Spoke before the Colombo Plan conference at Savoy at 10:00 AM. I attach my speech. It was met with a standing ovation.
Met the DND [Department of National Defense] Secretary and Generals [Manuel] Yan, [Romeo] Espino, [Eduardo] Garcia, [Felizardo] Tanabe, [Zosimo] Paredes and [Mariano] Ordoñez.
Gen. Garcia who just arrived from Mindanao reports that the Upi-Lebak area is under control but the Pikit-Pagalungan area is boiling with unrest. In Pikit the mayor is the son of Datu Udtog Matalam while the mayor of Pagalungan is his daughter.
Gen. Garcia reports that last Saturday a PC [Philippine Constabulary] detachment of 15 men in Pikit was surrounded by 100 black-uniformed armed men of the MIM (Moslem Independence Movement) and threatened with liquidation. The detachment commander radioed
Official Gazette for February 23, 1971: PRESIDENT MARCOS devoted most of the morning to his desk work, then motored to the Savoy Hotel where he was the keynote speaker at the ministerial meeting of the Colombo Plan.
in his address, the Chief Executive underscored the need for organized cooperation among nations “on a scale that transcends regional and ideological boundaries,” as an imperative for survival of all developing and “rich and developed nations.”
“The dominant anxiety of our times center on the necessity to remove the source of this major peril to the future of human society,” the President asserted.
This source, he said, is found in the “existing disparity between the few powerful states and the many weak states with their impoverished peoples,” the sharp disparity in the conditions of life, economic opportunities and social status.
“Indeed a disparity,” the President added, “that is an anachronism and an abnormality in the modern world.”
The President said that there has developed from this disparity the urgent need to “defuse the tension and impatience in depressed regions that comprised the ‘Third World.’ “
In the afternoon, the President addressed the conference of Catholic Broadcasters in Asia held at the Malacañang Ceremonial Hall, during which he urged communication media men to abide by the truth in reporting or expounding on the news, relating this activity to the proper and peaceful realization of reform and change.
He said that he had no doubt that the overwhelming majority of the Filipino people can be mobilized by network media to provide the power for effecting the “radical process of democratic change that I envision.”
The President told the broadcasters that it is “up to men like you, artisans of the spoken word and molders of responsible thought, to pour into this waiting matrix (the people’s hearts and minds) the substance of the Filipino dream and the spirit of reform that will make the fulfillment of that dream possible in our time.”
Then, at about 6:30 p.m., the President and the First Lady, Imelda R. Marcos, hosted a merienda for the delegates to the Colombo Plan conference.
Among those present were Secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos P. Romulo, Undersecretary Manuel Collantes, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Mrs. Narciso Ramos, Secretary of Labor Blas F. Ople, NEC Chairman Gerardo Sicat, Assistant Executive Secretary Ponciano G. A. Mathay, Japanese Ambassador Toshio Urabe, Deputy Prime Minister Pote Sarasin of Thailand, Minister Richard Wood for Overseas Development of the United Kingdom, and the delegates from Australia, Bhutan, Burma, Canada, Ceylon, India, Indonesia, Iran, Khmer Republic, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Netherlands, Pakistan, Singapore, United States, Vietnam and Germany.
for support and Lt. Col. Cajello brought 50 PC men to his aid. While the relieving column was on the way, they were provoked into a fire fight. The MIM suffered 40 dead which were surreptitiously buried (some of them policemen of Pikit and Pagalungan), the MlM keeping quiet about these casualties.
The PC suffered no casualties.
Last Sunday or Saturday, in the presence of 400 armed black-uniformed MlM soldiers in their training camp in Pagalungan, a mortar was test-fired (5 rounds).
The mayor of Parang, Cotabato has armed 800 policemen. He is the biggest smuggler in the south. The mayor of Malalang, Lanao del Sur has done the same thing.
The demonstrations in Davao City on the 16th got out of control and resulted in a riot and destruction which was ended only by the arrival of 50 PC men to support the helpless 400 policemen. Mayor Lopez is asking for reinforcements.
So is the mayor of Mindsayap, Cotabato, Dequena.
I have directed a heavy weapons company with a battery of 105 howitzers and mortars to give support to the 850 PC men in Cotabato.
But my instructions is not to provoke farther clashes nor to be provoked into one but to wait until the MIM [Muslim/Mindanao Independence Movement] concentrate into an open test of strength when they should be hit with all we have. If possible apprehend all of them in one blow.
The same strategy should be followed in Greater Manila. No dissipation of our strength and forces in minor clashes or in riot control which should be left to the local police forces.
Inasmuch as we know the plans of the communists to burn and blow up different parts of Greater Manila to divert attention and then move towards their true objective which might be massive assassination, terrorism and a take-over of critical government installations or buildings, it becomes necessary to adopt this strategy.
Even in the UP [University of the Philippines] we should let the students hole in, consolidate their positions and get support from outside and then surround them and apprehend them in one swift operation avoiding casualties.
It has been reported that Ninoy [Benigno] Aquino [Jr.] who was in Cotabato for three days feels that the agitation in Cotabato is caused by Malaysian agents.
I spoke before the Catholic Broadcasters c/o Father Reuther [James Reuter, S.J.] at 4:00 PM. I attach my speech, mostly ad lib. Talked to Father [Cornelio] Lagerwey [MSC] about his three publications, Ang Tao, Now and Phil. Digest.
Then gave a reception for the Colombo Plan Conference head of delegations at 6:30 PM at the State Dining Room.
For the first time a delegation from Bhutan the head of which is the Minister of Development who came with his wife in their native dress which is woolen cloth with colors similar to the Igorots.
Bhutan has about a million population, one child of every family, at least, becoming a monk or a nun. 70% of the land area is forested. It has all kinds of big game including elephants, rhino, tiger, buffalo and that most elusive of big game the Marco Polo sheep.
The minister invited me to go hunting in Bhutan.
The chief delegate of Korea who is a scientist told me he was wishing to himself that he had the power to bring me to Korea to campaign for President Park [Chung-Hee] in the elections next April.
I met Atty. Lupiño Lazaro of Pasang Masda [Pangkalahatang Samahan ng Maynila at Suburbs Drivers Associations] and he confirmed in writing the efforts of the radical students (Vic Clemente of the KM [Kabataang Makabayan], Julius Fortuna of MDP [Movement for a Democratic Philippines], Crispin Aranda of the STAND [Students For National Democracy], and Eric Baculinao of the SDK [Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan]) to convince the drivers to start a revolution.
Their executive officer, Leto Villar of Pateros, has turned into a KM and a radical fomenting revolution. He has been kicked out of Pasang Masda.
I attach the statement of Lazaro.
He agreed to have some of his men infiltrate the radicals to obtain intelligence, locate Jose Maria Sison and their cache of firearms and ammo specially the house where allegedly a Bulacan drivers’ federation head was brought and given an Armalite and twelve grenades.