Imelda and I have been reminiscing in bed—the long tortuous road from Congress to the Presidency; the sacrifices, her tears, pain and hard work that went into our struggle for power.
She put purpose into my life—the life of a spoiled bachelor congressman who was also a successful trial lawyer and a hero of the last war who tended to be too carefree and frivolous.
In eleven years I jumped from congressman to president.
And I have just written the children through Rosy Lawrence. Bongbong is our principal worry. He is too carefree and lazy.
Official Gazette for June 12, 1972: THE PRESIDENT, who was still indisposed, failed to attend the Independence Day programs.
He was represented instead by Vice President Fernando Lopez at the Luneta rites in the morning, and by Speaker Cornelio T. Villareal at the presentation of the 1972 Republic Cultural Heritage Awards to citizens who have distinguished themselves in their chosen fields, at ceremonies held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in the afternoon.
In the speech read for him by Vice President Lopez, the President said independence would be meaningless unless the people have successfully declared themselves fully liberated from foreign influence and control. (Full text of the President’s speech in OG)
In the speech read for him-by Speaker Villareal, the President said that there are “architects of alienation” in some quarters of the Philippine body politic, wilfully distorting and confusing the issues of the day by putting the blame for all ills—real or imagined—only upon those mandated by the masses to lead the nation.
The Republic Cultural Heritage awardees were Carlos Quirino, historical writing; Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, literature; Dr. Gregorio T. Velasquez, Florencio A. Medina, and Tomas L. Parpana, science, scientific research, invention and technology; Dean Alfredo Santos Buenaventura, music; Roberto R. Chabet, painting and sculpture; Pablo S. Antonio, architecture; Manuel E. Arguilla, literature (posthumous), and Dr. Antonio Molina, music.
In his Independence Day message released earlier, the President said:
We celebrate our Independence Day today at a time when mankind is dedicated to a new effort towards greater peace and progress.
Old divisions and confrontations are giving way to new friendships and cooperation, and new agreements are being forged to unify the efforts of man to bringing an end to the problems that have plagued mankind through the ages.
The Filipino nation cannot stand indifferent to these efforts. By tradition and by character, the Filipino nation cannot but feel involved in this monumental task.
But while we, as a nation and as a people, may find it easy to identify ourselves with the efforts of other men and nations to bridge gaps of misunderstanding and discord, it would now be necessary for us to look into ourselves and see how once and for all we can bridge those gaps that exist among ourselves.
At a crucial time like this, we need our country and our people to re-examine our internal self and find out how each of us can work to strengthen this national self. There are those who would like us to believe that we need to propagate the seed of hate that has been sown those who have lost hope and faith; the very meaning of independence and nationhood, however, negates and rejects this.
Independence means faith in our people’s capacity to bear their burdens and carry on with their tasks; a battlecry against pessimism and defeat; a flag raised for national brotherhood, common effort and progress.
On this occasion, therefore, I invite our people to reflect on those values, from which derive our greatest strength.
So I wrote him the fatal secret of the Marcos men—“they are brilliant but lazy.” And they tend to be so unless they buckle down to a dogged unrelenting resolve to fight off sloth or a traumatic experience turns them into bitterness that congeals into a determined resolve to achieve and be victorious.
I wrote him about me—how the political and financial reverses of father had made me bitter. It had come to a point where I had to get a scholarship to continue my studies. So I became a scholar—a senior scholar in law.
I discovered that I had a brain and a photographic memory. And I made the best of it.
I must write him about the Nalundasan case and how I vowed to top the bar after graduating Cum Laude.
For the boy must get character. I have told him that since we have enemies, he will have to fight the battles I fought in the past against myself and against circumstance. Although I told him that perhaps circumstances had been kinder to me because it had given me the motivation to work hard.
I must tell him of his ancestors, his great grandfather of the revolution, the direct line of brilliant and brave men whose saving grace was the character of their women—how many failed like Antonio Marcos who had exceeded the record of excellence in scholarship of Rizal—but had not done much of his life because of wine, woman and song. The boy must realize his weakness—the carefree wayward ways that may have been bred in him.
I am recovering from my illness. I should be able to walk around tomorrow.
The Vice President took my place in the ceremonies today.