Diary May 7, 1976
Left London at 10:30 PM (actually about 11:00 PM) London time to arrive at Cairo at 3:26 AM London time May 5, 1976 or 4:26 AM Cairo time (one hour time difference). Visited the pyramids and the sphinx, breakfast at Nieva Hotel beside it and left for Nairobi at about 8:30 AM Cairo time to arrive at Nairobi at 2:00 PM Nairobi time after a flight of about four hours.
Cairo was all brown dust. It reminded me of Jerusalem. Its lasting impression on me is the dark fetid small stale air inside the pyramid that I climbed (a 45 degree—if not more climb inside against the wishes of Imelda since about a hundred die of heart attack yearly according to Mrs. [Aisha] Ratib the Social Welfare Minister). By car to the pyramid with the Egyptian Vice President Hosni Mubarak who met us (45 minute drive). Returned by a huge luxurious air conditioned Presidential helicopter British Westland twin engined 14 passenger five rotor-blade (1500 kilogram thrust each engine).
Nairobi is confusion as we are engulfed by a sea of black humanity and traditional dancers. Wide open spaces for parks. Warm and cool like Baguio our summer capital for it is 5,456 feet above sea level. But big and more open.
UN Sec. Gen. [Kurt] Waldheim after UNCTAD [United Nations Conference on Trade and Development] Sec. Gen. Gamani Correa were there. As well as other heads of delegations ______ the UNCTAD ______ and cabinet members.
Even the asphalt roads and asphalt sidewalks are wider.
The area of Kenya is double that of the Philippines—225,000 square miles.
Immediately met the leaders of the Group of 77 specially Africa, Latin America and Asia. We reiterated our positions stated in the Manila Declaration and Program of Action.
Then met Sec. [Henry] Kissinger who called on me at 5:30 PM. He insinuated that the U.S. would win an economic war and I said there would be no winners—we would all be losers and I stated the position of the Group of 77 suggesting that the Philippines should not be isolated by being marked as a U.S. spokesman but that we could be ultimately the bridge between the extremists so that we could avoid a confrontation.
There are two handwritten entries for May 7, 1976 this one written on the letterhead of Safari Lodge Properties, Nairobi, the other as usual on Malacañang letterhead.
Official Gazette for May 7, 1976: THE PRESIDENT, acting as the spokesman of the 110 member nations of the: Group of 77, called upon the world’s dominant powers to renounce their desire for national advantages. The President said it is now time “to proclaim an end to all unequal relationships, which developing countries have had to accept as previous possession, protectorates or colonies.”
BOARD of Transportation said not all operators of passenger buses, jeepneys and taxicabs were authorized to charge the 25 per cent increase in transport fares. The BOT said those authorized are members of the BOAP MMTOA, ATOMS, the Federation of Jeepney Operators and the Jeepney Operators Inc.
INSURANCE companies involved in the compulsory insurance scheme for, all motor vehicles are agitating for increased premium rates after and alleged loss ratio of 81.25 per cent in 6 months.
First diary entry for May 7, 1976.
The EEC [European Economic Council] Chairman of the Council of Ministers and President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Mr. Gaston Thorn, Prime Minister of Luxembourg admitted that EEC was divided.
Because of the Kissinger veiled threat I added more resolute statements to my speech as had been also suggested by some of the Group of 77 leaders. “If the Nairobi conference fails, the Paris dialogue x x x will fail. And so will the entire range of economic negotiations.”
“Palliatives, half-hearted measures cannot help the suffering two-third of mankind x x x nor just replace the furniture. The house itself must be changed.
Dr. [Richard] Leakey gave us molds or exact duplicates of the famous skulls discovered in Kenya which brings the first man to three million years ago—the Australopithecus africanus and Australopithecus ______ with a crest on top of the skull to hold the muscles that held up and marked the large jaw.
Minister [Amadou] Karim Gaye of Senegal, the Secretary General of the Islamic Conference to be held in Istanbul on May 10th, flew in today to see me after he had failed to come to the Philippines notwithstanding the acceptance of our invitation for last month.
Apparently his only mission was to inform me that the four ministers of Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Libya (as well as he) felt that the Philippines had not continued with the negotiations with the MNLF [Moro National Liberation Front] to which we are allegedly committed and that the conference would not accept the acts of the Philippines as in conformity with its resolutions.
I had to be patient but firm. He is ignorant of the facts and the occurrences.
His message no longer sounded alarm bells in me. For even if the Libyan government does send arms to the MNLF, since Tun Mustapha has lost in Sabah, there would be no conduit or channel to our country. And we have a government to government contract for oil with Saudi Arabia. Anyway, there is plenty of surplus oil floating around. The ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] declaration of Concorde should attend to our needs if worse comes to worse [sic].
And 17,000 of the MNLF has surrendered. The MNLF could be wiped out if they reverted to their initial tactics of escalating from guerrilla tactics to conventional territory-holding war.
So I reminded him that we never agreed to a formal negotiation and that we never accorded a status of belligerency to the MNLF that the conversations in Jeddah were not negotiations (because he kept repeating that we had agrees to negotiations and had broken off such negotiations); that the 2 million Muslims in the Philippines do not wish to be represented by the MNLF; that anyway the Muslim Community sent its representatives to Jeddah to meet with the MNLF and invite them as well as the Sec. Gen. [Mohamed Hassan El] Tohamy to
The third page of this entry is missing.
Zamboanga to bold the negotiations there which they refused; that the Republic of the Philippines has tolerated this intervention in the internal affairs of the Philippines only because of the request of the Islamic Conference to avoid bloodshed in settling the Mindanao problem; that from our point of view it has been settled as 17,000 rebels have surrendered, I have created the two Muslim regions and the Muslims have created their own local government.