MALACAÑAN PALACE
Manila
4:45 PM
April 14, 1970
Tuesday
Malacañang Palace
Wood Industries Chamber Induction – Requested them to help obtain the data of actual trees replanted and trees cut and to set up an amelioration fund like that of the sugar industry.
Besa Shoes asking for loans because of the fire.
Mayor, VM and Councilors of Parang, Cotabato the center of smuggling in Southern Mindanao. The Bongo Island Sowescom detachment is not doing its job.
Met Gen. Ne Ulin, Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Burma since 1962. It is rumored that a coup d’etat is being executed against him tomorrow.
He must be confident though, to leave Burma with Mrs. Ne Ulin for Tokyo, Osaka and London – Osaka for Burma National Day on the 17th at Expo ’70 and London for medical treatment.
The general was garrulous but nervous. He made a running account of everything with little prodding on my part. He impresses me as a forceful man – even rough and ruthless. He speaks easily of killing. Trained by the Japanese in Hainan Island but he wanted to be a doctor.
He was a student leader against the British.
He has controlled insurgency in Burma. There are two groups of insurgents, according to him – the communist (Maoist and Russian oriented) and those organized by the British and the Americans.
He has nine children, six by his first wife and three by his previous wife.
He was close to the Chinese leaders, Chou En Lai, Lao Tsi, until the 1967 Chinese students killing of the Burmese.
Last December the students also had a demonstration in Rangoon. He wanted to know their leaders, so he allowed it, then arrested the leaders. Since then there have been no demonstrations.
In 1948 when Burma acquired independence, the Burmese government were in control only of Rangoon and one or two big towns without any link by land. Communication only by air, but they reduced the communist stronghold village by village.
The situation in Laos and Cambodia is uncertain. Sihanouk may still make a comeback with the help of the communist troops thereat, but that would not be good implying that Sihanouk would be captive.
The big powers always want to come back to a position of dominance. Mrs. Ne Win interjected during the conversation that the Burmese government is a dictatorship and Imelda hastily referred to the many suggestions that this was best for a developing country.
Laos. Cambodia and Vietnam are all small, weak and unstable countries.
Ne Ulin is tall for an Asian, about 5 feet ten inches, balding and seems filled with nervous energy. He has Chinese features but is browner than yellow. He did not finish his medical course although he says he wanted to be a doctor. He was taken by the Japanese for military training and ended up as Chief of Staff of the Burmese Army. He is about sixty years old
All the Manila Times columnists attacked my speech before the One Asia Assembly. Ernesto Granada of the Chronicle as usual was vicious calling it a comic relief. Even Joe Guevara and Doroy Valencia as well as J.V. Cruz criticized it. Joe Guevara said that my foreign policy speeches are below the par of my domestic speeches which are below par. I hope he plays golf some time so he may know what sub par means.
But my impression is that none of them have bothered to read my speech. The Manila Times columnists apparently were guided by the hand of Chino Roces, their publisher. And the Chronicle as well as its prime columnist Granada moved by a general principle of hatred.