Toured Bulacan by helicopter from 11:00 AM to about 3:00 PM. Malolos where I met all the local officials from governor to Cong. [Teodulo] Natividad of the 1st District (Cong. [Rogaciano] Mercado of the 2nd was not there) and all the mayors. Then Plaridel where we dropped. Mayor Poncing Reyes who just had a nervous breakdown was there. Then all the towns north of Malolos we surveyed by air. Landed at Hagonoy one of the shore towns. Mayor Garcia, a doctor, rushed all the way from the Malolos conference to meet us. Then surveyed all the towns south of Malolos by air and landed at 2:00 PM at Sapang Palay. No SWA [Social Welfare?] or Red Cross workers. Some activities were there claiming all aid reaching the people (like the Nutribuns) came from them.
By this time we were flying through heavy rain. And the thunder and lightning drove us back to Manila.
I had intended to go to Zambales and Bataan but we were rained out.
Official Gazette for November 22, 1970: President Marcos ordered the inclusion of the provinces of Bulacan and Zambales under the proclamation of a state of calamity he issued earlier, as a result of typhoon “Yoling.”
In the proclamation, only the provinces of Rizal and Bataan, and the four cities of Manila. Pasay, Caloocan and Quezon wore covered. In amending the proclamation, the President reiterated its implications—that it is a criminal act, in the areas covered, to conceal, hoard, overprice or profiteer in the process of the sale of foodstuff and other prime necessities of life.
The President, accompanied by Rep. Teodulo Natividad, Secretary of Labor Bias F. Ople, and Gov. Ignacio Santiago of Bulacan, conducted an aerial survey over the province to see for himself the extent of damage to public and private buildings, and crops, which had earlier been reported to them by the province’s municipal mayors
The President left Malacañang Park by helicopter at 11 a.m. and arrived at Malolos for the briefing at 11:15 a.m. In view of the widespread destruction caused by the typhoon, the Chief Executive said that he looks forward to the implementation of the Marcos-Johnson communique of 1966 for the U.S. aid to “our efforts at typhoon, dissipation and damage control.”
The communique issued jointly by the President and President Johnson during the former’s state visit to the U.S. in 1966, provides that:
“The considerable economic loss suffered annually in the Far East from typhoons was discussed by the two Presidents, who agreed that the regional initiatives undertaken by the ECAFE and WHO to improve technical capabilities for typhoon damage control deserved full support.
President Johnson offered the services of the United States meteorological team to develop a joint program of typhoon damage control in the Philippine area in concert with, regional planning’, and President Marcos agreed to the desirability of such a program.”
The President cited the specific provisions of the communique when informed by acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs Manuel Collantes that the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had offered to send a mission to the Philippines to investigate the damage caused by successive typhoons.
The most impressive thing I observed was the self reliance of the people. They were not waiting for government help to rebuild their houses, if they could do it themselves (except in Sapang Palay, the area of the Manila squatters resettled in San Jose del Monte).
The rice crop is almost totally destroyed. Only about 10% of the harvest may be saved. I have to distribute some seeds at 50% of the cost.
And I have to attend to the schoolhouses immediately. Almost all have been blown down.
I am sending a generator to run the deep well pumps on rotation of towns basis.
And we may have to send some rice specially to the seashore towns.
There is a bitter quarrel between Gov. [Ignacio] Santiago and Cong. Mercado because Gov. Santiago allegedly did not help Mercado in the last elections.