MalacañangPalace
Monday
11:05 PM
[p.51] Opening session of Congress. State of the Nation Address and Riots by the demonstrators in front of Congress.
57 Official Gazette for January 26, 1970: President Marcos laid down the imperative of self-discipline as “our salvation as a nation and the key to our future greatness.” In his state-of-the-nation address before the joint session of the 7th Congress, which opened its regular session, the President affirmed confidence in the capacity of the Filipinos to solve their problems and move their country forward. But, first, he said, there must be national discipline, and he called on the leaders of government, including the members of Congress, to set the example. The next four years, he said, are crucial, with the nation compelled to embrace change, to make innovations, to accelerate development, and break the barriers to progress. But these exertions, he said, already started in the last four years, have strained and will continue to strain the resources and energy of the nation. (Full text of the President’s state-of-the-nation address in OG).
Earlier in the day, the President officiated at a mass oath-taking ceremony in Malacañang, where he administered the oath to a group of ad interim colonels, out of a total of 137. The induction was held at the spacious Malacañang reception hall. In brief remarks following the oath-taking, the President declared that he looks to the new colonels to establish higher standards of morality, proficiency, incorruptibility, and patriotism “which others may not even approach and approximate.” He stated: “This is the role of the soldier, this is the role of the public servant; and the man in uniform sets a higher standard than anybody else.” Congratulating the new colonels, the President asked them to always “do honor to our flag, do honor to our country, do honor to our Constitution.” The First Lady, Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos, top military officials led by Secretary of National Defense Ernesto Mata and General Manuel Yan, AFP chief of staff, the inductees’ wives and close kin witnessed the oath-taking.
Shortly before 1 p.m., the President received the special committee from Congress, composed of senators and representatives that officially informed him that the 7th Congress was convened. The committee was composed of Senators Alejandro Almendras, Magnolia Antonino, Rene Espina, Mamintal Tamano and Benigno Aquino, Jr., and Reps. Marcelino Veloso, Mohamad Ali Dimaporo, Emerito Caldemn and Antonio Villar. The President, accompanied by the First Lady, Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos, then left for Congress. On arrival at the session hall of the House of Representatives, the First Couple was given a standing ovation by all those gathered. The President, took exactly 40 minutes to deliver his speech. Then after the thunderous ovation died down he shook hands with Congress leaders and prominent guests, including Vice President Fernando Lopez and Mrs. Lopez.
Shortly after, he and the First Lady left for Malacañang, arriving there at about 7 p.m. In a statement issued later, the President made an urgent appeal to the students who demonstrated in front of Congress in the afternoon to cooperate with the authorities of government in trying to determine what precise elements provoked violence during their demonstration. The President also reiterated the position that the students “have a legitimate right to manifest their grievances in public and we shall support their just demands, but we do not consider violence as a legitimate instrument of democratic dissent, and we expect the students to cooperate with government in making sure that their demonstrations are not marred by violence.”
**OG is silent on the student demonstration that met the SONA and its bloody result after Marcos left Congress.
58 Diary does not mention the induction of interim colonels or controversial promotions as reported by the Chronicle on January 29 that violated 1966 FM policy stating that candidates to full colonel should be graduates of the AFP Command and General Staff Course. Certain people promoted did not comply with CGS. Then there was a Negrito Huk commander, member of 15-man security force of Dante, who surrendered: Alfredo David alas Commander Mini-skirt.
Two students reported killed. Phil. Gen. [Philippine General] Hospital Dir. [Reginaldo] Pascual reports 45 demonstrators and 5 policemen treated. Cars in Congress destroyed like that of Sen. [Jose] Roy.
The invocation of Father Pacifico Ortiz, Ateneo head, was in poor taste. It castigated the government referring to goons, high prices, streets not being safe, the threat of revolution and how the citizens were ready to fight for their rights even in the barricades. It was an attempt at the state of the nation. I hope he is happy with what he has helped to bring about.
Raul Manglapus engineered this with the help of the Jesuits apparently for all the Catholic schools had delegations. But apparently they were infiltrated by the Kabataang Makabayan who, with some students, started the violence.
Two students reported killed. Phil. Gen. [Philippine General] Hospital Dir. [Reginaldo] Pascual reports 45 demonstrators and 5 policemen treated. Cars in Congress destroyed like that of Sen. [Jose] Roy.
The invocation of Father Pacifico Ortiz, Ateneo head, was in poor taste. It castigated the government referring to goons, high prices, streets not being safe, the threat of revolution and how the citizens were ready to fight for their rights even in the barricades. It was an attempt at the state of the nation. I hope he is happy with what he has helped to bring about.
Raul Manglapus engineered this with the help of the Jesuits apparently for all the Catholic schools had delegations. But apparently they were infiltrated by the Kabataang Makabayan who, with some students, started the violence.
59 Ortiz spoke on the theme of Justice and Freedom:
“With us into this hall, O God, we bring the growing fears, the dying hopes, the perished longings and expectations of a people who have lost their political innocence; a people who now know, as they walk through unsafe streets of their cities and roam through the Huk-infested barrio lanes of Central Luzon, or stare at the dwindling goods and rising prices in the market stalls – who now know that salvation, political or economic, does not come from above, from any one man or party or foreign ally; that, in the last analysis, salvation can only come from below – from the people themselves, firmly united under Your divine providence to stand for their rights whether at the polls, in the market place or at the barricades; willing to pledge, against all goons or gold-rich bribers, what they have pledged mutually to one another at the birth of this nation – their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor.
“To have lost our political innocence and to know this, and yet not to despair, is for us, O God, to touch and know Your healing hands; but also, for a free people, it is to stand on the trembling edge of revolution. It is a point of no return, it is a moment of truth what can either remake us as a people or unmake us into a mob. Grant us, O God, on the eve of this moment of truth – of our constitutional convention, the humility to understand the signs of the times, and the light to know the true state of the nation.
“And understanding this, grant us, O God, that we may have the courage of wisdom to forget the past with all its partisan bickerings and recriminations – knowing as we do that each one of us, if not by design or malice, certainly by apathy, cowardice or desire of gain, has been responsible for the ugly things of the past. But above the courage of wisdom, give us the wisdom of courage, which is the willingness to pay the price whatever it may be for the rebirth of this nation: truthfulness, hard work, integrity, competence and compassion. “Give us therefore to understand that this and no less than this is the irreducible demand or our people on us – of the youth of the land clamoring in massive thousands outside this building for a non-partisan constitutional convention, for a chance to shape the future that belongs to them; of the impoverished masses of our people to whom the President and his administration, this Congress, and all of us who are better blessed with worldly possessions, must through a palpable sense of justice, concern and compassion, bring a new gospel of hope, of brotherhood, of a brighter tomorrow that will be shaded by a constitution moving to the measure of that philosophy that they who have less in life must have more in law, of that philosophy of love enshrined in the heart of the Good Samaritan which for men as well as for nations is the only way to deserve Your promise of immortality – ‘Do this and thou shalt live,’ Amen.”
After the State of the Nation Address, which was perhaps my best so far, and we were going down the front stairs, the bottles, placard handles, stones and other missiles started dropping all around us on the driveway to the tune of “Marcos, Puppet” chant.
As the intelligence reports it, the demonstrators had brought a coffin which they carried from the street below to the site of the flag pole, where they pushed it into the faces of the policemen. The policemen then [p.52] threw the coffin to the street below and may have hit two demonstrators. The latter then took out a stuffed alligator from inside the coffin and threw it at the policemen who threw it back. Then the wood, bottle and stone throwing which caught us at the front stairs. I could not go into the car as Imelda kept standing on the stairs. Col. [Fabian] Ver tried to push me inside but I ordered the First Lady be fetched and put inside first. Since she could not be pulled by anyone, I had to do it myself. I am afraid I pushed her into the car floor much too hard. Anyway I bumped my head behind the right ear against the car’s door side and twisted my weak right ankle again. We moved out under a hail of stones. But PSA agent covering me, Agent Suson, was hit in the forehead and left eyelid and took four stitches. I thought it was Col. Ver as his barong was splashed with splotches of blood but Suson’s blood had spilled on him as he was on my right.
60 Nick Joaquin, in an article published in the PFP March 1970, met with Marcos in his Malacañang study and was shown the diary, from which he quoted whole sections that are longer and more detailed than the handwritten version. Was Joaquin given a copy? Or did Marcos read from it and added more detail when taken down by Joaquin? Compare handwritten version with this:
“I was being escorted by Senate President Puyat and Speaker Laurel to the driveway and I heard shouting below, on the street level. We were on the stairs and I went down to the sidewalk of the driveway and I was looking at the students’ placards I really wanted to read them. And the students were all holding up their placards toward me, wanting to show them.
“The First Lady was not at my side. She was behind me by about two or three meters. She was busy shaking hands with everybody, including the students. I was also shaking hands with the students, first in the lobby, then on the stairs. We were hemmed in by students, we were shaking hands with them. Everyone wanted to shake hands with us.”
61 Tuson in Marcos diary published by Nick Joaquin in PFP March 1970, Reportage 215.
62
A longer more detailed version of this entry was made accessible to Nick Joaquin who published it in the Philippines Free Press in March 1970 Reportage p. 215 ff.
“As I moved toward the car there was a scuffle and all of a sudden we felt some heavy objects falling around us. I didn’t know what it was all about; I was told later it was a matter of a cardboard coffin with some kind of stuffed alligator inside. I did not see this. I understand it was pushed away by the police and thrown back to the street. The scuffle had become a pushing contest between groups and then people were shouting and there was a throwing of bottles, stones, and sticks.
“I was not hit, but a security man who was trying to protect me, Sergeant Tuson, was hit right in the face by a bottle or stone. I guess it must have been a stone because he suffered laceration and contusion and had to be given five or six stitches. Other boys of my security suffered contusions. One was hit in the left eye, another on the back of the head.
“During the commotion, somebody—I think it was Colonel Ver, my chief of security—pushed me into the car so fast I bumped my head on the door. But I remembered the First Lady was still back there. So I said: ‘Wait, let us get the First Lady.’ But nobody dared lay a hand on her to pull her into the car. So I had to go back and pull her myself. As a matter of fact, I hurt my ankle doing this; we were on the curb and I twisted my weak right ankle. That is the only thing I suffered, besides bumping my head on the car—but I had to pull the First Lady out of the crowd and push her into the car. I’m afraid I pushed her too hard. It’s good she didn’t suffer any contusions on her lovely face. As we drove away, the scuffle had apparently died
We saw some of the action over television after we arrived at the palace.
Raul Manglapus is hoping to become the President of the Constitutional Convention.
And the extremists are using these demonstrators to provoke violence for their purposes.
[p.53] Some advisers are quietly recommending sterner measures against the Kabataang Makabayan. We must get the emergency plan polished up.
down on the driveway. In fact, the students were waving their hands at us. I was therefore surprised when I learned there was a riot when we left.”
63
Reportage p. 216ff
“I first checked with security: everybody had been caught by surprise. Intelligence told me that nobody had expected violence. It was apparently provoked on the spot and provoked by a few persons. I sent word to the PC, the riot squad, the Metrocom, to pull out of the area and not to hurt any of the students except in self-defense. That was my first directive: to pull out those who were supposed to secure me from the riot area but to protect the people inside Congress.
“Then I received reports to the effect that some people near the flagpole had started the throwing and that it was not intended against the First Lady or me but against the police, who may have been trying to push back the people.”