Have just arrived from the Enlisted Men’s Association 11th year anniversary complete with queen, princesses, pageants and my speech where I emphasized the reasons for fighting communism, announced that Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame should not be sold and the 200 hectares where the enlisted men have their houses should be sold to them.
Imelda is on the way from Lisbon to the U.S. Kokoy [Benjamin Romuladez] called up at 7:30 PM Manila time to say that she would land in five hours and that everything was alright.
A Huk squad under Commander Panchito [Ernesto Miranda] (a Mao-Mao) killed nine including Mayor [Leopoldo] Rabanes and wounded eight in San Marcelino, Zambales in a cold-blooded assault at about 8:30 PM last night. The usual counter-action.
Lawin troops have ringed the hideout of Pedro Taruc in the jungle near the jungle survival school of Clark Air Force Base.
Official Gazette for September 20, 1970: President Marcos declared that as the Philippines modernizes her armed forces, “we shall strive just as hard to make the soldier a warm human being and part of the heart and Soul of our country.”
The President made this remark before the Enlisted Personnel Association of the Philippines (EPAP), at its 11th anniversary celebration at the SSS social hall. “We are teaching our soldiers to learn the arts of peace, rather than uphold merely the science of war,” the President declared. The Chief Executive recalled that in recent years, his administration has succeeded in bringing the soldiers from the barracks to the farms, the barrios, the towns, to do the tasks of development. “We have trained our soldiers to heal the sick, to aid the unfortunate to teach the ignorant, to build roads and bridges, put up schoolhouses, and keep, the peace,” he emphasized. He also expressed the wish to see more and more of the soldiers responding efficiently and effectively to the needs of the community in times of peace, “when those needs could not be fulfilled by other agencies.”
The President regretted, however, the curious paradox that “while we are exerting special efforts to humanize the military man, to purge our country of militarism, there should be sectors of the nation who would rant against so-called militarism.” What discomfits certain critics, he said, was perhaps the fact that the military can be seen everywhere doing useful things, sometimes taking the place of civilians in doing civilian duties.
Except for the speaking engagement which took him out of Malacañang, the President was at his desk most of the morning and afternoon going-over official reports and disposing of official papers needing immediate action. The reports included those from the National Disaster Control Center (NDCC) and from Acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs Manuel Collantes.
The NDCC informed the President of the progress of relief and rehabilitation work in the typhoon ravaged municipalities of Disalag, Dinalongan and Casiguran, in Quezon province.
Secretary Collantes reported that Madame Girl of India has accepted membership in the governing body of the association for Asian culture, which was proposed by the First Lady, Mrs, Imelda E. Marcos,, in a speech at the Philippine Day celebrations at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan.
Apparently the three Huk commanders surrounded in Arayat Mt., Commanders Pelaez, Fonting [Florentino Salak] and Berting [Felixberto Macalino] have slipped out of the cordon.
The 10th BCT [Battalion Command Team] today had a firefight with the group of Commander Fonting and captured one dissident.
Prepared for the meeting with USAID [United States Agency for International Development] Chief Dr. [John] Hannah for lunch tomorrow.