MALACAÑAN PALACE
Manila
1:00 AM
January 13, 1971
Wednesday
The congressmen close to me, Cong. Cojuangco, Frisco San Juan, Ali Dimaporo, Jose Aspiras, Navarro, Lucas Canton, Roque Ablan all pressed for the use of my emergency powers. “We cannot understand why you are so patient. Do not wait until we are completely debilitated and the people is against us. It will be too late. One swift blow and we remove the cancer from our society,” they all said.
I could only answer that it may be sooner than we think.
For violence erupted in Plaza Miranda and other places in the city this afternoon up to tonight. Confirmed casualties are 14 injured including one policeman and two troopers hit by molotov cocktails (which cocktails according to Gen. Ordoñez were twice the force of a hand grenade) and one confirmed killed and another possibly killed.
Atty. Lupino Lazaro who called me up while I was having dinner with the congressmen at about 9:30 PM claimed the drivers were not involved as he dispersed them at 2:00 PM and the violence started at 5:00 PM which was true. But the radical left, mostly students, did take over from the drivers. Lazaro sent Bert Moran to explain to me
that he will try to stop the strike tomorrow.
I made an appeal for the media not to farther exacerbate passions, to report fairly and honestly. I begged the pressure groups who are reported to be financing and egging them to violence to desist in the name of the people, for the communists are taking advantage of the chaos and confusion.
I attach my outline and the report of Adrian Cristobal on the publishers’ meeting at Meralco yesterday.