The wily old man, Eugenio Lopez Sr., who has been the brains of the Lopez empire that led the rightist coup d’etat against the Republic and incidentally against me (if the clan had succeeded in eliminating me, his brother, Vice President Fernando Lopez, would have become President) was buried this morning.
Imelda and Imee accompanied Cocoy (Gov. [Benjamin] Romualdez) to the services and the funeral. They found the atmosphere oppressive and tense as all our enemies (and some of our “friends”) were there. As Imee puts it, the air could be cut with a knife.
His son in law, Steve Psinakis, the Greek, had sent me an arrogant wire: “we know that you have sought all means to silence our efforts in exposing the injustices under your martial law regime!” and demanded that he and his wife, Presy, be assured of entry into and departure from the Philippines without arrest or harassment.
I ignored it but when the Lopez son, Manolo, came to see me at Caliraya (Sierra Lakes) to seek permission for the sister, Presy, I approved it. But obviously Steve did not let his wife come as he was not coming.
I attach the cable.
I attach the initial records of the investigation by USec. [Jose] Ingles of the [Primitivo] Mijares case.
There are agonized cries to answer the Anderson-Mijares accusations of attempt to bribe Primitivo Mijares including Sec. [Blas] Ople whose cable I attach.
However Robert Novak’s column in the Washington Post, seems to have given us some mileage.
I attach the cabled report of Amb. [Eduardo] Romualdez.
Sec. [Alejandro] Melchor [Jr.] reports that he has spoken to Amb. Pangandawan on the Jeddah conference. While the old agenda has been referred to the Political Committee, the speech of Minister Adam Malik half of which was on our Muslim problem, seems to have turned the tide in our favor (as Amb. Pangandawan assesses the situation after conversations with the delegates at dinner).
And the Islamic Conference may send [Mohamed Hassan El] Tohamy to confer with me on the agenda as a face-saving device.
Minister Malik had effectively argued (as he announced in a planeside interview in Pakistan while changing planes) that the southern problem of secessionism in the Philippines is an internal problem of the Philippines and that the steps taken by the Philippine President has [sic] impressed Indonesia quite well, referring specifically to the grant of autonomy to the Muslim areas.