MFP: "City Faces Water Drought in Twenty Days" — due to low reservoir levels. Dad expects an early Monsoon to save us.

In the past week, 8,156 more Japanese were killed and 205 were taken prisoner in the Philippines. No word on American casualties. "One of the thousand massacred by the Japs in the south district last February" is former Manila newspaperman, Victorino O. Lorico. No word on American shells killing civilians too. "Santa Cruz Bridge Opened ... engineers take only twelve days." (After a month of preparation.)

The banks continue shut and so far we've heard no word on when the money and bullion spirited off to Corregidor and burned or taken to the States will be back. José Lauchengco blames the banking fiasco on the current sweep against collaborators. Paul Meyer says it's due to politics. De la Costa, the pre-war banking commissioner here, has been barred because he remained on the job during the Occupation. All the more reason he should remain, I feel. We're getting a new government bank — not the PNB — don't ask me why. The government has now jumped off the bandwagon three times: on the question of rents, collaborators, and lately, Alien business licenses.