Skip to content

September 11, 1972, Monday

1:40 AM

Sept 11, 1972

Monday

MALACAÑAN PALACE
Manila

Birthday celebrations limited to mass and a meeting with the governors and mayors which has turned out to be tedious. I have barely finished with 38 and will have to meet the rest after the Security Council tomorrow.

But it has been an eventful day. The Meralco was bombed in two places last night.

Today the Manila Police battled a jeepload of NPAs, capturing six killing one armed with a carbine five hours after he escaped although another of the escapees armed with a Thompson submachine gun is still being hunted and a Sgt. de Guzman of the Manila Police was killed.

The kidnappers of Tom Aguirre (Banco Filipino) and his son Antonio released them after they paid ₱1.2 million. The kidnappers were well disciplined, had a basement full of communications and had apparently been succesfully kidnapping Chinese for ransom — Tony Roxas Chua’s wife for ₱1 million, La Suerte owners in the same amount, Chen Ba Yek and others.

The NPA’s may have raised their funds in this manner.

So there is hysteria in Manila from a bomb and kidnapping scare.