10:10 PM
August 4, 1972
Friday
Malacañan Palace
Manila
Started the repair of Manila streets. Inspected Rizal Avenue worked upon by the Armed Forces and the Com. On Highways – at 3:00 PM.
At 4:00 PM, met the representative of the American president on our calamity – Mr. Frickkel and Mr. Maclure with Amb. Byroade and Tom Lubbock.
Then met the private contractors, Com. on Highways, Sec. of Nat. Def., Gen. Santiago of the 51st Eng. Brigade on the large scale effort to repair the roads and to concrete 100 kilometers of Manila streets and 1,000 kilometers of national roads.
Amb. Byroade told me that theor experts are almost sure that the M-14’s that were captured in Diguyo were manufactured in Taiwan. They may have been air dropped in the Chinese mainland for the underground against the Communists, the Communists may have captured them and now deployed them to the Philippine Communists.
Gov. Huang, Deputy Chief of Intelligence of the Nationalist government is here, saw me at 1:00PM. With the information of Amb. Byroade I will see him again tomorrow at 12:00 AM.
I told Bongbong and Irene the situation in which we are – the fact that we are now fighting for survival, that whether I retire or not our family is in danger of liquidation from either the communists or our political enemies, that if I retire I would be forced to fight for our lives because the communists are growing stronger and would be much stronger without me as President; rather than fight and defensive or losing battle later, I would rather fight now by taking over the government by a proclamation of Martial Law; but that such a proclamation would succeed if the people are with us and the people will be with us if the new government is a reform government and we are all exemplars of the new society, so they, the (not readable), must so conduct themselves that they will not antagonize the people.