MALACAÑAN PALACE
Manila
11:00 PM
February 3, 1971
Wednesday
I ordered the withdrawal of the Metrocom and the QCPD under Col. Karingal from the UP campus. It turns out that there are no Metrocom troopers in the campus and only 6 policemen of QC at the gate. There was no take-over by the military as claimed by the newspapers. The QCPD through Maj. Clemente and six men intervened only when the students having set up barricades in University Road set fire to Prof. Innocente Campos and the latter shot at some of the students. The QC Fire Department was not allowed to go in to put out the fires that had been started. There having been a crime committed and danger of more crimes being committed, the police went in.
Maj. Clemente and his six policemen were pinned down by rifle fire near the two dormitories which turned out to be ladies dormitories. So they called for Metrocom troopers. Nine arrived. They cleared the dormitories. But they did not enter the basement which was full of students because they wanted to avert farther trouble. They left the
campus instead.
A senatorial committee (apparently the Committee on Education) composed of Sens. Tañada, Benitez and Tamano came to see me representing the whole group which had gone to the UP at 3:00 PM and found that there was no military take-over. However seven students had somehow infiltrated the UP Library which is the best library in the Philippines and threatened to burn the library if any action was taken to turn them out.
The request to the QCPD to clear the University Road which is a national highway came from the inhabitants of the university community who do not ride taxis or private cars but only buses. The barricades were removed yesterday. But they were back again this morning.
Mayor Villegas called up to say he and Mayors Amoranto, Claudio and Caloocan were coming to pledge cooperation in the peace and order drive. They come tomorrow at 10:00 AM.
I met the Federation of Free Fishermen whose spokesman was Mayor Peña of Naic, Cavite on dynamite fishing, Vice Pres. Lopez’s Administrative Order No. 99 which allows trawlers in Manila Bay in violation of Rep. Act 3048 which allows trawling only beyond seven fathoms deep, and financing for small fishermen which I immediately
attended to.
I have asked Atty. Crispin Baizas to look into the causes of the student unrest. He feels it is organized and is caused by something deeper than the oil prices or the jeepney drivers. He does not trust the Jesuits.