9:35 PM
On board the 777
After Ulot and between Leyte
and Samar and southward to
Cagayan de Oro
Left Tacloban at 7:30 PM and were at Ulot, Tolosa at about 8:40. Weather is fair but there are already some smells although we have not yet passed Samar that screens our route from the east. The wind is supposed to be from the Southwest but is actually coming from the Southeast.
Woke up at 9:00 AM. Skiied [sic] up to 11:30 AM. Press interview; meeting between Medicare (Dr. Pacifico Marcos and Sec. [Clemente] Gatmaitan) and the Dept. of Health, Com. on Highways [Baltazar] Aquino, Dir. of Public Works [Alejandro] Deleña, Com. on Fisheries [Andres] Mane, provincial and municipal officials.
Coordinating Committee between the Dept. of Health and Medicare set up.
The new program for cold storage set up.
School house repair and construction.
Official Gazette for June 20, 1972: THE PRESIDENT had a series of conferences at the Romualdez resthouse in Tolosa with national and local officials, mostly on urgent public works projects and health programs of the government.
Among those who met with the President were Public Highways Commissioner Baltazar Aquino, Acting Health Secretary Clemente Gatmaitan, Medicare Chairman Pacifico Marcos, Public Works Director Alejandro Belena, Rep. Nicanor Yñiguez and local executive of Leyte, and Ilocos Norte Gov. Elizabeth Marcos-Keon.
Commissioner Aquino and Director Delena reported to the President on the status of on-going projects, including the putting up of school-buildings while Secretary Gatmaitan and Chairman Marcos discussed with the Chief Executive the health needs of the country.
In the course of his meeting with the public works officials, the President:
1) Ordered the organized distribution of 10,000 schoolbuildings all over the country until the end of Fiscal Year 1973;
2) Directed Budget Commissioner Faustino Sy-changco to release ₱10 million for the construction and repair of access roads which link outlying areas to centers of population;
3) Instructed Fisheries Commissioner Andres Mane to intensify the seeding of lakes and rivers throughout the country as a means of meeting the increasing requirements for fish products;
4) Called for the establishment of ice cold storage in places where power has been made available through the rural electric cooperatives;
5) Ordered Animal Industry Director Pedro Refuerzo to review and improve the methods of the cattle dispersal program by considering the setting up of dairy farms to offset the country’s importation of milk products.
In his meeting with Secretary Gatmaitan and Chairman Marcos, the President directed the two officials to coordinate in administering to the health needs of the people.
In the afternoon, the President sailed for Cagayan de Oro City for the first of several conferences on the peace and order situation in Mindanao.
Then lunch and a short nap. It rained. Taught the kids (John John, Hartzel, F. Martin and Butsoy) some archery.
Just talked to [Alejandro] Alex Melchor [Jr.] on his message which I attach.
The media and newspaper boys of Malacañang are with us in the ship. They asked me that now that I am retiring if I knew of anybody who could lead the country in these troubled times. I told them that we have to develop a leader in a year and a half.
I told them that what I feared most was when I had retired the armed forces may be pushed to the wall and for their own individual survival they might take over the country.
The alternatives or options were I ran out of the country or stay help stave off the revolution.
And I do not intend to run away after. I had been given the honor of serving as president of the Republic!!