We are suffering one of the worst floods in Philippine history. I have declared a state of emergency in Central Luzon, Metropolitan Manila and Southern Luzon. It has been raining since Saturday, Aug. 29th. And this was due to Typhoon Welming which is now near Formosa but a new low pressure area has developed 500 kilometers east of Batanes. Everything is paralyzed.
Suffered a painful reoccurrence of my right ankle pains—perhaps gout. Buta-solidin (two initial tablets and one tablet every four hours with two tablets of tylinol every four hours) has stopped the pain and the swelling but I am grounded in the palace which is surrounded by water. This morning the water was hip-high around the palace. Tonight it is only knee-high.
This morning Central Luzon, Metropolitan Manila and Southern Luzon were under water. Our helicopters and frogmen have done a great job of rescuing stranded people. In San Juan about a thousand families have been evacuated to safe places.
Imelda and Bongbong spent the afternoon in a navy truck supervising the distribution of food, medicine and clothing. She came back at about 8:00 PM. In this foul weather she was the only one aboard among the men.
So we have postponed their trip to Rome set for tomorrow to Friday. They will be travelling at night up to Rome where they meet the Pope on the 5th then at night again to London.
My gymnasium under the bedroom was under one foot and a half of water. All my athletic equipment and papers (including some cash that is kept in a small room there) had to be brought up to the bedroom.
Official Gazette for September 2, 1970: President Marcos proclaimed a state of public calamity and emergency in some parts of the country in view of the continuous heavy rains resulting in floods. (Full text of the proclamation in OG)
Earlier in the morning, the President left Malacañang in a helicopter to personally direct rescue and relief operations and to view for himself the extent of damage caused by the heavy rains.
Even as the President proclaimed a state of public calamity and emergency, the First Lady, Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos, visited ravaged areas stopping at relief centers and coordinating rescue and relief assistance from various agencies. Mrs. Marcos, riding in a military truck, went around the affected areas with son Bongbong, Secretary of Public Works and Communications Manuel B. Syquio, Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce. Enrile, PN Flag Officer in Command Commodore Dioscoro Papa, and Leyte Gov. Benjamin Romualdez.
Also early in the morning, Executive Secretary Alejandro Melchor, Jr. made an aerial survey to determine the extent of damage caused by the heavy monsoon rains and immediately reported to the President.
Only the presidential helicopter (Sikorsky 62) could land in our helipads as it is the only amphibious helicopter. I kept the helicopters up in the air rescuing people on roof tops. Capt. Doliva, the First Ladies’ aide-de-camp who is treated as a buffoon, came back to report “Mission accomplished” as he had gone with the presidential helicopter to pick up the brother-in-law’s family of [Jose] Joe Campos at Araneta Avenue who were already knee-high in water although they were standing on their roof. And they picked up a man drowning close by to boot.
Went and inspected the paintings and the memorabilia at the presidential museum below, which was under about a foot of water, notwithstanding its elevation from the floor of the Heroes’ Hall.
The whole palace feels damp as we had to open the windows since the air-conditioning were out due to power failure (Meralco [Manila Electric Company] worked on the lines until about 7:00 PM when light was restored in my bedroom although the main switch and trunk lines are under water).
The big mural (as big as one wall of the ceremonial hall at the Pasig-end of which it was hung and a curtain placed over it for the mass said by the Cardinal [Santos] which curtain was opened after the mass to the frank astonishment and gasps of the audience who stared at it with mouths agape of Carlos (Botong) Francisco which was started by him in 1967 and partly finished when he died in March 1969 and which was given me by Imelda for my 53rd birthday on Sept. 1, 1970 is painted in the heroic proportions and lines of Botong as only he can paint a mural.
It symbolizes a man (sketched in outline at the low center) descended from warriors and freemen (Maharlika) the red of his blood traced to the traditions of his forbears and his own achievements in war and the clear drops of tears clearing the way to fulfillment. I like the centerpiece which is my face (the only one drawn by any painter with character). There are some technical mistakes. I am too thin in the wrestling and boxing scenes and I looked babyish when shooting down the Japanese officer at the bridge in Villasis (I was husky and muscular when I started out in the war. I must have weighed 145 pounds. I now weigh only 132 pounds).
And as Bongbong immediately pointed out, my footwork while swimming is not the best—it is too high out of the water. “I am sure we all swim better than that,” my son quipped.
You can see that these are not lines drawn by Botong although his assistants Policarpio Caparas and Salvador Juban must have followed his drawings. In fact one can immediately point out the heroic free and throbbing strokes of Botong and they are my face and the figures around it as well as the figures at the far corners.
But it is a shocking fascinating mural. It shocks with the blood and anger of war as it intrigues you with the thousand stories it can tell. The mystery of those untold stories is its magic web of fascination.
Its size (17 ft. by 23 ft.) as well as its lines and theme attracts attention.