[p.98] Am working on a Primer on Communism. Everyone is talking of confrontations with student power. Actually the whole crisis has been utilized by communism to create a revolutionary situation.
Ernesto Granada, columnist of the Manila Chronicle, has become libelous. He writes what [Eugenio] Iñing Lopez [Sr.] tells him to. Today he blames me for the riots and for paying toughies to infiltrate the demonstrations and to destroy private property and thus raise the ire of the people against the demonstrators. We must watch out on the Lopez side. Mother has written me that one of the friends of Iñing Lopez has revealed to her that Iñing Lopez has paid some people to kill me. I can believe this.
My barber, Conrad, tells me that the overwhelming opinion outside Malacañang is that it is about time I took sterner measures against the demonstrators that are violent.
Official Gazette for February 27, 1970: President Marcos practically spent the whole day working on state papers. Early in the day, the President wrote letters addressed to members of both houses of Congress urging the immediate passage of the bill regulating the selection of delegates to the forthcoming Constitutional Convention. About noontime, the President received Antonio Heras of the JD Transit and Ramon Manzano and Jose Crisanto of the Alatco of Iriga City, who took up problems of bus companies.
A 40-man delegation of provincial officials of the new province of Agusan del Sur, led by Rep. Democrito O. Plaza, later called on the President to pledge their faith and confidence in his leadership. Also with the group were officials of national government agencies assigned to the province. The President assured the delegation that he would give the province the needed assistance from the special highways fund to carry on the development projects there. After the delegation departed, the President returned to his desk to work. State papers kept him busy through the afternoon and into the evening. Matters acted upon by the President included the promotions of 631 regular and reserve officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines upon the recommendation of the Secretary of National Defense and the AFP chief of staff. The promotions were to ranks ranging from lieutenant colonel to captain in the Philippine Constabulary, Philippine Army, and Philippine Air Force, from commander to lieutenant junior grade in the Philippine Navy and the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Survey, as well as in the various special services of the AFP. In a speech read for him by Secretary of Commerce and Industry Leonides S. Virata at the second national convention of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines, held at the Hotel Intercontinental in the evening, the President called for a common effort in developing tourism, saying that it is the entire nation’s concern, aimed both at earning dollars to further overall development and at familiarizing other peoples with the Philippines’ true virtues and conditions. The President said that a well developed tourist industry will “open up the country” to the world. He pointed out that many foreigners who have come to visit or work here have remained to make the Philippines a second home “because they have made personal self-discoveries here, have become intimate with the many good things we have.”He stressed, “this is the kind of discovery we would want tourists to make in the Philippines. And this is the kind of opening up I mean when I say that tourism will open up the Philippines. It is our opening up to the hearts and minds of other peoples, and the opening up of the hearts and minds of peoples in the world outside to our special world here.” (Full text of the President’s speech in OG.)
The Armed Forces had a critique of the exercises for the Contingency Plan. Defects being ironed out.
We must finalize the list to be arrested if there is massive sabotage or assassination. I assess the plans of the communists to include these activities by the middle of March.
[Juan] Johnny Ponce Enrile reports demoralization among the HMB’s [Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan] specially the Ma-Mao’s who are ready to surrender but would like to make it appear like a capture.
There is restlessness in the transportation sector as the bus operators are losing P.30 for each peso gross they earn.
[p.99] We will have to allow an increase in rates as the tire suppliers have increased prices by 17% and the oil people are meeting next Wednesday to increase theirs. I was able to hold the rates own in 1966. Today we will not be able to do this because of the floating rate.
The Congress is moving as slowly as ever on urgent legislation like the price and rent control law.
I have asked [Arturo] Bong Tanco [Jr.] to come and help me on the agricultural program. I hope to put him in as Under Secretary of Agriculture if I can convince Nanding [Fernando Lopez].
I have just appointed Gen. Estrada as Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
The cement shelter in the ground floor (my gymnasium) has just been finished. It is against any possible mortar or grenade attack.
And I have been trying out my bullet proof vest as I was going to Bohol but had to cancel it as the East Visayan Athletic Meet is set for the afternoon and I have some appointments here in Manila. The vest is a little lumpy under my newly tailored barong and shirt. It weighs 13 pounds and protects from the most penetrating rifle fire.