Written at 11:00 AM
Dec. 25, 1972 as we
slept at 4:00 AM after a
magulo, hilarious Christmas
party of the Romualdezes and the
Marcoses in the Palace complete with an impromptu program
Of singing and the children’s “Bethlehem”
Christmas is Christmas only because Imelda is alive.
I have known the deep sense of loss of tragedy—Surrender in Bataan, the death of father at the height of the Battle for Liberation—but I had never felt the complete, deep and overwhelming grief and despair that swept me when the news was told me (of course wrongly) that Imelda had been stabbed fatally at the Nayon on Dec. 7th, 1972.
Then the cold fury that spent itself in two days of investigations and order for the fighting in the South and Isabela.
Imelda wrote us all Christmas greetings with her left hand—”First Grade scrawl” she laughingly referred to it.
She has no serious trauma.
Official Gazette for December 24, 1972: PHASE TWO OF THE Operation Land Transfer launched a month ago by the Department of Agrarian Reform in the nine pilot municipalities almost crossed the finish line with 95 per cent of the tenant-tillers interviewed and 75 per cent of the barrios surveyed. A report submitted to the President stated that 11,467 out of 12,000 tenant-farmers were identified while 259 out of 344 barrios have been surveyed. Five of the nine pilot projects have passed through the parcellary mapping phase totalling 4,179 sketches made. Topping the list for the complete identification of tenants were San Mateo, Isabela; Plaridel, Bulacan; Biñan and Calamba, Laguna; while capping the list for the complete survey of barrios were Zaragosa, Nueva Ecija; San Mateo, Isabela; Plaridel, Bulacan; Biñan and Calamba, Laguna.
WITH PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 27, President Marcos placed in proper focus and perspective the vital role that land reform plays in the building of a new social order. The decree releases the tenant-farmers from the straight-jacket of feudal relations, transfers to them the ownership of the land they till and provides the instruments and mechanism with which they could carry out their complete emancipation. Needless to state, emancipation is not conferred. It is not a matter of fiats or pronouncements. It involves a process of struggle by which the tenants, given the necessary “instruments and mechanism,” translate their aspirations into reality. Thus, the decree emphasizes the importance of agricultural cooperatives, making these the basis for tenant- farmers to become eventually the owners of the lands they till.
TEN MORE OUTLAWS who participated in the aborted uprising in Marawi City last October 21 and 22 surrendered with their firearms to PC Chief Brig. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos at the Mindanao State University compound in Marawi. A total of 8,505 assorted firearms, including high power automatic weapons, collected in the two Lanao provinces, were also presented to Brig. Gen. Ramos.
CAMARINES NORTE will produce some 120,000 cavans more of rice this season despite sporadic attacks of pests and diseases on crops. Barring typhoons or floods, the province will easily realize this increase over its previous rice production. The average yield of rice in the province is now 70 cavans per hectare.
As I was starting to write this she passed by and seeing me, for the moment, deep in thought she smiled, “A penny for your thoughts.” We had been talking in the bedroom before this when she came to my bed and snuggled close as I cuddled her, about our reservations about the trip to Ilocos Norte because of the warnings not to attend public meetings and perhaps where the crowd’s enthusiasm could not be restrained.
And my thoughts were on the decision I had to make on whether to postpone the plebiscite on the new constitution indefinitely and whether to order Congress not to meet even on regular session on Jan. 22nd 1973 notwithstanding the opinion previously submitted by the senators and some congressmen that Congress retains the right to legislate.
A crisis has actually developed. Fighting in Sulu, Basilan and Zamboanga del Sur as well as Isabela, Tarlac, Bulacan and Quirino continue. I have had to order some Marchetti planes for counter-insurgency, the extension of the Zamboanga airfield from 5,000 feet to 8,000 feet so as to accommodate our jet fighters. The evacuees in Mindanao and Sulu, Cam. [Camarines] Sur and Isabela have not been returned to their farms or houses.
Commander Soliman (Traditionalist or PKP [Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas] or Moscow-Oriented Commander of the UGFO [Urban Guerrilla Force] true name Pastor Tabenas alias Clement, Robert and Marcial) confessed that the Russian (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) had been contributing “dollar assistance” to the PKP. The documents seized at the house of Francisco Baltazar confirmed this. The dollar account is in the Fuji Bank in Tokyo in Atty. Homobono Adaza’s name. In 12 December 1972 the arms cache of 300 M-2 carbines, 3 M16 rifles, 10 latest model rockets with launchers, 9 drums of fragmentary grenades and 30,000 rounds of M16 and carbine ammunition was seized at the residence of Rex Lores at Bo. [Barrio] Pio, Marulas, Valenzuela, Bulacan. Francisco Nemenzo who has been captured was the key figure in the arrangements with Rex Lores for the transfer of the military hardware from the “Crisologos” to the PKP and the distribution of the hardware to various caches.
I attach the NICA [National Intelligence Coordinating Agency] report on this.
The Maoists are getting active again.
And the front organization advisers, Tañada and Barrera, seem to have joined up with the Supreme Court justices and now the senators are in the show insisting upon the sessions on Jan. 22nd, 1973 to pass legislation and conduct investigations – the conspiracy or spontaneous joint action to erode the authority of martial law.
They question my power to decree appropriation, taxes and codes. They even threaten to conduct investigations about the decisions and acts pursuant to my proclamations, orders and decrees.
So we are again under attack from the left and the right. This is the same old fight. But we are now faced with more sophisticated enemies.
I am considering the idea of directing the Jan 15th plebiscite into a referendum of martial law, how long the people want it and whether the people want Congress to meet again in session. This could be done by the barrio captains under the supervision of the Dept. of Local Governments.
With this popular mandate I could order the Congress not to meet and to await the results of a plebiscite whether it is postponed—indefinitely or to a certain day.
Imelda gave me a fantastic coin collection for Christmas.