We have postponed the proclamations in Laoag and Tuguegarao because of a typhoon that is hitting Northern Luzon.
And we may not be able to go back to Manila tomorrow as the weather is deteriorating fast.
The intermediaries to Mayor Bangon Akatur of Buldon arrived at about 5:30 PM from Cotabato. ·
They had been joined in Parang by Com. Raul Beloso and were brought to Davao by Gens. [Domingo] Tutaan and [Eduardo] Garcia.
Mayor Bangon Akatur promised to come to see me for a peace settlement by Tuesday, the 17th. I hope to be in Manila then. So they would have to be ferried by plane.
He confirmed my suspicion that there were Ilaga bands still burning homes and shooting down Muslims.
Official Gazette for August 13, 1971: President Marcos conferred with his emissaries in Davao City, who came back in the afternoon and reported to him that Mayor Bangon Aratuc of Buldon was willing to meet him in Manila.
The President stayed the whole day in Davao and waited for the return of the intermediaries, namely, Chairman Raul Beloso of the Small Farmers Commission, Mayors Sansalona Biruar of Parang and Michael Sinsuat of Upi, and Bongsar Tumauis. While waiting for the return of the intermediaries, the President conferred with local executives on improvement projects and worked on official papers.
Following his 30-minute meeting with the intermediaries, the President ordered the Department of Health to send medical and health teams to Buldon as soon as possible, and the NB1 and other civilian investigation agencies to send investigators to look into the grievances which Mayor Aratuc and others would bring to his attention.The President also sent back the intermediaries to inform Mayor Aratuc of the actions he had taken, and to continue further negotiations. Mayor Aratuc had told the emissaries that he was ready to explain to the President the circumstances leading to the outbreak of hostilities between the Muslims and the government troops, and that he was willing to turn over authority over the municipality of Buldon to anyone except the military on condition that his people would not be harmed.
Because of his inability to return to Manila, the President asked Labor Secretary Bias F. Ople to deliver for him his message at the opening ceremonies of Linggo ng Wikang Pambansa, held at the Malacanang Maharlika Hall in the morning. In his prepared speech in Pilipino, the President said that obstacles notwithstanding, efforts toward the development of a Pilipino language would continue. “We believe that this language will remain alive and healthy and strong enough to enable it to overcome the difficulties in the way to full development,” the President said. When the Pilipino language shall have fully flowered, the President said, every Pilipino will take pride in using his own language and the unity of the country will have come true, “a unity brought about by a consensus on a national language.” The President stated that among the reasons for the slow development of the Pilipino language were the efforts wasted in endless debates on such matters as purism, the lack of technical and scientific terms, and regionalism. He said however that the drive toward the “development and propagation of the Pilipino language is moving ahead,” and has in fact gone a long way.
He did not like the sound of surrender as he claims he is not a criminal. And he felt aggrieved that the Constabulary were fighting them when the Moslems were on the receiving end of bullets from the “Ilagas” who were accompanied by PC [Philippine Constabulary] men.
He mentioned some PC men whom I ordered arrested and prosecuted.
But I ordered food and medical supplies with civilian doctors or medical teams and food to be first brought to Buldon from Parang as apparently there are many evacuees in the town suffering from hunger und illness.
One interesting sidelight of the apparently successful negotiations is the fact that the daughter-in-law of Mayor Akatur is an Ilocana teacher who tried to catch up with me in Cotabato City but arrived a few minutes late. So she guided my intermediaries to Buldon. Without her I am certain the intermediaries would not have been able to contact Mayor Akatur.
I am glad the Ilocanos are a pioneering adventurous race that reach such corners of the Philippines like Buldon!
Notes on Democracy is the Revolution
1.Include an explanation for the rejection of the communist answer of “abolition of private property.”
2. Present instances of Socialist or Communist countries reverting to the system of rewards for private initiative even within the framework of government or state enterprise and ownership of property.
Russia
Yugoslavia
The Scandinavian Countries
England
3. In the Philippine setting, violence in demonstrations and riots on the streets may attract attention and even sympathy if held to one or two instances. Beyond that, because of the experience of the family heads in the cruel and severe fighting of the last World War which saw the Philippines suffer some one million killed and the subsequent communist rebellion which saw a long state of instability after 1946, such violence is treated as an irritating inconvenience by the general public.