MALACAÑAN PALACE
Manila
12:35 AM
April 3, 1970
Friday
Have just finished a charming dinner for Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands; he pilots his own plane and is head of the World Wildlife Conservation of which Gen. Lindbergh is a director.
Have finished my paper work including the appointment of Ex-Sec. Manuel Lim as Chairman of the Price Control Council in lieu of VPres. Lopez who has rejected it because he may not have time for it. I can start tomorrow after the breakfast for the Military Advisers to Seato and a courtesy call of the President of Pepsi Cola, Mr. Kendall. I go to Ozamis City where I have Imelda to go by helicopter to Mahayag, Zamboanga del Sur to inaugurate a 10,000 hectare irrigation system built on a self-help basis at a cost to government of only P40,000; back to Ozamis to close the PRISSA; go to Iligan by helicopter to Iligan City to meet the religious and political leaders then by boat to Surigao overnight; open the Interscholastic meet, then by boat overnight to Cagayan de Oro, inaugurate the extended airfield, then proceed to Zurallah and by helicopter the Lake Sebu area of the Tagabilis and the Obos, then after lunch and conference to General Santos by plane to sleep at Dole Phil.
And on Monday the Pinagbuklod Ng Manggagawang Filipino decided to stay away from their jobs to pray for the increase of the minimum wage. The papers of course call it a strike.
Father Blanco in a visit to Alex Melchor alleged that the laborers and students are planning to blast the fuel tanks of the oil companies if the gasoline price is increased (which it has already).
I feel that this particular Jesuit is trying to earn a reputation as a violent radical -just for the notoriety and the publicity.
But if there is any massive sabotage I will have to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.