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June 12, 1972 Monday

MALACAÑAN PALACE
Manila

June 12, 1972
Monday

Imelda and I have been reminiscing in bed — the long tortuous road from Congress to the Presidency; the sacrifices, her tears, pain and hard work that went into our struggle for power.

She put purpose into my life — the life of a spoiled bachelor congressman who was also a successful trial lawyer and a hero of the last war who tended to be too carefree and frivolous.

In eleven years I jumped from congressman to president.

And I have just written the children through Roy Laurence. Bongbong is our principal worry. He is too carefree and lazy.

So I wrote him the fatal secret of the Marcos men — “they are brilliant but lazy.” And they tend to be so unless they buckle down to a dogged unrelenting resolve to fight off sloth or a traumatic experience turns them into bitterness that congeals into determined resolve to achieve and be victorious.

I wrote him about me — how the political and financial reverses of father had made me bitter. It had come to a point where I had to get a scholarship to continue my studies. So I became a scholar — a senior scholar in law.

I discovered that I had a brain and a photographic memory. And I made the best of it.

I must write him about the Nalundasan case and how I vowed to top the bar after graduating Cum Laude.

For the boy must get character. I have told him that since we have enemies, he will have to fight the battles I fought in the past against myself and against circumstances had been kinder to me because it had given me the motivation to work hard.

I must tell him of his ancestors, his great grandfather of the revolution, the direct line of brilliant and brave men whose saving grace was the character of their women how many failed like Antonio Marcos who had exceeded the record of excellence in scholarship of Rizal – but had not done much of his life because of wine, women and
song. The boy must realize his weakness – the carefree wayward ways that may have been bred in him.

I am recovering from my illness. I should be able to walk around tomorrow.

The Vice President took my place in the ceremonies today.