Joe Kingsbury-Smith and Eileen, his wife, left this afternoon on the 4:15 PAL [Philippine Air Lines] plane to Hongkong. We called them up and they are safe at Mandarin Hotel.
He is the Pulitzer Prize winner who has written so well of me and of the Philippines. They have become our close friends.
Before he left he said that Ambassador [Henry] Byroade had said that I had terrible people around me and that I was not as popular as I thought and farther that I was due for a disappointment in the coming local elections.
This just shows that you cannot judge these Americans from appearances. In a way I am sad because I had considered Byroade as a friend although the U.S. Embassy had never in any manner shown its sympathy to me in my fights for the presidency in 1965 and 1969. On the contrary they fraternized with the political opposition.
Immediately after the elections of 1969, I was shocked to learn that both Sen. [Sergio] Osmeña [Jr.] and Eleuterio Adevoso had been conferring with Byroade’s staff on their (Osmeña and Adeveso) plans for a coup d’etat. Mentioned by our source was a Col. Peterson.
The military aid from the U.S. has been skimpy. We had to buy our own Armalites to arm our forces and pay for our own ammunition.
Carding Silverio called up from San Francisco to tell me that the article of Joe (King-Smith is his byline) came out prominently in the San Francisco newspaper (as well as in
Official Gazette for June 23, 1971: President Marcos ordered the revamp of two bureaus which he described as “most inefficient,” notably to weed out misfits and improve performance. The President ordered the revamp of the Bureau of Posts under the Department of Public Works and Communications and the Bureau of Customs under the Department of Finance.
The President also expressed dissatisfaction with the slow pace of road construction, even as he directed Acting Secretary of Public Works and Communications Baltazar Aquino to rush completion of the cementing of Pampanga road, the Ilocos Norte road, and the Bataan road. The condition of the Bataan road, he said, has discouraged tourists from, traveling to Bataan.
In his directive on the revamp of the two bureaus, the President ordered the pinpointing of responsibility and the prosecution and separation from service of personnel found guilty of misfeasance and malfeasance in office.
In a day which he devoted mostly to office work, the President received a few callers, among whom were a group of Agrarian Relations Court judges who presented a resolution pledging support of the administration policies in land reform and other important areas; and Senator Wenceslao Lagumbay who discussed local problems with the President. He worked at his office through the afternoon and evening.
Finding Guide to the Kingsbury-Smith Papers in the U.S. Library of Congress states that as a journalist some of Kingsbury-Smith’s subjects became personal friends. There are separate folders of correspondence, notes, transcribed interviews in the collection for both Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
all the Hearst publications) and for once we had favorable comments. Bill Hearst convalescing in Baltimore’s John Hopkins Hospital from a cataract operation says that the Americans are learning a lot of the Philippines because of Joe’s articles.
Looks’ [sic] like the pro-Laurel boys are successfully postponing the elections for officer in the Cons. Con. [Constitutional Convention] to after the period of mourning (July 14th) so that Pro Tempore Sotero Laurel can continue presiding.
I corrected the complaint for Libel against Time magazine.
Worked on the proclamation of Shrines in the Philippines.
Started to work on the organization of the Oil Commission with Dr. Gaudencio Garcia’s name coming up.
Post office reorganization is necessary.
So with the Housing Corporation.
Finishing the 16th year Reparations schedule.