by Nunilo M. de Leon
Tampoy was almost deserted. Lolo Ramon and Tia Monang were there, together with Abong, Eya and Nina. The other Tampoy residents, including Dada Ninay and Turina were in the rice farm in Sukol, Hagunoy. Many residents of Malolos had fled to the surrounding farms even before the Japanese reached Malolos. Lolo Ramon was already very ill and did not evacuate. He had been confined at the Doctors’ Clinic in Manila and was brought home to Tampoy only because of the war. Tia Monang and a few others stayed in Tampoy to take care of him.
The Japanese soldiers were well-disciplined when they first entered the town which was almost empty. They met no resistance and behaved quite well. Eya told us that the first Japanese soldiers who entered the Tampoy house had tried to make advances on Tia Monang, a pretty young lady, but an officer appeared and ordered the soldiers to leave. The officer then bowed to Tia Monang, in apology, and also left. No mention of this was ever made by Tia Monang. Like most others of her generation, she kept things to herself.
The Japanese set up a garrison at the provincial capitol, two kilometers from the middle of town, and appeared very rarely in the town proper. In fact, the only Japanese soldiers we saw in our long trip from Manguisok to Malolos were the four who guarded the “batel” in Pasacao and one sentry standing in front of their garrison at the Far Eastern University along Quezon Blvd. in Manila. They must have been very busy with Bataan and were stretched out very thinly.
There were other members of the clan in Sukol, aside from Dada Ninay and Turina. Tio Aurel, Aurelio Lularga Peña, and Tia Epang, Josefa Pantangco de Leon y Peña, were there with their four children; Josefina “Josie”, Rogelio “Boying”, Fiorello “Pio” and the baby, Aurelio, Jr. “Rely”. The family of Tio Aurel’s younger brother, Rafael, had also evacuated there. “Tia Pacita”, Paz Pantangco de Leon y Crisostomo, the eldest of the siblings, was with “Tio Amado”, Armando Crisostomo in their family home in Barihan, a barrio of Malolos. With them were their three living children; Lydia, Jesus “Bebot” and Mercia “Meya”. No word had as yet been received on the whereabouts of two other De Leon siblings. Tio Carlos was caught by the war with his family in Lingayen. Tio Toniong was in Iloilo when war broke out. He was with Tia Lily and Lourdes, their recently born baby daughter. Four of the De Leon – Pantangco siblings had been accounted for. Two were still missing.
Tampoy was almost deserted. Lolo Ramon and Tia Monang were there, together with Abong, Eya and Nina. The other Tampoy residents, including Dada Ninay and Turina were in the rice farm in Sukol, Hagunoy. Many residents of Malolos had fled to the surrounding farms even before the Japanese reached Malolos. Lolo Ramon was already very ill and did not evacuate. He had been confined at the Doctors’ Clinic in Manila and was brought home to Tampoy only because of the war. Tia Monang and a few others stayed in Tampoy to take care of him.
The Japanese soldiers were well-disciplined when they first entered the town which was almost empty. They met no resistance and behaved quite well. Eya told us that the first Japanese soldiers who entered the Tampoy house had tried to make advances on Tia Monang, a pretty young lady, but an officer appeared and ordered the soldiers to leave. The officer then bowed to Tia Monang, in apology, and also left. No mention of this was ever made by Tia Monang. Like most others of her generation, she kept things to herself.
The Japanese set up a garrison at the provincial capitol, two kilometers from the middle of town, and appeared very rarely in the town proper. In fact, the only Japanese soldiers we saw in our long trip from Manguisok to Malolos were the four who guarded the “batel” in Pasacao and one sentry standing in front of their garrison at the Far Eastern University along Quezon Blvd. in Manila. They must have been very busy with Bataan and were stretched out very thinly.
There were other members of the clan in Sukol, aside from Dada Ninay and Turina. Tio Aurel, Aurelio Lularga Peña, and Tia Epang, Josefa Pantangco de Leon y Peña, were there with their four children; Josefina “Josie”, Rogelio “Boying”, Fiorello “Pio” and the baby, Aurelio, Jr. “Rely”. The family of Tio Aurel’s younger brother, Rafael, had also evacuated there. “Tia Pacita”, Paz Pantangco de Leon y Crisostomo, the eldest of the siblings, was with “Tio Amado”, Armando Crisostomo in their family home in Barihan, a barrio of Malolos. With them were their three living children; Lydia, Jesus “Bebot” and Mercia “Meya”. No word had as yet been received on the whereabouts of two other De Leon siblings. Tio Carlos was caught by the war with his family in Lingayen. Tio Toniong was in Iloilo when war broke out. He was with Tia Lily and Lourdes, their recently born baby daughter. Four of the De Leon – Pantangco siblings had been accounted for. Two were still missing.
“Tio Pepe”, Jose Isidoro, and “Tia Lioning”, Leonila de Leon Robles y Isidoro were also in Sukol. The other members of the De Leon – Robles family stayed in Malolos. Lolo Celino, Dada Merced and Tio Ading were deemed not fit to travel.
One afternoon, about two weeks after we arrived in Tampoy, there was a sudden stir in the house. We rushed to the porch outside Lolo Ramon’s sick room, the corner room where we stayed the first time we stayed in Tampoy, and saw two strangers there, in old and dirty clothes, looking unkempt, sun-darkened and very thin. One of them was my “Tio Pepito”, Jose Seoane de Leon, who I met for the first time. The other, a mestizo-looking young man like Tio Pepito, was introduced as Tio Pepito’s “kaibigan.” The haggard-looking duo was rushed inside Lolo’s room, where they stayed a while.
They were then hustled to the kitchen for food and then to the “silong” of the “azotea”, which had been converted into an air raid shelter a few months before Pearl Harbor. They were gone the following morning. Inang, who had talked for some time with the two, told us that they had gone on to Manila. It seems Tio Pepito’s friend was from Manila. That was all Inang said then, aside from the admonition, “Sikreto iyan.” She knew we had learned the importance of secrecy during our stay in the jungles of Manguisok.
Much later, I learned the rest of the story.
Tio Pepito was the eldest son of Lolo Ramon by his second wife, Lolita Seoane, who had a Spanish father and a Filipina mother. They had three other children, all girls, Araceli, Carmen, and Dolores. Lolo Ramon and Lola Lolita had been estranged for some time and had been living separately. Lolo Ramon was in various places of assignment as justice of the peace and later provincial fiscal. Lola Lolita and her children resided with her parents in a house in Barrio Sabitan, outside the Kamistisuhan area of Malolos. I remember seeing Lola Lolita’s parents when I accompanied Turina on her visits to Tia Dolores, also nicknamed Lolita, who was her classmate. The father was a forbidding-looking Spaniard while the mother was a quiet and meek Filipina.
Tio Pepito was drafted in July 1941 into the Philippine Army, as a private. The Philippines, then a Commonwealth and still very much under the USA’s control, had been preparing for war since 1936, when the Japanese invaded China. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who had served in the Philippines and had recently retired from the US Army, was asked by the Philippine government to help in preparing the country for war. A defense plan was drawn up by a staff headed by Gen. MacArthur, and with then Major Dwight D. Eisenhower as one of its members. The defense plan’s short-range portion was to organize a regular Philippine Army with a 10,000-men infantry division; composed mainly of the Philippine Constabulary, which was to be absorbed into the military. The Philippine Constabulary’s original role was to keep the peace inside the country, quelling large-scale organized crimes and nipping would-be revolts and insurrections in the bud. In addition to the small army, a smaller air force and coast patrol was to be organized. It was assumed that the US Navy and US Army Air Corp would always be present. These would be more than enough for the air and sea defense that would be needed.
The US Army would also be represented in the form of a regular US Infantry division, the US Philippine Division, to be composed of three regiments. One US regiment had long been in the Philippines, the 26th US Cavalry (Phil. Scouts) Regiment, composed of a mix of US regular cavalry officers and Filipino noncoms and enlisted men. The other was the all-American 31st US Infantry Regiment, a regular army unit, originally based in China but transferred to the Philippines, because of the Sino-Japanese war. The third infantry regiment, the US 34th, another all-American regular unit, was slated to be transferred from the US but the war preempted the plan. This regiment was still sailing on the high seas when the Japanese shocked Pearl Harbor. It was diverted to defend Honolulu instead.
There were three other Phil. Scout regiments in the country; the 43rd, 45th and 57th. The all-volunteer Scouts were elite soldiers, carefully selected, well-trained, sufficiently equipped and competently led, who proved themselves more than the equal of the experienced Japanese troops. Being part of the US Army, their remuneration package was much better than what was received by their counterparts in the Philippine Army. There was always a long line of Filipino volunteers eager to join the Scouts. A few days before the outset of the war, a Marine regiment, the 4th US Marines was hurriedly transported to Olongapo from China and was assigned to defend Corregidor.
Aside from these units were artillery and other combat support, supply and service units. There were also two recently-arrived tank battalions with over a hundred M-3 light tanks. These proved to be very useful in the Luzon battles.
Under the defense plan’s long-range program, a reserve Philippine Army composed of citizen-soldiers was to be trained and organized. This reserve force was to be mobilized in case of war. There was to be one reserve infantry division in each of the ten geographical regions of the country, with about 7,500 men in each division; five in Luzon, four in the Visayas and one in Mindanao. To provide the enlisted men for these divisions, batches of 20,000 young men, twenty years old and over, would undergo a 24-week basic military training program. The colleges and universities would provide the noncoms and officers through the Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC). This training program should produce 40,000 trained soldiers every year. It was envisioned that after three years, or by 1941, there would be 120,000 trained soldiers, more than enough for the planned ten regional divisions. After the first three years, batches of 20,000 young men would be trained every year. This should provide for a constant pool of 400,000 trained reservists ready to be mobilized as needed.
That was the plan but was not the reality. The training took longer than usual. Training cadres, or training instructors, were sorely lacking. There was no shortage of volunteers to undergo the training but many of the volunteers could barely read or write and had to be given basic education first. Then, there was the absence of a common dialect. Many of the recruits spoke only their own dialect while most of the trainers spoke only English and/or Tagalog. The training budget was insufficient to build the training camps and training facilities, which had to be built all over the Philippines. It was true that when the War broke out, the Philippine Army was able to muster all ten regional divisions, but they were under-strength, poorly-trained, and ill-equipped.
The Philippine Army recruit soldier could be easily identified. His uniform was blue “maong” Bermuda shorts, “maong” short-sleeved blouse, high-cut canvas shoes with rubber soles, and overseas cap (replaced in the nick to time, weeks before the war, with GI-issued steel helmets and ill-fitting khaki uniforms). In contrast, US soldiers (including the Scouts) were neatly uniformed in khaki and wore leather boots with canvas leggings.
After basic training, Tio Pepito was assigned to a unit of the 31st Philippine Army “Central Luzon” Division, most of whose members were from Bulacan and Manila. At the outbreak of the war, together with the nine other newly-organized regional infantry divisions, the 31st PA was incorporated into the USAFFE or United States Armed Forces in the Far East, under American command, authority and responsibility. At the outbreak of the war, the 31st PA was assigned to defend the coastlines of Zambales and saw very little action until after the 31st was withdrawn to Bataan.
[Boying remembers attending a “despedida” in Tampoy for Tio Pepito just before he left for Zambales. He also recalls standing all day by the highway in front of the capitolyo with many other Maloleños, waving at the vehicles loaded with soldiers, on their way to defend the beaches of La Union and Pangasinan against the Japanese forces, who had just landed there. More soldiers were to pass by the capitolyo a month or so later, on the retreat from the beaches to the jungles of Bataan.]
The still un-bloodied divisions, the 31st PA and the US Philippine Division, together with the rear elements from Manila and Fort Stotsemberg, were the first into Bataan.
They were followed by the bulk of the Southern Luzon Force. First came the 41st PA “Southern Luzon” Division, which had been defending the beaches of Cavite and Batangas and had also seen very little action. Then came the main body of the decimated 51st PA “Bicolano” Division. The division had been protecting the long Tayabas coastline from Infanta to Lopez. One of their regiments had moved south to intercept the Japanese regiment which had made an unopposed landing in Albay. They met the Japanese spearhead in the vicinity of Sipocot, Camarines Sur, tried to stop their advance but failed. The other regiments of the 51st, reinforced by a regiment of the newly-activated 2nd PA Division (composed of Phil. Constabulary units and retired Philippine Scouts) opposed the Japanese landings in Mauban and Atimonan. The 51st fought a successful delaying action all the way to Manila, where the Japanese finally stopped their pursuit. Most of those in the Southern Luzon Force made it to Bataan.
Then came the units of the Northern Luzon Force. The 26th US Cavalry PS, which had been in battle since the first Japanese landing in La Union, came in first, to give them time to re-organize and re-equip. Then, a little later, came elements of the also badly-mauled 71st PA “Ilonggo” Division from Negros and the 91st PA “Waray” Division from Leyte and Samar, which had been brought in by sea to reinforce the Luzon forces and which had been fighting a retrograde battle all the way from Pangasinan. The 11th PA “Ilocano” Division and 21st PA “Kapampangan” Division, backboned by the tanks of the two US Tank Battalions, were the last to arrive, fighting the Japanese all the way, from the beaches in the north to Bataan. Many of those in the units of the Northern Luzon Force failed to make it to Bataan, not only because of the battles but probably because the fighting happened at literally “their own backyards” and it was probably very difficult to resist the temptation to drop out and just defend their own hometowns.
In all, the bulk of seven PA regional divisions in Luzon were able to make it to Bataan. Left to defend the Visayas and Mindanao were the three remaining regional divisions, the 61st PA from Panay, the 81st PA from Cebu and Bohol and the 101st PA “Moro” from Mindanao. They were reinforced by a regiment from the 1st Regular PA division, the 43rd PS regiment and other ad hoc units composed of Philippine Constabulary troops, ROTC cadets and former members of the military.
Tio Pepito was in all the battles of the 31st PA in Bataan. He narrated that he had his first taste of battle soon after they reached Bataan, when the Japanese spearhead from the north slipped through Floridablanca and tried to blitzkrieg their way down the main road to Olongapo. They were repulsed after very heavy fighting. A lull of several weeks followed, which the USAFFE used for improving their defensive positions and for bringing up supplies. The Japanese forces of only two reinforced infantry divisions, later reinforced by an infantry brigade, were also bringing up reinforcements and supplies over their long supply lines, extending back through Lingayen Gulf to Formosa. Things went that way for several weeks, a few days of hard fighting followed by weeks of waiting. At each battle the Phil-Am defenders were forced to give ground to the fewer but better-motivated, better-trained, better-supplied and better-equipped Japanese, who had massed artillery and control of the skies in their favor. By the end of January 1942, the USAFFE had been pushed back to the Balanga line, in the middle of Bataan peninsula.
There, Tio Pepito’s unit was cut off near the coast by a Japanese night attack. From where they were, Tio Pepito’s unit could clearly see the opposite shore, which was a little more than ten kilometers away on that narrow part of Manila Bay, separating the province of Bulacan from the province of Bataan. They were short of ammunition and supplies, had no means of communications and knew the hopelessness of trying to fight their way back to their own lines. They did not want to surrender, so they decided to try and cross the bay to the other shore, after disabling their firearms. At that time, the USAFFE still had the island of Corregidor, which blocked the entrance to Manila Bay. No Japanese sea craft could enter the bay, which remained under a semblance of allied control. Japanese planes patrolled the coast line during the day but not at night. [Boying narrates that small Japanese motor boats sometimes passed by Sukol, patrolling the river from the sea to the bridge in Halang. The Japanese soldiers stayed in their boats and, as far as Boying knew, never went ashore.]
Tio Pepito’s unit found some fishermen who agreed to take them across the bay in their fishing boats and who gave them some old civilian clothes. About fifty of the soldiers in his unit, in a dozen or so bancas, tried the crossing. Tio Pepito recounted that the actor, Fernando Poe Sr., a sergeant in his unit, was also with them. Poe was rather tall and he had to lie down flat in their boat to keep out of sight. After crossing the bay, the bancas still had to negotiate the mangrove “bakawan” and nipa palm “sasa” swamps which formed the delta islands or “latian” of the Pampanga and Angat rivers, which emptied into that part of the bay. These “latians” formed much of the shoreline in that part of Bulacan and provided very good fishing for the fishermen of Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan. They paddled until they could see the lights of a delta barrio. The fishermen from Bataan told the escapees to disembark and head for the lights, which they were told was barrio Pugad. They were not to enter the barrio, part of the town of Hagunoy, Bulacan, but walk beyond it to the fields beyond. There, the group dispersed into pairs. There were many other similar groups which escaped just before Bataan fell.
Tio Pepito and his lone companion then walked through the fish ponds and rice fields of Hagunoy, Paombong and Malolos to reach Tampoy. The walk took several days, with several stops in farmers’ homes for rest and food. The folks knew what they were but asked no questions, and simply gave what they needed, including short banca rides which made their trek easier.
A few days after Tio Pepito had left Tampoy, the sound of artillery from the west intensified. The barrage went on for several days, reached a crescendo and then suddenly stopped. The silence was followed by the news, “Sumuko na ang Bataan.” Bataan had fallen to the Japanese. The USAFFE in Bataan had surrendered. Soon after, the sound of large-caliber guns resumed, although somewhat farther away. It was Corregidor’s turn and it too fell a few weeks later.
With the fall of Corregidor, the Japanese moved swiftly to normalize things. They contacted all the government officials they could find and told them to resume government operations, but this time under the Japanese. The Malolos municipal government was soon functioning again, with most of the former officials and rank-and-file employees coming back, including the policemen, minus their firearms but still with their “batutas” or nightsticks.
Sometime after the fall of Corregidor, learning of the improving situation in Malolos, some of the evacuees in Sukol decided to go home. Tio Pepe and Tia Lioning returned to their home in Barrio Buhangin, Malolos. Tio Aurel’s brother Paeng and his family rented a carretela and travelled all the way to their home in Quezon City, which I learned later, was in Kamuning District, which would be my home district much later. Dada Ninay, was soon back in Tampoy, with Turina.
Tio Toniong and family were still unaccounted for, although the once-missing Tio Carlos and Tia Helen, had come back to Tampoy with their family from their evacuation in the hills of Pangasinan. Tia Helen Shelledy y de Leon was a Phil-Am, with a Filipina mother and an American father, from Fort Stotsenberg in Tarlac. They were with their six children: Ofelia, Carlos, Jr. or Cancho, Arturo, Job, Diana, and Julian (or Bong or Bakuko). With them was an older man who had something wrong with his arm (congenital or not, I did not know), who resembled Lolo Ramon. Dada Ninay greeted him with the Tagalog profanities she usually used on people she liked but wanted to keep at arm’s length. Inang called him “Tio Tino”. He seemed to be quite at home in Tampoy and had long visits with Lolo Ramon in his sick room. After a few days he went back to Pangasinan, where he lived. I found out afterwards that “Tio Tino” was actually another “lolo”, Inkong Tasio’s son, Lolo Ramon’s and Dada Ninay’s half-brother. I met him several times after. He visited Tampoy every year or so but I knew next to nothing about him. No one would talk about him.
Tio Aurel and Tia Epang were also planning to return to Malolos. They were intending to stay in Tampoy until they could find a house to rent. They could not return to their home behind the Bulacan Provincial Capitol for the Japanese had made a garrison of the entire provincial capitol complex. Tampoy was going to be a little crowded.
Tatang decided to do a counter flow and bring our family to Sukol.
There, Tio Pepito’s unit was cut off near the coast by a Japanese night attack. From where they were, Tio Pepito’s unit could clearly see the opposite shore, which was a little more than ten kilometers away on that narrow part of Manila Bay, separating the province of Bulacan from the province of Bataan. They were short of ammunition and supplies, had no means of communications and knew the hopelessness of trying to fight their way back to their own lines. They did not want to surrender, so they decided to try and cross the bay to the other shore, after disabling their firearms. At that time, the USAFFE still had the island of Corregidor, which blocked the entrance to Manila Bay. No Japanese sea craft could enter the bay, which remained under a semblance of allied control. Japanese planes patrolled the coast line during the day but not at night. [Boying narrates that small Japanese motor boats sometimes passed by Sukol, patrolling the river from the sea to the bridge in Halang. The Japanese soldiers stayed in their boats and, as far as Boying knew, never went ashore.]
Tio Pepito’s unit found some fishermen who agreed to take them across the bay in their fishing boats and who gave them some old civilian clothes. About fifty of the soldiers in his unit, in a dozen or so bancas, tried the crossing. Tio Pepito recounted that the actor, Fernando Poe Sr., a sergeant in his unit, was also with them. Poe was rather tall and he had to lie down flat in their boat to keep out of sight. After crossing the bay, the bancas still had to negotiate the mangrove “bakawan” and nipa palm “sasa” swamps which formed the delta islands or “latian” of the Pampanga and Angat rivers, which emptied into that part of the bay. These “latians” formed much of the shoreline in that part of Bulacan and provided very good fishing for the fishermen of Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan. They paddled until they could see the lights of a delta barrio. The fishermen from Bataan told the escapees to disembark and head for the lights, which they were told was barrio Pugad. They were not to enter the barrio, part of the town of Hagunoy, Bulacan, but walk beyond it to the fields beyond. There, the group dispersed into pairs. There were many other similar groups which escaped just before Bataan fell.
Tio Pepito and his lone companion then walked through the fish ponds and rice fields of Hagunoy, Paombong and Malolos to reach Tampoy. The walk took several days, with several stops in farmers’ homes for rest and food. The folks knew what they were but asked no questions, and simply gave what they needed, including short banca rides which made their trek easier.
A few days after Tio Pepito had left Tampoy, the sound of artillery from the west intensified. The barrage went on for several days, reached a crescendo and then suddenly stopped. The silence was followed by the news, “Sumuko na ang Bataan.” Bataan had fallen to the Japanese. The USAFFE in Bataan had surrendered. Soon after, the sound of large-caliber guns resumed, although somewhat farther away. It was Corregidor’s turn and it too fell a few weeks later.
With the fall of Corregidor, the Japanese moved swiftly to normalize things. They contacted all the government officials they could find and told them to resume government operations, but this time under the Japanese. The Malolos municipal government was soon functioning again, with most of the former officials and rank-and-file employees coming back, including the policemen, minus their firearms but still with their “batutas” or nightsticks.
Sometime after the fall of Corregidor, learning of the improving situation in Malolos, some of the evacuees in Sukol decided to go home. Tio Pepe and Tia Lioning returned to their home in Barrio Buhangin, Malolos. Tio Aurel’s brother Paeng and his family rented a carretela and travelled all the way to their home in Quezon City, which I learned later, was in Kamuning District, which would be my home district much later. Dada Ninay, was soon back in Tampoy, with Turina.
Tio Toniong and family were still unaccounted for, although the once-missing Tio Carlos and Tia Helen, had come back to Tampoy with their family from their evacuation in the hills of Pangasinan. Tia Helen Shelledy y de Leon was a Phil-Am, with a Filipina mother and an American father, from Fort Stotsenberg in Tarlac. They were with their six children: Ofelia, Carlos, Jr. or Cancho, Arturo, Job, Diana, and Julian (or Bong or Bakuko). With them was an older man who had something wrong with his arm (congenital or not, I did not know), who resembled Lolo Ramon. Dada Ninay greeted him with the Tagalog profanities she usually used on people she liked but wanted to keep at arm’s length. Inang called him “Tio Tino”. He seemed to be quite at home in Tampoy and had long visits with Lolo Ramon in his sick room. After a few days he went back to Pangasinan, where he lived. I found out afterwards that “Tio Tino” was actually another “lolo”, Inkong Tasio’s son, Lolo Ramon’s and Dada Ninay’s half-brother. I met him several times after. He visited Tampoy every year or so but I knew next to nothing about him. No one would talk about him.
Tio Aurel and Tia Epang were also planning to return to Malolos. They were intending to stay in Tampoy until they could find a house to rent. They could not return to their home behind the Bulacan Provincial Capitol for the Japanese had made a garrison of the entire provincial capitol complex. Tampoy was going to be a little crowded.
Tatang decided to do a counter flow and bring our family to Sukol.
