The Khro [Khi-Ro Movement] headed by Manny Areola have taken over the office of Secretary of Justice Vicente Abad Santos demanding that he order a judge of Court of First Instance to withdraw an injunction issued ex-parte against some squatters which was violated by the lawyer of the squatters for which he was jailed by the court. The lawyer, Atty. [Camilo?] Sabio, is a candidate for delegate and apparently in with the Khro.
Official Gazette, October 22, 1970: The President concentrated on his desk work, and for that reason limited his time to only a few callers. Notable among those few who saw him were the scouting officials of the Asia-Pacific area, who paid their respects in connection with the gathering here of scouting executives to plan the Golden Jubilee of the Philippine scouting movement and the Asian Scout Jamboree in Japan. The officials who called were Irving Feist, president of the scouting movement in the United States; C. Teng, chairman of the Far East Scout Committee and president of the scouting movement of China; Dr. H. Banai, youth adviser to the Shah of Iran and president of Iran’s scouting movement; S. Matzukata, member of the World Committee and chairman of the Scout Jamboree in Japan in 1971; Yong Wo Kim, president of the Korean scouting movement and former ambassador to the Court of St. James; Antonio Delgado, vice chairman of the World Committee and chairman of the Golden Jubilee of the BSP.
The other notable group to see the President was composed of the members of the dollar repatriation mission, headed by Labor Undersecretary Raoul Inocentes. The group submitted its report on the second phase of its drive to channel dollar remittances of Filipinos abroad through the Philippine National Bank. In the group who called on the President were Alfredo V. Antiporda of the Central Bank, vice chairman; Isidro M. Villanos of the Philippine National Bank, Sergio A. Barrera of the Department of Foreign Affiairs, and Cresencio M. Siddayao of the Department of Labor.
Aside from these few callers, the President worked uninterrupted at his desk, during which he:
1) Ordered more mercy missions to Mindanao in view of reports of extensive damage wrought by Typhoon Titang, particularly in the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Cotabato. At the same time, the President directed Acting Executive Secretary Roberto V. Reyes to fly to Mindanao immediately to assess the typhoon damage there. 2) Designated Bruno M. Santos as acting president of the Mountain State Agricultural College. Dr. Santos served as superintendent of the college before its conversion to a charter status. 3) Approved the commission of Eric Gruaz as honorary consul of the Philippine in Lyon, France; Pablo B. Gatchalian as Philippine consul in Thailand; and Juan A. Ona and Sime D. Hidalgo as Philippine consuls in Hongkong.
At the same time, the Chief Executive had extended recognition to the commissioning by the United States Government of Loren E. Lawrence and Ralph D. Griffin as U. S. consul general and consul, respectively, in Manila; and Yen Tingwei who has been commissioned as vice-consul of the Republic of China in Davao City.
Directed the proper offices to improve the postal system and the customs service, after he was apprised of the complaints against these offices from returning Filipinos and Filipinos abroad. In a memorandum to the secretary of public works and communications, the President directed that “the recurrent complaints of Filipinos abroad about the loss of checks, money and personal items in the mail, delays in mail delivery and others be looked into with the view to further improving our postal system.” In another memorandum, he directed the secretary of finance to look into “complaints of some returning Filipinos about alleged occasional harassment by customs personnel in the airport and the piers, as well as petty abuses by baggage boys.” The Chief Executive directed that corrective measures be instituted and that report be submitted to him on the matter.
The secretary rightly told them in a previous meeting that he would be violating the independence of the judiciary if he ordered a CFI judge around as the Khro demanded. And he would not be an instrument to such a violation of the constitution.
So now they seek to intimidate him by taking over his office and, as usual, threatening everybody with bodily harm.
The Metrocom [Metropolitan Command]-MPD [Manila Police District] riot squads have arrested them to be brought to precinct for investigation.
The KHRO did this in Davao del Norte on releases of public land for settlers. We have encouraged them because their actions often expedited action by sluggish discourteous officials but I suppose we cannot tolerate attempts to intimidate courts.
Spent the morning in routine matters including congressmen and senators.
Imelda at about 11:00 PM slipped in the bathroom and hit her head on the floor. Had to practically drag her to bed with her helping along a little. She is in bed with a headache and Dr. Inday Disini has given her Papase, Beserol and Tylenol and observing her.