I write this at about 11:30 PM Friday, Nov. 20th, because yesterday was the day of Typhoon Yoling and its 220 kilometers per hour wind velocity the strongest in the memory of men.
We had decided Wednesday night that we would beat the typhoon by going by plane to land in San Fernando at 6:00 AM then motor to Baguio. But at 6:00 AM it was raining cats and dogs. So the plane ride was cancelled and we proceeded to Tutuban instead for the train. But somebody had cancelled the train trip and the presidential coaches had to be rerouted back. So we waited for three hours until about 9:00 AM in the crummy waiting room which was warm notwithstanding the air-conditioner. Then we had a long wait (30 minutes) at the cooler manager’s office.
When we had started we let the General and Mrs. Ne Win sleep. Kitty had a headache. I could not blame her.
We had lunch at 1:00 PM and arrived at Damortis at 2:10 PM. Arrived in Baguio at about 4:00 PM.
By then we were informed of the devastation the typhoon had wreaked on Manila and suburbs.
The media boys wanted me to make a statement. All I could say was the Disaster Control Plan was in force.
Played golf at Kaniao to work out our legs as we waited for more reports from Manila.
Then dinner at the Conference Hall for about 80 guests. But interrupted it to make a nationwide radio-television broadcast proclaiming a state of emergency in the Greater
Official Gazette for November 19, 1970: President Marcos mobilized teams from the various government agencies to undertake rescue, relief and wreckage clearing operations following receipt of report in Baguio City of the damage wrought by typhoon “Yoling” which lashed metropolitan Manila and the Southern Luzon provinces in the morning and early afternoon.
At the same time, he appealed to all citizens who had not been adversely affected by the typhoon to extend assistance to typhoon victims, notably in the form of cooked food and medicines.
He also ordered the release of P100,000 from the calamity fund for relief aid to victims. The President issued the directive following a briefing by Executive Secretary Alejandro Melchor, Jr. on the extent of the damage wrought by the typhoon.
The President arrived in Baguio City early in the morning with Gen. Ne Win, the Burmese chief of state, who arrived for a four-day state visit.
Manila Area; suspending classes until Monday; suspending all government offices in the area until next week; appealing to the citizenry to donate food and medicines and help their neighbors; appealing to the local governments to cooperate with the national government because they were passing the buck to the national government; releasing funds (P100,000) to the Social Welfare Dept. and the Red Cross; calling a coordinating meeting of the relief agencies, etc.
Slept at about 1:00 AM.
Had a good talk alone with Gen. Ne Win in the train after lunch. He is voluble, loves to recount his experiences fighting the British even if he was on the side of the Japanese and the resistance movement before that. But he is not a braggart like Lee Kuan Yu of Singapore who has actually an inferiority complex because of the small size of his country.
Gen. Ne Win reiterated his belief that China would not invade Burma or the other Asian countries but would continue to train and support communist infiltrators although even this policy is being reviewed.
He has just sent his ambassador to Peking and he expects more information from him soon.
He would like to increase his present population (about 27 million) to 75 million. “Then we could stick our tongues out to China,” he said. He reminds me of Premier [Eisaku] Sato of Japan.
He has already had one operation in the prostate. He is leaving for London in a week for another operation of the same nature.
His air force and navy is not too strong, but he has about 150,000 men under arms and would like to increase this to 300,000.
He still feels that the British tried to wipe out Burmese culture and that the Burmese must keep on staying neutral.
He related that in 1962 the year he took over the government in a bloodless coup de etat [sic] from U Nu only Rangoon, the capital, and the road to the airport was under the control of the national government; the government was bankrupt and they had to borrow 4 million pounds to take in the rice harvest and sell it abroad; these were six groups of insurgents which were fighting the government; the country was in chaos.
He is a gemologist and spoke lengthily of the ruby, sapphire, jade and pearl resources of the Burmese. He identified the big ruby in the British crown as coming from Burma.