Visited the relatives of Maria Paz this morning, among them the 72-year-old widow of Alejandro Roces Sr. Aged, infirm and saddened beyond care for herself, she was not lacking in spirit at all. The family was among the richest and most respected of Manila. The toboggan slide began with the personal feelings of the old man and an anti-American grudge built upon Spanish pride and increasing American competition. She was at Malate during the battle, going from house-to-house with one of her daughters, carrying a suitcase full of valuables taken out of the BPI on the unfortunate advice of others. It was abandoned during the evacuation of the Walter Price house, netting the finder, if any, a cool P100,000 at least.

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A house nearby was assessed at P6,000. The owners are building a shack alongside, one-tenth its size, and it'll cost them P3,000. Along comes an assessor to value the shack ... at P9,000, insisting that "it must cost that much today." Local government is slightly awry and Filipino MPs in the provinces are back to racketeering again. I'm ashamed to report that any one of them in Manila too can be bribed — and how! Confesor, for one, will cheerfully break US Army regulations to help an old compadre. American officials, on the other hand, can't be bribed, though there are a few GI rackets. The US Army is not rationing gas so it can collect some money for it. The gas is slipping out anyway courtesy of the GIs.

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