[p.79] Against predictions of violence, the Plaza Miranda rally turns out to be peaceful. Some of the leaders shouted for the crowd to go to Malacañang but the crowd would not follow.
But the KM [Kabataang Makabayan] and SDK [Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan] violated their word and went through with the rally in Plaza Miranda when they had said that they would not leave the campuses. Some 40 trucks came from Angeles City. The men in them did not look like students and they were the ones crying out for blood.
The northern Congressmen, Senators and Governors came to the Palace with completely armed men. I dissuaded them from infiltrating the demonstrators and inflicting harm on them.
Official Gazette for February 12, 1970: President Marcos received only a few callers. He spent the day mostly in his study with a bunch of state papers. In the morning, the President received Rolf Deinoff and Ove Sundberg, executives of the Swedish Match Company who called to pay their respects.The President also received Don Vicente Araneta who proposed the establishment of agro-industrial enterprises in the rural areas as a means of providing employment and improving the living conditions in outlying communities.
Among others with whom the President had conferences were Executive Secretary Alejandro Melchor, Senators Leonardo Perez and Rene Espina, NEC Chairman and PES Director General Placido Mapa, Jr., and Undersecretary of Finance Roman Cruz, Jr. Working on state papers in-between callers and conferences, the President:
1) Issued a proclamation declaring February 15 to April 16 this year as a period for a national fund campaign for educational and other youth welfare purposes; 2) Granted reprieves to all convicts in the national penitentiary sentenced to die by electrocution pending serious study by the government on the possible abolition of capital punishment; and 3) Proclaimed Monday, Feb. 16, as a special public holiday in Caloocan City, to give the people of the city a chance to observe with appropriate ceremonies the 8th foundation anniversary of their city.
The Chief Executive also certified to Congress the necessity of the immediate enactment of a Senate bill providing for price control “to protect the common consumer who suffers most from high prices, specially of prime commodities. “We are all aware of the difficulties of implementing a price control and rent control law,” the President said in his message to Congress. However, in view of the attempts of some heartless businessmen and merchants to manipulate prices by such practices as hoarding, it becomes imperative and necessary for us to immediately adopt appropriate measures to protect the common consumer who suffers most from high prices,” he said. The bill seeks to authorize the President to create a Price Administration Board and to fix the ceiling prices of certain commodities. Certain acts are required of importers, producers and distributors and their violations penalized.To prevent an arbitrary fixing of ceiling prices, certain guidelines are provided for in the bill, and producers as well as distributors are given representation in the board
For a time, I secretly hoped that the demonstrators would attack the Palace so that we could employ the total solution. But it would be bloody and messy.
Anyway I told the northern political leaders that the situation may develop into a revolutionary situation during my administration and that we should prepare for a military confrontation with the communists. The North should be developed as a last bastion just in case. We must now caché arms and ammo there, prepare Laoag for jet landings, Lingayen Gulf for our navy and organize provincial strike forces, at the rate first of at least 100 men each province.
But we must win the hearts and minds of our [p.80] people. So, I argued, we must all be ready to sacrifice our personal interests for the common good. They agreed to this but begged that the men who had sacrificed in the political battles be not forgotten.
We had dinner and a movie. Blas Ople was there for dinner. And so was Emong Salvador, my old Maharlika comrade. Blas is an enigma. Many of the leaders distrust him. Even Col. [Fabian] Ver feels that he is actually one of the communist leaders and that all the attacks in the media against me and the administration may have been his brainchild. But it is best he is in the place when there is a crisis. Then we can neutralize him or use him.
As of now I am convinced we have to wage a tedious legal, propaganda and economic battle against the communists. So this afternoon I asked the military leaders, [Juan] Ponce Enrile, [Manuel] Yan, [Eduardo] Garcia and [Fidel] Ramos to prepare for this. There must be an assessment of the voluminous documents captured from the Ma-Maos—for legal action. The intelligence agencies must be sharpened to the sophisticated finesse of the intellectuals and urban communists. For this the NICA [National Intelligence Coordinating Agency] and NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] must be reorganized. And we must fund the various anti-subversion and anti-insurgency teams.
If they want a revolution, I will give them one in the economic field. Drastic, dramatic and effective like the rechanneling of the excess money into agro-industrial projects in the farms and resettlement centers.
I met with Vicente Araneta to listen to his priming plan. Assigned U[nder] Sec[retary] Roman Cruz Jr. to study it.