Arrived from Ilocos Norte by Fokker at 11:10 AM.
Press Interview at 1:00 AM [sic].
- Bued River Bridge opened to traffic at 9:00 AM. By 12:00 AM [sic] about 1,000 trucks had passed the bridge.
- Ordered air photography and physical survey to determine the encroachments on the river and estero beds. These encroachments should be removed after receipt of notice—including those belonging to big corporations.
Squatters (poor homeless displaced persons) will be resettled in the Carmona area or in the new Agri-Industrial area to be set up after Marquina-Infanta East West Road has opened up the virgin areas.
Sugar is still scarce in the market. I am ready to order the confiscation of all stocks.
Weather good. Played golf but brownout stopped the game after the first five holes.
Official Gazette for August 10, 1972: PRESIDENT MARCOS congratulated government highway engineers for the speedy repair of the Bued river bridge in Rosario, La Union which was reopened to general traffic. It is the only road artery to the Ilocos region.
In a message flashed from the Presidential plane en route back to Manila from Laoag, Ilocos Norte, the President at 10 a.m. told the engineers:
“Congratulations for the fast restoration of Bued river bridge to general traffic. People from the North certainly are grateful. Keep up the good work.”
Upon arrival in Malacañang, the President ordered the mapping, by aerial photography of rivers in Manila and Central Luzon, even as he directed the Department of Public Works and Communications to get old maps of these rivers with the view to determining the illegal constructions thereat.
The President likewise ordered the removal of said illegal constructions should the owners themselves fail to remove them.
He directed the Secretary of Public Works and Communications to coordinate with the Philippine Air Force and the Bureau of Lands on the taking of aerial photographs, starting with the Pasig River, and to pinpoint to him who are squatting “whether they are big or small.”
In issuing the order, the President also appealed to corporations and persons concerned to cooperate with the national government in its efforts to prevent floods in Manila by clearing the channel of the Pasig River and the esteros.
The President also directed the Department of Public Works and Communications to start the dredging of Bulacan River and the clearing up of a channel to provide an outlet for the floodwaters.
The President continued devoting most of his time to the urgent task of relief and rehabilitation. Among the reports he received was that of the Infrastructure Operations Center on road repairs being undertaken in the Greater Manila area by the Bureau of Public Highways and army engineers.
A low pressure area building up east of Catanduanes.
I insert Intelligence Reports in Envelope XXXIV-C and D.