I write this on the 777 as we are shoving off. We will hug the coastline and it will probably take us 28 hours to Ormoc.
The dinner held last night at the house of Bert Teodoro’s mother-in-law in Balete for the delegates of the Cons. Con. [Constitutional Convention] of the north (Nos. 1, 2 and 3 aggregations) was supposed to be attended by Imelda and me but at the last hour we decided not to go to prevent any suspicion of our intervention in the internal matters of the convention.
But this morning many delegates came to [Bahay] Pangarap asking for guidance on the election for Convention president.
I asked the delegates to organize themselves so that they may be able to effectively fight for their principles.
Official Gazette for June 27, 1971: President Marcos continued to focus on desk work, but made himself available to some heads of department who took up important matters with him.
During the day, the President, among others, directed Undersecretary of Finance and Acting Customs Commissioner Alfredo Pio de Roda to inform him of the “identity” of the high government official reportedly interested in the disposition of imported remnants seized at the Bureau of Customs. The official reportedly tried to pressure the Bureau of Customs into selling to his client more than 3,000 bales of remnants worth millions of pesos, and even threatened to take the customs bureau to court.
The President also approved the promotion of 481 regular and reserve officers in the active service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to the grades of 1st Lieutenant/Lieutenant (JG.) PN and Captain/Lieutenant (SG)/ PN, as well as the commission or appointment of 66 individuals in the reserve force of the AFP.
Shortly before midnight, the President and the First Lady, Imelda Romualdez Marcos, boarded the RPS 777 at Pier 15 for the resumption of the President’s summer inspection trips to the provinces.
There is a union of forces of the independents ([Teofisto] Guingona [Jr.] withdrew in favor of [Raul] Manglapus and the other independents, [Juan] Liwag and [Jesus] Barrera are going to do the same) So this has been met by the withdrawal of Delegate Carlos Ledesma and the union of the Liberals and Nacionalistas for ex-Pres. [Diosdado] Macapagal. Manglapus is financed by the Lopezes, ex-Pres. Macapagal could count only 57 delegates for him. The Nacionalistas which have organized into a Reform Bloc with Delegate Gualberto Duavit of the 2nd Dist. of Rizal as chairman and Delegate Antonio Tupas of Agusan del Norte as Vice Chairman. They have as Sec-Treasurer Ditas [Mercedes] Teodoro of the 1st District of Tarlac. And three coordinators for each of the 12 aggregations.
The Reformists count 109 hard core members und 55 possibles.
So Ex-Pres. Macapagal is dependent on the Nacionalistas for victory.
Incidentally [Antonio] Tony Tupas has gotten about 200 signatures on a resolution for synchronization of elections—in 1975. This actually means an extension of the terms of congressmen and even senators—as well as my term for two years.
It looks like it will be easier than we think to get this through the convention.
The Panorama, the Bulletin’s Sunday magazine, carries a feature on a supposed survey of Manila in which Imelda is 79.1 % popular but surprisingly makes out [Fernando] Lopez (the VP) as the most acceptable candidate for President. Apparently a Lopez advertisement.
But Lopez is not acceptable to the Nacionalistas as they are now collaborating with the Liberals. Nor is he acceptable to the Liberals because they already have their candidates, [Gerardo] Roxas and [Benigno] Aquino [Jr.].
Since he will not run as an independent then my estimate is that he will not run at all.
If the Cons. Con adopts the parliamentary system of government, this will settle the whole question. Everybody can run for the House and aspire for the top position.
Otherwise, Imelda will probably have to run in 1973, so that my program can go on for the next several years.