I slept only 3 hours last night as I worked on the reorganization bill up to 4:00 AM and woke up at 7:00 AM. Then I worked the whole morning with the cabinet again on the reorganization plans, lunch at 2:00 PM, a listless nap of half an hour, merienda with the PPSTA [Philippine Public School Teachers Association], then visitors like Ramon Binamira who claims that the publishers meeting this morning agreed to support me as there was no alternative, with Chino [Joaquin] Roces still against me but coming around to the same viewpoint as the others. Chino apparently respects Andy [Andres] Soriano [Jr.] whom I have used to talk to him and to agree to a meeting with me.
The teachers with the PPSTA are happy for the appointment of Santos Pascual as member of the GSIS [Government Service Insurance System] Board of Trustees.
They are concerned with the sit-ins of the radicals in the rural areas so the leadership plans to hold rural congresses where they can counter-act the sit-ins of the radicals.
We are also reactivating the Parents Teachers Associations. They should now actively participate in the guidance of the children.
DZUP is still in the hands of the radicals in the UP [University of the Philippines]. Apparently the radicals still control some buildings.
And the radicals are planning to hold another massive demonstration to paralyze
Official Gazette for February 17, 1971: THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE further discussed with his Cabinet the proposed integrated reorganization plan for the executive branch of the government prior to its submission to Congress.
In the meeting, the President approved the proposal of the Reorganization Commission creating two new departments in government geared towards hastening agrarian reform, community development and the amelioration of local governments.
Going deeper into the plan, the President stressed to the Commission the need to eliminate overlapping powers and functions of office and to simplify business procedures of the government.
Another meeting of the Cabinet was scheduled to further discuss the reorganization plan.
Earlier, the President inducted Ligaya Perez as member of the Board of Examiners for Optometry.
At 4 p.m., the President addressed some 400 officials of various provincial and city chapters of the Philippine Public School Teachers Association of the Philippines, who called at Malacañang.
In brief remarks, the President urged the reactivation of the parent-teachers associations and supported the plan of public school teachers to hold rural congresses throughout the country.
“Let us not default in the performance of our duties not only as teachers but as parents and let us guide our children in the ways of freedom,” the President said. “It is necessary for each and everyone of us to undertake his own mission.”
The President pledged to support the efforts of the school teachers with all the facilities at his command.
Early in the evening, the President video-taped an interview on television with a panel of reporters from the morning dailies.
transportation on Feb. 25. They will call it The Longest Day.
A reference to the 1962 war film on the 1944 D-Day landing in Normandy.