom I nominated as Justice of the Supreme Court was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. So I will ask him to take his oath tomorrow at 4:00 PM and then appoint Dean Vicente Abad Santos (formerly of the UP [University of the Philippines] College of Law) ad interim as the second special session ends tonight at 12:00 o’clock.
Met with the congressional leaders for lunch at 12:30 PM and we agreed to call another (third) special session for September 7, 1970 (Monday). We agreed to take up the following in the third special session: 1. Peace and Order Fund; 2. Authority to borrow; 3. Amendment of the Tariff Code (removal of the classification “and others”); 4. Cooperatives (agricultural); 5. Oil exploration; 6. NPC [National Power Corporation] charter; 7. NWSA; 8. PNB [Philippine National Bank] increase of capital; 9. Tax on idle lands for land reform.
Official Gazette for August 1, 1970: President Marcos spent most of the morning in conference with leaders of Congress, as the current special session looked forward to adjournment at midnight. The President urged the leaders to expedite passage of all important bills he had certified, pointing out the importance of the proposed Measures to the various programs of government.
Present at the conference were Senate President Gil J. Puyat, Spaker Jose P. Laurel, Jr., Senate President Protempore Jose J. Roy, Speaker Protempore Jose Aldeguer, Senate Majority Floorleader Arturo M. Tolentino, House Majority Floorleader Marcelino Veloso, Sen. Wenceslao R. Lagumbay, Reps. Jose Alberto and Natalio P. Castillo, Secretary of Justice Felix V. Makasiar, Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile and Press Secretary Francisco S. Tatad.
In the afternoon, the President presided at the ceremony launching Land Reform Week, which was featured by the signing of an agreement putting up a pilot project in Nueva Ecija which will lead the way toward wider land reform and increased productivity for farmers under the land reform program.
Present at the rites were Nueva Ecija Governor Eduardo Joson; Reps. Leopoldo Diaz and Angel Conception, Jr., both of that province; Agriculture Undersecretary Isosceles Pascual, former Sen. Manuel P. Manahan, president of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement; Dean Jeremias Montemayor, president of the Federation of Free Farmers of the Philippines; LA Deputy Governor Ernesto Valdez and Hector Moreno of the Rice and Corn Administration, all participating in the project as advisors; US-AID Director Thomas Niblock, whose agency is providing $500,000 to meet the project’s foreign exchange needs.
Aside from these two activities, the President confined himself to desk work. Among others, he approved the deportation of three foreign nationals considered undesirable; and submitted the nomination of Secretary of Justice Felix V. Makasiar as associate justice of the Supreme Court to the Commission on Appointments for confirmation.
The President worked at his desk through the afternoon and a good part of the evening.
Sen. Pres. [Gil] Puyat seemed lukewarm when I mentioned the appointment of Dean Abad Santos. He asked instead for some minor appointments to government corporate boards for his men.
I have to call Congressman [Floro] Crisologo as he was opposing the confirmation of Sec. of Finance Cesar Virata who has refused to open Cabugao-Salomague port to international traffic on my orders as it would open the floodgates to smuggling. Cesar was finally confirmed but this shows how unreasonable Crisologo has become.
All the other congressmen and senators had their own requests for releases and appointments. Some want contracts and deals from which they would make money.
We begin Land Reform week tomorrow. Today I proclaimed the whole province of Nueva Ecija as a land reform area. Only 6 towns and one city (Palayan) had not been declared land reform areas.
And I had the memorandum of agreement between the National Food [Administration] Commission to which I appointed VP [Fernando] Lopez as chairman and Gov. [Conrado] Estrella of the Land Reform Administration for the support of the two pilot projects on land reform, Nueva Ecija and Zamboanga del Sur. U.S. Aid’s [Agency for International Development] Niblack was there, and so was PRRM’s [Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement] Manuel Manahan.