8:30 AM
Off Zamboanga City
on board the 777 before
landing
Comparatively pleasant trip. Slight swells and a driving rain at about 8:45 PM last night.
Sen. Benigno Aquino, in undisguised relish predicts revolution in the Philippines. Writing in an article “Youth in Revolt” in the Far Eastern Economic Review of June 10, 1972 he gleefully quotes the usual statistics of doom: the economic elite of 1.5%, the 75% poor and the 23.5% middle class; the economic profile—only 2.6% of Filipino families earn P10,000 ($1,538) or more a year, 6.8% earn 5,000 to P9,999 ($769-$1,538) etc.; Cost of education; the drop outs only 32 out of 100 finish elementary education, only 0.8 finish high school, only 4 go to college, only 0.8 get a college degree; Unemployment and underemployment: 1.1 million plus out of a workforce of 12.5 are unemployed, 5 million are underemployed; of the 1,007,133 college educated why 60.6% were employed, of the 1,041,004 with one to three years of college, only 38.3% had work, of the 1,038,306 only 78% had jobs, most being misplaced.
I attach the copy of the Review.
Official Gazette for June 22, 1972: THE PRESIDENT and the First Lady arrived in Zamboanga City at 10 a.m. on board RPS Ang Pangulo following an overnight voyage from Cagayan de Oro City.
After the usual honors at the pier where enthusiastic welcomers met them, the President motored to the Southwest Command (SOWES COM) headquarters for the briefing.
In the course of the open briefing by military and local officials, the President issued an order banning completely the carrying of firearms in Zamboanga del Sur and in the cities of Zamboanga, Basilan and Pagadian even by those holding permits to carry firearms outside residence.
Under the ban, only peace officers and members of the Armed Forces who can carry firearms under the rules and regulations may do so outside residence. Even those in uniform but without mission orders may not carry firearms outside the camp, bivouac area or headquarters in said province and cities.
As complementary measures, the President directed Brig. Gen. Fidel Ramos, PC chief; to study the establishment of BSDU-type units in all areas where there are threats to peace, and the local officials to submit to the PC chief requests for loan and purchase of firearms for their respective police forces for study.
Among those present at the briefing conducted by SOWESCOM chief Capt. Alejandro Castillo and Brig. Gen. Wilfrido Encarnacion, Fourth PC Zone commander, at the Pastor Bonus Seminary in Barrio Calarian, were Senators Emmanuel Pelaez and Mamintal Tamano, Reps. Indanan Anni of Sulu, Felipe Ascuna of Zamboanga del Norte and Vicente Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur; CNI Commissioner Mama Sinsuat, Mayor Joaquin Enrique, Jr., Governor Jose L. Tecson, and all mayors of Zamboanga del Sur.
Following the briefing which lasted up to 2 p.m., the President inducted the new set of officials of the MINSUPALA, namely: Senator Tamano, president; Senator Pelaez, chairman of the advisory council; Delegate Teodoro Donato, executive vice president; Commissioner Rolando Geotina, treasurer; Reps. Indanan Anni of Sulu, Lorenzo Sarmiento of Davao del Norte and Guillermo Sanchez of Agusan del Norte; and Commissioner Mama Sinsuat, board members.
Later in the afternoon, the President and the First Lady sailed for Cebu.
There are first of two entries dated June 22, 1972 is a note on Ninoy Aquino’s article in the Far Eastern Exonomic Review.
Aquino, conveniently forgetting Plaza Miranda and the rice scarcity brought about by calamities, with an apparent boast for his supposedly activist-supported bid for the Liberal Party presidential nomination said: “He might have added that activist youth, fragmented in ideology and strategy, was behind the candidates hand-picked by President and Mrs. Marcos in the last senatorial elections.”
And this is the orientation of the whole article—to focus on his strength as a presidential candidate.
The prediction, however, has basis for it. Although the estimate of five to ten years may be too long—or too short.