Attended Cabinet Meeting at 8 a.m. at Mariquina as Chief of Staff. Attended office afterwards. Anxiously waiting for news from the front. The enemy is pushing on. Our forces are outnumbered and out-gunned. The bombing and strafing by planes is damaging our troops.
At 8 p.m. the President called me by phone and asked me to go to Mariquina. I rushed to Mariquina. He told me that he was going to appoint me Secretary of National Defense in addition to being Chief of Staff. He asked me if I was willing to leave my family. I answered that I was a soldier and as such I was ready to go wherever sent. He asked me to keep it confidentially.