MALACAÑAN PALACE
Manila
I write this at 8:30 AM
Dec. 18, 1972 because I went
to bed at 12:00 p.m. feeling heavy
and sore in the muscles. Just
tired and sleepy as I slept only
five hours the night before
and had practically no nap in the
afternoon.
December 17, 1972
Sunday
Bongbong and Irene arrived by PAL in the evening at 7:32 p.m. We met them at the VIP Room. Bongbong’s hair had been cut short by Amb. Jayme Zobel’s secretary, Salazar, on the prodding’s of Bea, the ambassador’s wife. Irene was smart in a red, white and blue suit with a red tie and red bordered vest-armless sweater under a coat. They both look healthy and happy. Bongbong read during the long trip — a novel and a book on relativity! Irene slept and ate only one meal.
Imelda’s stitches, including the long subcuticular stitch at the right forearm that held the muscles together – and without anesthesia at 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 a.m.
After the attack on Imelda, while she was suffering from her fresh wounds I started to think if the reforms of our society and the Filipino people are worth all these sacrifices.
And the answer is “yes, if the reforms will finds rest among our people.”
But in Manila I am beginning to see the signs of a shipping back to the old habits.
There is cleanliness in the city, much less crime, a new attitude by civil servants, a general concern for the general welfare.
But frivolity is still apparent among the upper classes. Still a habit for conspicuous consumption, selfishness and appearance. One feels this arrogance also among the intelligentsia towards the ignorant and the less fortunate.
The rich are still thinking in terms of quick unreasonable profits, how to escape the law, avoid taxes.
Some criminals are back to their trade and the radicals are regrouping.
The politicians are beginning to be as demanding (Cong. Masias kept insisting on the congressions receiving their salaries immediately after the ratification of the new constitution) as before. This is because they know we need them for the ratification of the new constitution.
And the Liberal Party leadership of Roxas, Salonga, Felipe, Eva Estrada Kalaw, John Osmeña, Daza, Barrera, Soc Rodrigo are banding together for obstructionism all over agaln.
The Comelec has assumed an attitude it is more powerful than the military and perhaps the president.
The quiet, slow slide into the old society is now perceptible.
And a deliberate attempt to erode the authority of martial law.
Even Mao Tse Tung spoke of the return of reaction in a letter to his wife several years after the 1949 victory of his revolution. Thus, the need of the Cultural Revolution.
Probably we will need more stern measures after the ratification of the constitution. It seems as if liberality is mistaken for weakness in a centralist or authoritarian government no matter how constitutional.
We need a longer period of gestation of the New Society. Otherwise it will be aborted.
And more care and alertness by the leadership for the symptoms of retrogression.