I write this as I wait for Mr. Amor, President of the Council of Industrial Workers, at the San Miguel Bldg., before whom I am going to speak tonight.
We are now pushing all the plans to obtain loans from the different countries including the socialist countries. There is a tempest in a teapot because of the visit of Executive Sec. Alejandro Melchor to India and now Moscow. I sent him to India to find out in what areas our two countries may be able to cooperate. We would like to borrow their experience on rural electrification and policy on the two superpowers, the US and Russia. He cannot make any commitments. He can only observe, report and recommend.
Official Gazette, October 26, 1970: The President had a full schedule of visitors and conferences, capped by the oath-taking of the new Philippine ambassador to the Court of St. James, London. An outline of the President’s activities follows:
1) A courtesy call of Andre Kostenaletz, accompanied by Mrs. Chole Romulo, Luis Araneta and Protacio Sta. Cruz. 2) A conference attended by former Supreme Court Justice Conrado V. Sanchez, Rep. Teodulo Natividad, Prisons Director Alejo Santos, Assistant Director Pedro Solis, Court of Appeals Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, Assistant Fiscal Marcos Valentin and Attys. Felipe Kalalo and Manuel Yngson. They conferred at length on a series of anti-crime measures which, from the President’s point of view, deserves top priority from the national government.The President forthwith directed the preparation of necessary administrative orders to enable immediate implementation of those measures, not requiring congressional action. 3) An official call of Secretary Manda Elizalde of Panamin, to discuss activities of the organization. 4) A call by Reps. Rafael Legaspi of Aklan, Jose Leido, Jr. of Mindoro Oriental, Andres Cosalan of Benguet, Tito Dupaya of Cagayan, Benjamin Perez of Nueva Vizcaya, Angel Concepcion of Nueva Ecija and Senator Leonardo Perez to discuss specific problems: and by Govs. Jose Legaspi of Aklan, Salvacion Iñiguez of Southern Leyte, Anacleto Alcala of Quezon, Benjamin Palispis of Benguet and Vicente Magsaysay of Zambales, to discuss local problems. 5) The induction of Ambassador Jaime Zobel de Ayala as Philippine envoy to the Court of St. James in London.
Later, the President directed Budget Commissioner Faustino Sy-Changco to release an additional ₱600,000 from the calamity fund to the Department of Social Welfare to augment its relief operations.
At the same time, the Chief Executive authorized the DSW to make local purchases, notably in Cebu, of relief goods for distribution to areas in Mindanao stricken by typhoon “Titang.” The President’s directive was issued on recommendation of Acting Executive Secretary Roberto V. Reyes, who reported on the conditions m the stricken areas, following a meeting of representatives of various government agencies engaged in relief work.
The President also set aside four parcels of public land with a total area of 2,934 hectares where squatters and slum dwellers in the Greater Manila Area could be permanently resettled. Except for the 92-hectare site which is located in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, the rest of the reservation is located in the municipality of Montalban, Rizal.
In the evening the President was guest speaker at the dinner tendered for him by the Philippine Council of Industrial Editors at the A. Soriano Executive House in Makati, Rizal. In his speech, the President underscored the basic, thing in development which, he said, is the ability of a people to relate themselves to the requirements of development, and acquire a personal sense of responsibility for supporting and accelerating that development. The President also discussed the options taken by the administration in the development of the country’s economy. The President declared that if Philippine society is to work, it must have that shared spirit, arising from working together, toward the attainment of goals which, in turn, will benefit everyone.
Ambassador [Henry] Byroade is disturbed by the report that CFI [Court of First Instance] Judge [Ceferino] Gaddi has promulgated a decision ordering the arrest of Col. [Averill] Holman, Clark Air Force Base Commander calling the U.S. Federal judicial process a sham and calling the Americans names. If already promulgated, the problem would be how to enforce the decision. We cannot take Clark Air Force Base by force. Even if we wanted to we cannot. Its planes would decimate our armed forces in a matter of hours. And I question the justness of the decision since Col. Holman has not been proved to have been instrumental in the escape of the American soldier Williams from Philippine jurisdiction which started all this.
I anticipate that the nationalists’ agitators and radicals will pick on this. There will be cries of imperialism and fascism as usual.
But the issue still is: Is it just to hold a man responsible for another man’s crime?
Ambassador Byroade asked to talk to me privately during the tea for Ambassador Jaime Zobel de Ayala after the ceremonies of his oath-taking (in Tagalog or more accurately Filipino). The ceremonies were unusually formal and ritualistic. He was escorted from his home by a motorcycle squad and the Malacañang ceremonial car, met and given an escort of honor by the Presidential Guard Battalion in their resplendent blue formals, brought up to the Palace door to the tune of the trumpets, received at the ceremonial hall where about 200 guests waited to witness his assumption of office, toasted by me as the man in whom I reposed the highest trust and confidence as Ambassador to the Court of St. James and whom I trust will accomplish his mission with excellence; he toasted back and delivered a short thank you speech.
This is the first time we have gone through this [sic] ceremonies of the assumption of office by an ambassador.
Max Soliven suffered a heart attack last Friday, October 23rd. He is in the Intensive Care Dept. of the Makati Medical Center. [Geronimo] Rony Velasco told me about this today. And I have asked ______.
Franz Pick—He has as usual (he has never said anything good of any country in his journal and has a reputation for sensationalism and exaggeration to attract attention) attacked me personally and wrote with derision about our balance of payments problem blaming it on us specially me. I have completely ignored him.
Maximo V. Soliven (1929-2006) had a long career in journalism and was connected with the Manila Times, Chronicle, Evening News, Philippines Daily Inquirer. At the time of his death, of a heart attack in Tokyo, Japan on November 24, 2006, he was Publisher and Editorial page columnist of the Philippine Star.
Dr. Franz Pick, international currency analyst who advocated gold as world currency and authored “The Triumph of Gold” (1987) was head of the Pick Publishing Company that put out: Pick’s Currency Report and Pick’s Currency Yearbook
11:25 PM
Changed my speech into an extemporaneous one as Jesus Cabarrus of Marinduque had delivered a critique of the economic program saying there is no integrated program of economic development—before I spoke.
I will have the speech transcribed and appended next to this page.
Talked to Ex-Sec. Felixberto Serrano who is running for delegate to the convention. He is one of the more experienced and articulate and prospective winners. And even now we should be planning for the leadership of the convention.