Tired out; so slept last night at 10:30 PM but woke at 3:30 PM after five hours, then catnapped till 6:00 PM.
Imelda woke up and had bladicardia [sic] [bradycardia] higher blood pressure of 120/80 when her regular blood pressure is 100/70. And she could not sleep. It turned out she had taken two cups of black coffee the night before and she does not take coffee.
So I directed the nurse to give her a tablet of ______.
Left by car at 6:45 AM on the car of the mayor which was all shot from the bad road. Arrived at San Fernando Airport at 8:30 AM. Helicoptered to Bued River with Sec. D. [David] Consunji. Arrived at 9:30 after a 30 minute flight. Eng. Anolin promised the bailey bridge up by tomorrow afternoon. They were still driving steel 1-beams or piles with a pile driver with a crane.
Ordered the grouping of all engineer equipment and personnel to concentrate on the projects by priority.
Helicoptered to Lingayen at 9:50 AM. Arrived 10:05 AM. Distributed palay seeds as well as vegetable seeds. The tents were too hot even with the flaps up.
Official Gazette for August 8, 1972: PRESIDENT MARCOS formally launched the nation’s massive rehabilitation program designed to head off serious dislocation of the economy following one of the most-destructive floods to hit the country in years. The President returned to his Malacañang-in-the-Field headquarters in Lingayen, Pangasinan where he personally distributed palay seeds as well as seeds of assorted short-time crops to farmers whose fields had been wiped out by the floodwaters.
Work on the repair and reconstruction of damaged roads, bridges and other public installations also went into full swing all over the disaster areas with the view to restoring transportation arteries and expedite the return to normalcy of these localities.
“Unless the normal flow of traffic is restored there are bound to be shortages in essential commodities and people in the affected areas would continue to suffer,” the President said.
Taking a helicopter, the Chief Executive went around La Union and Pangasinan towns urging public works engineers and government agricultural technicians in the field to hurry up the reconstruction of damaged installations and the extension of assistance for the rehabilitation of agricultural farms.
The President also directed the fieldmen of the Bureau of Plant Industry to cut down the red tape in the distribution of palay seeds to farmers; whom he found were made to sign a number of forms before being given their share of seeds for replanting.
In Lingayen, the President also held a series of conference with various officials from the ravaged provinces.
The President returned about 1 p.m. to San Fernando, La Union where he had lunch at the Philippine Navy base in Poro Point.
He then resumed his conference with local officials over the progress of relief and rehabilitation work in their respective jurisdictions.
Sec. E. A. [Estafania Aldaba] Lim arrived from Nueva Ecija by helicopter.
Left Lingayen at 11:30 AM. Arrived at San Fernando at 12:00 AM. Imelda was not yet there. Retired to the Poro Resthouse for lunch. Imelda arrived at about 1:30 PM.
We decided to stay so we could see the beach house at Paratong (or Sta. Rita) Agoo, La Union. When I woke from my nap Imelda had gone to San Fernando to start the inoculation program. After looking around for a guide to the beach house, I took the helicopter for Agoo. Col. Lapeña knew the place. I landed on the beach which is a five wide although black-sand or iron sand beach. Sent back the helicopter to San Fernando at 6:00 PM and I was going to wait for the family at Cong. [Jose] Aspiras’s house at the beach.
The beach house that Imelda asked to be built near Jose Aspiras’ house is supposed to be my birthday gift in Sept. 11th. It is a small nipa house of bamboo walling. The madre cacao posts that do not rest on the ground but on cement foundations are beginning to sprout leaves.
It is half finished, the rains having stopped the work. But it looks charming and comfortable.
I like the beach as it is wide. It is about 100 meters of clean level sand from the house to the water’s edge. The water is a meter high for a hundred yards out to the sea. This may make it difficult for the deep keel boats to approach the beach.
Mayor Sergio Osmeña’s [Jr.] plane crashed in Cebu and he suffered minor injuries.
The people in Baguio are still wondrous about the sun that we brought to the city.
It has been sunny the whole day even in Baguio.