Friday
I write this at 12:20 AM just as I entered my bedroom where my two daughters were lying in wait for me to wish me a happy birthday. Imee has written me an affectionate touching letter in the smallest hand I have seen in many a year and some books including The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery, The Prophet by one of the friends of a teacher of Bongbong, Kahlil Gibran. Irene gave a painting of the flood in reds and browns and a dedication “Dear Daddy, I couldn’t give you anything but this cheap jacket and a painting. But anyway HAPPY BIRTHDAY—Irene”
11:00 PM
Imelda called up after I left for the Coordinating Center at Fort Aguinaldo so I called back when I returned. She wanted to wish me a happy birthday. It was about three o’clock in the morning in London and 10:00 AM here. We talked to her at 9:10 PM Manila time. They were taking lunch with the London Symphony Orchestra. She told me that they played more everytime she stood off. And she had to stand up from the dining table to go to the phone booth when I called.
Decorated the Boy Scout who died in the flood of Sept. 2, 1970 at La Mesa Dam saving his scoutmaster, with the Presidential Medal of Merit for heroism.
Mass at 11:15 AM. Father Donelan who said mass and gave a sermon on Prometheus and Christ. Prometheus, one of the gods of Greek mythology took pity upon man huddled in caves against the cold and stroke fire from Mt. Olympus guarded by Jupiter who did not wish to give fire to man because man would acquire the power of the gods. Thus fire that could warm man and cook his food, melt the metals from the earth and thus make steel arrow heads, printing presses or guns, was brought to the world. But Jupiter in anger punished Prometheus for stealing the fire. And Prometheus was bound and staked spread eagle facing the sun on top of a mountain in one of the most remote corners of the earth. And he was left to be rent and devoured by the vultures.
Another god came to this earth and brought another kind of fire—spiritual fire unlike the physical fire of Prometheus. And this other God was Jesus Christ. He did not steal the fire he brought for his Father had given it to him for man. But the petty gods that man had become were envious and like Prometheus punished him. They taunted him, spat on him and spread eagled him on a cross on top of another lonely mountain we know as Calvary. Like Prometheus he died for his service to man. But the fire he brought still burns in our hearts.
A President must be both Prometheus, to bring the physical of comfort and progress and a Christ to bring spiritual fire in our hearts. Every man must be Christ. But a president more so. And so we have come to pray for strength, courage and wisdom as well as love for him that he may bring fire into our world.
And we can say, “He brought forth fire into the world and the fire still burns within us.”
Lunch for about 150 people. VP [Fernando] and Mrs. [Mariquit] Lopez and Pres. Pro Tempore Jose Roy were there, Ambassador [Modesto] and Mrs. [Filipinas] Farolan, our ambassador in Indonesia was also here. He is working on the Indonesian forest concession for Filipinos.
Then suffered an abdominal upset. So I took a nap up to 4:00 PM. Met the Malacañang media men and Carding Silverio who brought me my six new suits from Bullock-Jones of San Francisco.
Then went to the Coordinating Center to assess the damage caused by the storm. Right now there is no wind nor rain in Manila but the typhoon (Pitang) has hit Casiguran, San Fernando and Vigan. I am glad I did not go to Ilocos Norte today.
Had Japanese dinner at 8:45 PM with only my two daughters. It was sent from Japan by Gen. Eulogio Balao. Included sashimi, sukiyaki, salmon fresh, fresh fish complete with sake’ (Chiyoda). I am afraid I overate and I am now feeling heavy. There was also pigs knuckles with sauerkraut.
I have just finished a conference with Sec. Cesar Virata, Ex. Sec. Alex [Alejandro] Melchor [Jr.] and Director of PES [Presidential Economic Staff] Placido Mapa [Jr.] on the problem areas the two, Virata and Mapa, are leaving behind, mostly financial.
11:55 PM September 12, 1970[1]
Saturday
There is a plan of the Kabataang Makabayan to kidnap American Ambassador Byroade, Jusmag [Joint US Military Assistance Group] Chief Gen. Pickett, US Aid [Agency for International Development] head Dr. Niblack and the USIS [United States Information Service] head. Apparently this plan is to include an exchange of the kidnapped Americans for Nilo Tayag, the head of the KM’s. Shades of South America!
We heard of this for the first time last Thursday when we went to Fort Aguinaldo for the traditional loyalty parade before my birthday and at Carmona in the resettlement area. [Henry] Byroade told Col. [Fabian] Ver about this and asked that there be a covert effort so that we can identify the planners and perpetrators. So we have given him and the others covert protection jointly with OSI [Office of Special Investigations].
Have given instructions to the missioners to the IMF [International Monetary Fund] meeting in Copenhagen as well as the Consultative Group meeting in Paris on October 1 & 2. I am sending Roman Cruz, Jr. to Bonn to back up Ambassador J.V. Cruz his brother, and Gov. [Benjamin] Romualdez and [Geronimo] Ronnie Velasco to Washington on electrification. We must push through the national electrification program.
The international commercial airlines are now searching all packages and baggages for explosives and arms in the MIA [Manila International Airport]. And I agree with the precautions.
Had dinner again with my two daughters to whom I retold the story of the characters in our family, including Bernardo the profligate drunk but who being six feet tall and unbelievably strong was the man who was to start the Ilocano folk legend of Bernardo; Father’s father, Fabian, who was the scholarly revolutionary and came down from the mountains to teach the Americans Spanish; Fructuoso, my mother’s father who was the rich Edralin and who pioneered in opening up the virgin lands in the foothills of the Cordilleras; Father who was a stern disciplinarian and who did not think much of sending a twelve year old boy with a message through a cemetery in the dead of a rainy night; Paking who was sickly when he was young; and the poets and writers who even then looked down on trade and commerce.
And regaled them with stories of the games we played in our younger days: Juego de Anillo; the chicken buried in the sand with its head sticking out for us racers to grab (the secret was to use the smallest horse possible) racing full tilt with four other horses on a path that could accommodate only two horses; catching the larded pig; climbing up the oiled pole for its “gold” pot at the top; Filipino wrestling; Filipino arnis; cooking sweets in boiling molasses; hunting wild pig and deer in Nueva Era and Solsona at the boundary of Mt. Province and Abra and getting lost alone in the jungle—and fist fights in grade school! Poor girls finally said they were glad they were not boys!
11:00 PM September 13, 1970[2]
Sunday
Golf from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM at Fort Aguinaldo.
Conference with Alfonso Lim of Taggatt Sawmills and Plywood at Claveria, Cagayan as well as Cong. [Roque] Ablan [Jr.] on Fuga Island 13,000 ha. with 4,000 heads of cattle and an airstrip of 1,300 meters, plenty of fresh water at 20 feet below the ground. Barit is about 600 hectares and Magbal 250 hectares. This is adobe with about a half of it thick with trees. Fish abounds in the area. Fuga already has a beach house and Intercontinental is ready to develop a small part of it into a tourist spot.
Then conferred with [Antonio] Tony Floirendo of Tadeco [Tagum Agricultural Development Company, Inc.] and Sec. [Ernesto] Maceda of Commerce & Industry on some of his candidates for delegate.
Finalized with Sec. [Juan] Ponce Enrile and UnderSec. Jose Crisol the guidelines for handling the activists in the schools and universities. Cases must be built up of subversion if any. But the school and university administrations must first be asked to meet the threat of Maoism and Stalinism. So that the steps that we would take would be merely supplementary. And the government officials and employees must be told what they can do—tolerate arrogance or even vicious language but not intervention with due process or judicial process.
The [Henry] Byroade kidnap story is in the metropolitan newspapers. Asst. J-2 [Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence], Col. [Zosimo] Paredes, told the police who gave it to the press.
[1] Official Gazette for September 12, 1970 : P resident Marcos spent most of the day at his desk. Apart from studying official reports on a wide range of government business, he also issued directives, among which was a sterner policy against those who violate conditions of the contract to operate concessions geared to the exploitation of natural resources on public lands; and the organization of electric cooperatives teams, in every province to help the National Electrification Administration speed up its work. The President also attended to the screening of prospective candidates for vacant posts in the government, including those recently vacated by officials who have opted to run for seats in the Constitutional Convention. The President approved the promotion of Antonio Ruiz from first-assistant provincial fiscal to acting provincial fiscal of Pangasinan, vice Emeterio Castañeda , retired. In another action, the President accepted with regret the resignation of Felipe Ysmael , special envoy to Southeast Asia and Australia.
[2] Official Gazette for September 13, 1970 : P resident Marcos continued concentrating on desk work, and disposed of official papers brought to him by aides, as well as acted on reports, both from private and government entities. Among the directives issued from his desk was for Secretary of Finance Cesar E. A. Virata to look into the reported importation into the country of a sizable quantity of remnants, in violation of Centra] Bank regulations. The entry of the remnants, said to be consisting, ofr.757 bales and worth $571,713.40, was brought to the President’s attention by Julio B. Francia, Jr., president of the Philippine Chamber of Industries. Steps considered include the outright seizure and destruction of the goods.In his directive to Secretary Virata, the President asked the finance secretary to take appropriate action on the case to protect’ the Philippine textile industry.