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.