Filipino Web Magazine: November 2021

Saturday 27 November 2021

Why Is FCT Tongue-Tied About Its Millions?

Volume 3, Issue No. 14

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .

Our latest as of Saturday, November 27, 2021

~ The eye of the storm is In the Filipino Centre Toronto, a financially-robust non-profit that has barricaded itself from relentless public clamor to walk the talk of transparency and accountability in the management of its millions. Three years ago, it had members of the federal and provincial parliaments and Toronto city officials as guests to the inauguration of its new digs. Are these officials aware of the years-long raging storm within the organization that they keep praising?

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IT'S ALL TALK THE TALK FOR YEARS

FCT Does Not Walk the Talk of Transparency

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody". - Agatha Christie

TORONTO - As far back as 2019 when I began my newest blog - the Filipino Web Magazine (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/) - I've produced plenty of literature enough to give readers a pretty good perspective of Filipino Centre Toronto, its officers, and what that non-profit is all about.

That blog and two others before it circa March 2010 (http://currentsbreakingnews.blogspot.com/) and November 2010 (http://torontonewsroom.blogspot.com/) are the online repositories of my newspaper and magazine articles, a hedge actually in case news sites get disbanded by their owners for whatever reason.

They complement my top vlogs (The Filipino Web Channel, Currents & Breaking News Channel, Filipino Web Entertainment Channel, and Eats and Restos Channel) under the wing of my broadcast outlet Romar Media Canada. The four channels have combined subscribers of 11,148 and views of 6.672 million as of this writing.

A lot more of my stories had seen print but the digital version, including those in the mainstream news website Digital Journalism, had been archived or deleted without as much as a notice so I could have retrieved them. In fact, a local tabloid has purged its website of my major articles soon after my unceremonious departure.

The resort to blogging was compelling. I did not want to lose a beat as a community journalist. Rightly so, because many important events go unreported, ignored, or swept under the rug, for reasons attributable to a lack of concern, ineptitude, indifference, and personal attachments by the supposedly objective media.

Journalism is equally important as my advocacy for transparency among public officials, community organizations, and self-described leaders who take on the spotlight to promote themselves. I have no qualm presenting stories that some may view as offensive but that's exactly what investigative reporting is.

My professional and personal commitment is best exemplified in the stories I reported, some of which, in fact, had led to legal proceedings. Defamation lawsuits come with the territory. Many journalists see these suits as unavoidable risks when pursuing hot stories.

Yes, hot stories in the sense of exposé, meaning muckrake or the disclosure of scandals, frauds, and misconduct involving public officials and public figures. As an aside, I have devoted most of my time doing journalism tracking closely-guarded secrets and unlocking them for all to see.

Prior to this move to Toronto in 2010, I had documented all kinds of wrongdoing in the Filipino community in San Diego, California, my hometown for sixteen years, mostly in my own broadsheet newspaper. Once here, I continued the same kind of reporting that had put me in hot water at least four times.

No regrets though. The commitment stays strong, even if it looks like success in this one particular venture is not on the horizon, not for lack of trying but for the seeming indifference of the concerned people themselves.

I honestly feel a creeping sense of failure in realizing one of many meaningful goals in my advocacy for transparency, which is to inculcate value in the community beyond the usual pomp and pageantry of faux crowns, glittering gowns, oversized sashes, and lavish galas.

That brings me to the Filipino Centre Toronto which has caught itself in the eye of the storm over its hardline stance to talk the talk but not walk the walk of transparency and accountability involving millions of monies in its possession.

No amount of convincing about the soundness of whistleblowers' demand for clarity can move FCT officials - Mary San Juan, president; Efren de Villa, chairman; Theresa Lumanlan, vice president; Judith Gonzales, secretary; Wendy Arena, treasurer; and its 12 directors, namely: Alvine Marasigan, Corazon Laraya Coutts, Frank Cruzet, Jerom Peralta, Lolit Tablang, Mercy Maliglig, Mhel Galleon, Nenette de Villa, Nitz Rejdik, Philip Beloso, Priscilla Tumulak, and Steffie Stephens. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dWabOiCwhU).

I wonder if its funders could move them, one way or another. I wonder if politicians we elect and compensate enormously and who make a show of public support for FCT like Gary Anandasangaree, Salma Zahid, Ahmed Hussen, Shaun Chen, Rechie Valdez, and Jean Yip could. I wonder if MPP Mitzie Hunter, Toronto Mayor John Tory, and some members of the City Council could.

I also wonder if they are all aware of the seething controversy in FCT. And if they knew, would they still praise FCT and its officers like they're benevolent gifts of humanity to the Filipino community? (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2021/10/fct-opens-its-mouth-with-warning-to.html).

One thing, however, is certain. Their presence at FCT functions, notably in August 2018 when it inaugurated its fixer-upper of a building bought for $1.9 million cash, has emboldened FCT to disregard demands to shed light on how it is spending the $5.9 million it gained from selling its old building in downtown Toronto. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MDQoagXLlQ).

Countless articles written by Maria CJ de Villa and Cress Vasquez published in some Filipino tabloids, and by this reporter that include videos, do not seem to make a dent on FCT's stone face and steel frame. They've even tightened the flow of information. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5YUCP0xqlQ).

They are a hardy lot, to say the least. No amount of exposé, critique, photographic and video revelation could sway the FCT people to unmute themselves. If they are not hearing-impaired, why are they tongue-tied? (Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved).

Wednesday 17 November 2021

Jockeying for Elective Posts Kicks Off 2022 Polls

Volume 3, Issue No. 13

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

Our latest as of Wednesday, November 17, 2021

~ In terms of high-spirited public participation nationwide, nothing probably compares to activities before and after an election in the Philippines. This week, the moment finally came to change candidates and positions different from what aspirants had originally signed for, thus ending the jockeying particularly for the two highest elective posts come election time on May 9, 2022. The best example is President Rodrigo Duterte. Forbidden by law to run a second six-year term, he floated the idea of seeking the vice presidency. Later when her daughter Sara Duterte decided to bid for the same post, he forthwith changed his mind and filed his candidacy for senator.

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A CARNIVAL ATMOSPHERE PRIOR TO MAY 2022 POLLS

The Political Merry-Go-Round in the Philippines

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them.” ― Aristophanes, The Knights

TORONTO - After so many twists and turns, never-ending change of mind, and constant flip-flopping, the deadline finally came on Monday, November 15, for filing substitution of candidates for the May 9, 2022, general elections in the Philippines.

The cutoff point ended for this election season what's essentially turncoatism, or the merry-go-round by, of, and among 14 political parties and hundreds of candidates for national, provincial, and local positions across the length and breadth of the country's three main geographic regions - Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao - spanning 7,640 islands.

On top of the heap is the contest for who will succeed President Rodrigo Duterte (age 76) who is limited to a six-year term ending June 30, 2022, and Vice President Leni Robredo (age 56) whose six-year term also ends at the same date but is renewable once. In lieu of that chance, she upgraded a notch higher, the presidency.

The pre-election carnival is now in full swing and has generated so much interest to the point that the number of registered voters zoomed past the official projection of 59 million to 63.36 million. Elections officials attribute the rise to nearly five million new registrants.

Shortly before the deadline, scions of two controversial political families have joined hands, securing a formidable north-south alliance that could propel them to gain control of the presidency and vice presidency of Asia's largest Catholic country of 111 million.

As it now looks definite, a five-pronged contest for the two highest posts in the land has evolved with the contenders coming from a slew of regional and national political parties. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1CoyYzXmtU).

In surveys after surveys, the tandem of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (age 64), the former senator popularly known as Bongbong or BBM, and the lawyer Sara Duterte (age 43), incumbent mayor of Davao City, has consistently landed on top.

Bongbong is the namesake son of the strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. whose achievements during his 21-year reign have been largely eclipsed and his legacy pinned on his declaration of martial law in September 1972. (Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bongbong_Marcos).

His electoral base boasts of the "Solid North" - the provinces in the country's northern region that had historically favored and voted for a native son, Ferdinand Sr., to the presidency. The vote-rich region is expected to cast its lot with Bongbong Marcos.

Sara aka Inday Sara is the second child and headstrong daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte. (Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Duterte). She presently occupies the position of mayor of Davao City, the largest in the Philippines in land area, and third most populous after Quezon City and Manila.

Sara's bailiwick is the Visayan-speaking southern provinces, including the Mindanao region of which Davao City is a part. Previously, she had declined to compete for either the presidency or vice presidency, preferring instead for reelection as mayor. At the last minute, however, she relented, withdrew her candidacy for mayor, and filed for the second-highest post.

The decision led to the formation of a Marcos-Duterte or BBM-Sara tandem that appears to please their bases and supporters across the country. By merging, the duo has practically rounded up a huge mass base of voters.

The luster of former boxing champion now Senator Manny Pacquiao (age 42), nicknamed PacMan by his fans, does not seem to attract voters to his bid to become president. His teammate, Lito Atienza (age 80), is a former mayor of Manila. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manny_Pacquiao_2022_presidential_campaign).

While Pacquiao is concededly popular worldwide as a boxing champion, the mental imagery of him as a president does not quite appeal to voters. His present tenure as a lawmaker - one of 24 senators - is not exemplary either.

The other aspirants for the presidency and their running mates are current Vice President Leni Robredo (age 56) and Senator Francisco Pangilinan (age 58); Senator Panfilo Lacson (age 73) and Senate President Vicente Sotto III (age 73); and current Manila Mayor Francisco Moreno Domagoso (age 47) aka Isko Moreno and Dr. Willie Ong (age 58), a cardiologist.

Robredo, leader of the Liberal Party, is running as an independent candidate for president, a decision pundits believe was her effort to distance herself from the so-called Yellows of former president Benigno Simeon Aquino. She has also adopted pink as her official color. (Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leni_Robredo).

Her chance of leading the nation as president is slim, just like the other three, namely, Pacquiao, Lacson, and Moreno.

Lacson, a senator since 2016, is a former police general. (Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panfilo_Lacson).

Friday 12 November 2021

The Quintessential Filipino in Canada's House of Commons

Volume 3, Issue No. 12

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

Our latest as of Friday, November 12, 2021

~ A brief note from a good friend who was reacting to an earlier article sent me scurrying for meaning and significance of the first Filipino woman to win a seat in the House of Commons, Canada's legislature. Hard as I tried to grasp that historic triumph, the newly-elected 41-year-old did not seem to care. She has not responded to questions and refused an on-camera interview because, according to an aide, she was busy. Now, with my friend's permission, I'm taking a phrase from his comments (Empty Valdez or MP Valdez? Hopefully, the latter. We'll see.) to headline this story.

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RECHIE VALDEZ , FIRST FILIPINO WOMAN IN PARLIAMENT

Is She 'Empty' Valdez or MP Valdez?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Success is very intoxicating. It is very difficult to handle all the fame and adulation. It corrupts you. You start to believe that everybody around you is in awe of you, that everybody wants you, and that everybody is thinking of you all the time". - Ajith Kumar

TORONTO - Shortly after she emerged winner in her riding in the September 20, 2021 federal election, Rechie Valdez embarked on a wider campaign to gain recognition and acceptance as the self-described "voice" for the Filipino community in Canada's Parliament.

The 41-year-old's startling success necessitates dissemination throughout, not just within the confines of her suburban Mississauga-Streetsville district for, after all, her feat in breaking the so-called glass ceiling for women and people of color in Canada is remarkable.

Landing a seat in the 338-member House of Commons is no easy task; there are hurdles to be overcome especially for hard-driving minorities. So much so that in its 154-year history, only one Filipino Canadian - Dr. Rey Pagtakhan, now 86 years old - had prevailed to represent his Winnipeg-North riding in Manitoba province from 1988 to 2004.

Officially sworn in as Member of Parliament on October 26, 2021, Valdez takes a comparable distinction, her "very proud moment" as she calls it, being the first Filipino Canadian woman MP in the House of Commons which is set to convene on November 22 as the 44th Parliament.

Pagtakhan had blazed the trail for many aspiring Filipino lawmakers - most are actually practising attorneys - long before Valdez, a corporate banker supposedly, and a baker, came to be plucked from political anonymity by Liberal partisans looking for someone to replace the then incumbent MP who had decided not to seek reelection for medical reasons.

Apparently, she fit the bill well and was thus endorsed to the highest party officials who then threw their full support, even packaging her as a voice for the community. The result: she bested five other candidates in the riding with 23,698 votes or 47.3 percent as against her nearest rival who garnered 17,131 votes or 34.2 percent.

The avowed "voice" is also fast growing as the bonafide face of the Filipino community. Overnight, she's become the darling of the fun-driven, pleasure-seeking crowd, the sensational wonder woman who vaults from one social event to another either as an honored guest or as a guest speaker.

By and large, her victory celebration, which began on the night she won, isn't over yet. In nearly eight weeks after the election, Valdez is still very much euphoric at the sweet success of her latest gambit. From the comfort of working in corporate banking to being a struggling entrepreneur, she has reinvented herself via social media. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW_8DFPz9pw).

She's been shown smiling widely in many selfies, and like a moth to a flame, pictured and videotaped with people, political butterflies, real and faux community leaders in community events outside of her district. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct7g1EkCeFY).

If a picture is worth a thousand words, as the adage goes, there is no mistaking that Valdez is the quintessential Filipino - she loves the adulation, she likes the parties, she enjoys the photo ops, she adores the esteem her position brings, she delights at seeing crowds that exult her.

All these are on display in local tabloids, social media sites, and mainstream news outlets that chronicle her rise to a position of prominence. While she was preoccupied with how she would gain instant recognition, the "voice" that she had marketed herself as to the community appears to have gone out of the window.

Valdez the "voice" has been unexpectedly silent, meaning unspeaking, uncommunicative, quiet, still. mute, dumb, etc. But her face remains plastered all over, looking youthful and full of energy with her broad smile. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2021/09/rechie-valdez-makes-history-as-first.html).

Four days after she was declared victorious - that's September 24 - I emailed her 10 questions that would become the basis for a feature story I was planning to write. Usually, in most cases like hers, the response is immediate. I was wrong.

She answered back eleven days later (October 5) with the explanation that she has not received anything directly as she was transitioning to public life. She advised me to email her in her campaign office.

Upon learning that she will be sworn in on October 26, I suggested hitching a ride to Ottawa with her supporters so I could cover the ceremony. As a journalist, I had wished to record the moment in print and on video. However, her assistant, Ajay Rakhra, explained that because of restrictions due to COVID, it was not possible.

That was when I asked him to pass to Valdez a new set of eight questions. Up to this writing this Friday, November 12, or over two weeks after I emailed the questions, neither a courtesy reply nor an acknowledgment came from either Valdez or Rakhra.

I finally caught up with her at the early Christmas presentation at Seafood City Scarborough on Thursday, November 4. Once done with the usual pep talk, I tried to approach her while she was piling food on a paper plate at the private dining area. Then she huddled with Rakhra and her photographer, practically fencing her in.

"Are you Ajay?" I asked Rakhra, the assistant I had exchanged emails with. Then I identified myself as the journalist who had emailed the questions weeks ago but never got any answer. "She's been very busy, she's busy. In fact, after this, we're going to another event," he explained.

"Okay, that's fine," I said. "But don't ever say I didn't give her a chance to respond to questions or even make a comment now."

Altogether I emailed 18 questions needing her responses. Because of her non-reply, I keep asking myself: Did I pose dumb questions? Were my questions too difficult to answer? Or, is she just another run-of-the-mill politician who couldn't care less as long as the annual income of $185,800 is guaranteed?

Valdez's rite of passage is quite an expensive on-the-job training to shoulder for Canadian taxpayers like me. Just imagine the yearly 185K plus perks so she would learn the intricacies of lawmaking while at the same savouring the fruits of our labor.

Monday 8 November 2021

Guest Feature: The Sad Fate of Filipino Soldiers

Volume 3, Issue No. 11

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

Our latest as of Monday, November 8, 2021

~ Unsung, neglected, and duped, the hardy Filipinos had suffered the pain and agony of soldiery, yet in a moment of historic triumph, they found misery rather than honor. That's the worst indignity ever inflicted on them. Somebody had stolen the thunder and in its wake, made political capital to the utter disbelief of those who really fought hard and won. A son of a hero, Seattle-based media colleague Conrado "Sluggo" Rigor Jr., writes about his father and his comrades who helped turn the tide in the war against Japanese invaders in World War II. We yield this space to him to commemorate November 11, which is Veterans Day in the United States, and Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other Commonwealth countries. - Editor

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A SON'S STORY

The Unsung Filipino Heroes of World War II

By CONRADO (SLUGGO) RIGOR, JR.

Guest Writer

Fate whispered to the warrior:

“You cannot withstand the storm…”

The warrior whispered back:

“I am the storm.”

- Author unknown

My father’s contemporaries tell me he was an authentic war hero---with emphasis on the word ‘authentic.’ Of course, this makes the family genuinely and silently proud.

A war history buff, I often wonder why there are lesser stories told about victories featuring Filipino soldiers during the last world war. Were they not key players who belonged to the triumphant Allied Forces of World War II in the Pacific?

Except for the overplayed MacArthur U-turn to the archipelago, military historians seem to focus more on defeats and infamy like Bataan, Corregidor, and the Death March. We commemorate these woeful events of subjugation every year but rarely remember those where the Filipino soldier had dutifully helped defeat the enemy.

(Related story about General Douglas MacArthur: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2021/05/macarthurs-kept-woman-was-young.html)

In one crucial and bloody military operation in the final months of World War II, my father had led three all-Filipino battalions of the 121st Infantry, USAFIP-NL. Reinforced by gritty bolomen from the Mountain Province, they assaulted Bessang Pass in the rugged mountains of North Luzon.

It was Dad’s unit that broke through a formidable enemy defense line entrenched within the mountainous terrain of the Cordilleras. That hard-fought battle that lasted several months led to the surrender of the feared Tiger of Malaya, General Tomoyuki Yamashita, and other high-ranking Japanese Imperial Army and Naval flag officers who had regrouped in the Philippines from nearby Asian cities.

They had hoped that with the fabled Tiger in command, they could create a formidable stand. Among them was a ranking Admiral, the Vice-Chief of Staff of the Japanese Imperial Navy, who had helped maneuver the submarine attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

My father, “Daddy” to us his nine children and to our mother Erlinda, was not much of a talker. He was the silent, self-effacing-to-a-fault type. In close circles of friends, he was known as an upright, ram-rod-honest soldier-scholar, a poet, writer, and an ROTC reservist from the University of the Philippines. Close friends and associates called him “CB” or Condring.

In his writings, he had paid homage to poets E.E. Cummings and Jose Garcia Villa when he studied philosophy and letters as a government scholar at the Columbia U in New York following his wartime service. He took up courses there with the then General Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower. After a three-year stint in the U.S., he returned to the Philippines to help establish the English Department of what is now a national institution, the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Loakan, Baguio.

Throughout his forty-six abbreviated years on this planet, he rarely spoke about his wartime exploits. But his comrades-in-arms had recognized his dedication to the cause of the veterans when he was unanimously chosen to be the first secretary general of what is now the Veterans Federation of the Philippines (VFP), an organization that he had helped to organize so that there would be advocacy and substance to the peacetime campaigns of the forgotten Filipino soldier.

His comrades-in-arms (who became distinguished personages) like Fred Ruiz Castro, Macario Peralta, Carmelo Z. Barbero, Albert Fenix Sr., Pilar Normandy, Ernesto Rodriguez Jr., Francisco Bautista, Roberto Reyes, Eulogio Balao, Simeon Valdez, Cris De Vera, Jose Crisol, Nicanor Jimenez, Jose Banzon, Arnulfo Banez, Amador Daguio, Pio Escobar…to name a few… Dad’s peers who would frequent the quarters where the family lived at various military camps. They would recount what he and his comrades had accomplished that fateful day in June of 1944 when the rising morning sun was hidden by the clouds in the rugged ridges of Bessang Pass.

What Dad had dubbed in his post-war writings as “The Battle of the Clouds” is said to have marked the official end of hostilities in the Philippines after General Yamashita and his staff were escorted down the foot trails of the Cordilleras. From there the legendary Japanese general was taken to Manila for his celebrated military trial in Los Banos, Laguna and eventual execution as a war criminal.

Dad, in his journal writings, pointed to the battle in Bessang Pass as an “engagement of redemption,” coming full circle after “the shame and ignominy that was Bataan.” His colorful lines about the battle at Bessang would later be used rather extensively by a popular Senator who campaigned for the highest office of the land in 1966.

A wordsmith at heart, Dad had unwittingly laid out through his after-battle reports and writings a clear path for the ambitious politician to tread. The ex-military turned politician and his apple-polishers created in the process the impression that the dreaded General Yamashita had personally surrendered to him.

The truth is that he was safely tucked away as staffer in an obscure military personnel office. He had supposedly feigned sickness 85 kilometers away from the bloody battle. Asked by one of Dad’s officers why he was not in the frontlines that day, the then Major, who was in bed at Camp Spencer’s dispensary, replied wryly, “I am not in the mood for heroics.”

Barely twenty-three years later, after stints as congressman of Ilocos Norte and later as a senator, this political figure would create a controversy because of a film story and campaign line, “For every tear, a victory,” lines so utterly familiar to what Dad had written about the triumph at Bessang Pass.

Shortly after Dad suddenly died in May of 1960 at the age of 46 due to asthma complications (and because of incompetence of medical staffers at the V. Luna Medical Center in Quezon City), his writings, files, records and journals vanished. According to my mother, she had turned them over to some of Dad’s comrades-in-arms to be used in recording the USAPIP-NL’s role in World War II.

As if the trauma of Dad’s passing was not enough to his still-in-shock family, a devastating storm and flood two weeks after he was laid to rest nearly washed away the new home that he had lovingly built in Little Baguio, San Juan. Wet, torn and muddied, all of his library books, records, journals and files were damaged beyond repair. Whatever remained in his library about “The Battle of the Clouds” were lost forever.

Only in the writings, recollections and testimonies of those who had fought with him would remain. Only the tamper-free World War II files of the United States military would now reflect the names and the recorded roles of Filipino fighting men in the benighted peninsula of Bataan, the rock-like defense that was Corregidor, the infamy of the Death March and then the shining valor, redemption and gallantry that was Bessang Pass.

But many still wonder to this day if envy and prejudice that lurked in the hearts of those who had recorded and revisited historic military episodes would diminish the glory of the Filipino soldiers and guerillas who fought a war that was hardly theirs.

The book written by a communications officer and dear friend of Dad, Ernesto Rodriguez Jr. (founder and first president of the College Editors’ Guild (CEG), a prestigious organization of young Filipino academics) entitled “The Bad Guerillas of Northern Luzon,” is considered by historians as a factual and priceless chronicle of the complicated military campaign in that region during the war’s final months.

The book recounts the day-to-day pursuit of Yamashita’s retreating army by Filipino soldiers who were under the telegraphic command of Col. Russel Volkmann of the United States Armed Forces in the Philippines-North Luzon (USAFIP-NL). The desperate Japanese Imperial Army (with combatant-prisoner that were kidnapped Korean men) had ravaged Manila and areas of Central and Northern Luzon as they hurriedly retreated northward.

In a rare storytelling episode on our way to Dolores, Abra one summer vacation in the early 50s, when we were still in grade school, Dad parked the car on a roadside along the national highway and pointed to the mountain ranges in the distance where he had fought side-by-side with brave Filipino soldiers and guerilla bolomen as they pursued well-entrenched Japanese forces on Bessang Pass up in the rugged Cordilleras, only 20 miles away from historic Tirad Pass that featured young General Gregorio del Pilar.

Dad had affirmed that many of those who were fighting against his 3rd Battalion, 121st Inf., USAFIP-North Luzon, were young Koreans not more than 16 years old. Frightened, hungry and sick, the Korean boys were prisoners of war (POWs) who were forced by Yamashita to wear ill-fitting combat uniforms and to fight the advancing Filipinos. Many of them ran from their battle trenches to surrender to Dad’s men. #

Epilogue

About two decades after Dad was buried at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani in Fort Bonifacio, I met several of his old comrades-in-arms who had fought side-by-side with him in Bessang Pass. Each one had expressed dismay over an epic battle that could have been the most profound glory hour of the Filipino soldier in WW II if it were ever made public.

The surrender of the highest-ranking, most feared Japanese Imperial Army General to a gritty battalion of Filipino military officers supported only by a band of barefoot and spunky Ilocano Bolomen from the provinces of Abra, Ilocos Sur and the Mountain Province was all but forgotten. Why? Because the American officers behind the battle lines—far away in La Union----upon learning of the breakthrough against Yamasita’s almost-impregnable defense lines by the USAPI-NL’s 121st Bn. were in disbelief.

They ordered the Filipino detachment at Bessang Pass “not to announce anything until further orders.” Two days later, only after the Americans had arrived in Bessang Pass, that the announcement of Yamashita’s surrender was bannered to the whole world.

Even today, Dad’s aging comrades can only shake their heads in silent anger. One outspoken Filipino officer commented: “Well…the ‘I Shall Return’ PR blitzkrieg and full-bore propaganda campaign had to have a glorious spin to it and Bessang Pass was a sure fit.”

(The other surprising spin to the historic surrender of the Tiger of Malaya was that he reportedly refused to emerge from his cave in Bessang unless there were American officers to receive him---for fear that the Filipinos would kill him right there. This was pure rubbish, Dad and his comrades would declare. For his war crimes, Yamashita was summarily executed by the Americans in Los Banos anyway.)

And so, countless Filipino warriors remain unheralded, forgotten and buried under the WWII radar screen of valor and sacrifice. So like that haunting song of patriotic servitude, Dad and his gallant comrades “…will never die, they’ll just fade away…” Burning in the hearts of warriors who fought for freedom and who revere truth is a conviction that redemption always comes in the end game. #

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Conrado (Sluggo) Rigor, Jr., editor and publisher of FilAm Bulletin in Seattle, WA, is an organizer-advocate for aging Filipino WWII veterans, their widows and orphans. He had served as adviser-supporter to the Filipino War Veterans of Washington (FWVW) now headed by 96-year-old Commander Greg Garcia, a retired civil engineer from Batac, Ilocos Norte who had participated in the Bessang Pass campaign as a communications engineer for 15th Inf., USAFIP-North Luzon. (Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved).