PAGE 98 Office of the President of the Philippines Malacañang February 28, 1970 Saturday 10:55 PM Am working on a Primer on Communism. Everyone is talking of confrontations with student power. Actually the whole crisis has been utilized by communism to create a revolutionary situation. Ernesto Granada,..
Read moreMarch 21, 1942
Tanco and I toured Bulacan: Marilao, Bigaa, Guiguinto, Malolos, Plaridel and Baliuag. It is five days since I have written here. I think I’ll stop writing. What do I get by crabbing about my feelings? And supposing the Japanese get a hold of this diary? Oh well, I’m not worried. If they ask me to..
Read moreMarch 9, 1942
Paez may resign. Melo and Abes have left already. With Pagu in Fort Santiago, I will be left alone. And it is especially now that we should stick together. Oliveros is trying his best to fill Pagu’s job. Tanco is quite a help, for he gets along with the Japanese. We have a very important..
Read moreMarch 7, 1942
Reign of terror. Shades of the Inquisition, the “Red-purge,” Jan Valtin’s “Out of the Night.” Sison has disappeared. He fled to the mountains. The Japanese Military Police is looking for him. Stories have crept out of Fort Santiago. Men are being tortured. Several have died because of the “water-cure.” Blows, lashings, chains, hysterical screams. Tanco..
Read moreMarch 1, 1942
More men brought to Fort Santiago. Tanco was called this morning. Capati and Oliveros, this afternoon. Pagulayan and I will probably be next. I have a premonition they will call me one of these days. Must prepare my wife. Everybody in the office is nervous, panic-stricken. Conversations are carried on in whispers. I appealed in..
Read moreFebruary 13, 1942
Very sad news in the Tribune on Bataan. The Japanese offensive has been intensified. The U.S. War Department said that “the outlook for the forces in the Philippines is very dark. We have very dim hopes of holding our positions in the face of a superior and overwhelming enemy with a great number of soldiers..
Read moreFebruary 6, 1942
Col. T. Uzaki, head of the Army’s food division, together with six other Japanese, went to San Fernando and other towns accompanied by Julian Reyes, to survey the rice situation. Conditions in Pampanga are unsettled. Life is unsafe. There are many ghost towns. The people have fled to the mountains. The Manila Railroad lines will..
Read moreJanuary 18,1942
“You can’t put a good man down,” they say, and the cochero is that good man. He is king of Manila again, as virtually all gasoline-driven motor vehicles, with the exception of military cars and vehicles authorized by the Army, disappeared from Manila’s streets. I’ve given up my Super-Buick. I’m using a small Crossmobile. It..
Read moreJanuary 7, 1942
Woke up early this morning. Inspected our bodegas. One warehouseman was not there. The bodega could not be opened. The Japanese Military Administration authorized at last the sale of 327 bags of rice to different institutions, such as government and private hospitals, orphanages, as their allowance for the week beginning tomorrow, January 8. Rice ration..
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