Save
our history, redeem our future
by
Prof. Bernard Karganilla
http://www.malaya.com.ph/sep23/edkarga.htm
THE
National Historical Institute wants to "save our history"
in order to "save our nation."
At
least that was its theme for National History Week. And to
back it up, its research and publications division, headed
by August de Viana, held a whole-day seminar on "World
War II in the Philippines, 60 years after," featuring
real history-makers.
By
history-makers we mean the patriots who waged guerrilla war
on the Japanese invaders. They are Cols. Emmanuel V. De Ocampo
and Gustavo Ingles and Cpl. Crispin Abulgencia of the Hunters-ROTC
and Felix Cu, Kho Liong Woon, Lim Ki Chin, and Toh Kang Lay,
among others, of the Wa Chi (48th Detachment). These war heroes
shared their experiences with the students of the Philippine
Normal University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and the
State University last Friday, Sept. 17.
De
Ocampo, who is the president of the Veterans Federation of
the Philippines, related how the Hunters began as a band of
idealistic teenagers in Rizal province in 1942 and finished
the war as battle-hardened soldiers in Luzon in 1945. He narrated
how they lost their founding commander, Mike Ver, early in
the struggle, how they corrected mistakes in setting up camps,
and how they raided the college armories in Ermita, Manila.
To
illustrate their determination to defeat the Shintoist enemy,
De Ocampo recounted a trip to Navotas. He accompanied the
Hunter commander, Terry Adevoso, to a patis factory where
two Browning automatic rifles were immersed at the bottom
of a vat. Adevoso had to dive into the foul-smelling vat just
to retrieve the valuable firearms while De Ocampo stood guard.
It took the ROTC guerrillas two days just to clean the guns.
De
Ocampo was a college student of Mapua when war broke out.
In the highlands of Rizal and Cavite, he became a competent
trainer of armed civilians, taking batches of eight through
weeks of intensive courses on raiding, infiltration, marksmanship,
and democratic citizenship. He had learned guerrilla tactics
from Edgar Snow's "Red Star Over China" and urban
partisan warfare from magazine articles about the Soviets,
but he and his fellow Hunters Filipinized the text by engaging
in actual combat. He and the leading ROTC guerrillas were
responsible for the successful ambush of a hundred emperor-worshipping
Japanese at Pugad-Lawin in August 1942. He was also instrumental
in the Muntinlupa Raid of June 1944. He concluded the war
as a division commander.
De
Ocampo's comrade, Ingles, treated the listeners to a first-hand
account of the liberation of the concentration camp in Los
Banos, Laguna. Ingles testified as to how he coordinated the
efforts of the various guerrilla groups in Quezon (Hunters,
Markings, Hukbalahaps, PQOG, etc.) to free the civilian Allied
nationals from the Japanese jailers in Jose Rizal's home province.
The operation was carried out in conjunction with the US Army's
Luzon campaign, but the 11th Airborne was late, thus, the
Filipino warriors did most of the fighting. The triumph of
Feb. 23, 1945 was a Filipino feat of arms.
For
his part, Abulgencia regaled the audience with his testimony
of the bitter fighting at Malepunyo, Pico de Loro and Maragondon.
He recited how three Hunters were killed in an effort to recover
the body of an American serviceman. He recalled how the old
folks blessed them with signs of the cross as they were being
transported to the fire zones of Batangas and Cavite. He lamented
the relative neglect of their role in liberating the Philippines
while the almighty MacArthur and the Americans are lionized
in textbooks, ceremonies and history films.
Like
the Hunters-ROTC, the Wa Chi conducted guerrilla operations
in Luzon, particularly the central and southern regions. The
48th Detachment had a total of six squadrons, about 700 fighting
men, grown from the original 40, of whom 90 percent came from
Manila. This all-Chinese unit participated in 260 battles
in 14 provinces, including the February 1945 Los Banos Raid.
Like
their comrades in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the
Philippine Wa Chi undertook their own 26-day "long march" in 1943, starting from Biak-na-Bato, Bulacan and ending at
Paete, Laguna. They fought the fascist Japanese as brothers-in-arms
of the Hukbalahaps. They were with De Ocampo and the Hunters
during the Battle of Manila in February 1945.
The
Wa Chi was already in existence in February-March 1942 but
as part of the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon. It became
a separate fighting unit only on May 19, 1942. Its squadrons
were counted as parts of the US Army's 1st Cavalry and 11th
Airborne during the Luzon Campaign of 1945.
What
was truly remarkable about the 48th Detachment was the fact
that it chose to fight the fascist enemy in the Philippines,
not in China. As a Chinese organization, it could have limited
its war effort to the usual donations and so-called charitable
activities. Yet it decided to pick up the gun and fight alongside
Filipinos and Americans. For its troubles, the Wa Chi suffered
casualties amounting to 77 combat deaths and 200 underground
agents killed. Its civilian supporters, especially the old,
women and children, had to be evacuated to Paete, Laguna where
a strong Filipino farmers' organization was in place.
The
Wa Chi and the Hunters-ROTC are only two of the many guerrilla
groups that opposed the Japanese Occupation. They are responsible
for the liberation of the Philippines. But, as is the usual
case, their sterling war records are not sufficiently discussed
in the classroom nor amply reflected in textbooks.
The
scores of students who heard the veterans' testimonies at
the NHI were moved to ask: Was it worth it?
It
is because the MTV generation is around to enjoy their hip-hop,
their gimmicks and their celfone obsessions. Generations W,
X and Y are progeny of war heroes. Their hobbies are the fruits
of their grandparents' sacrifices.
It
will be worth it when the mall rats learn to do their share
in the struggle against militarism, expansionism, hegemonism
and terrorism.
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