Love in the Horrors of War The Second World War taught me that love still exists in the time

of war through the stories of different people that I have met with and became close with. I thought it was high time for me to write my story because I am not getting any younger and I wanted that the next generation to realize that love still prevails over the horrors of war. And now, this is my first-hand account of my experiences during the war and how all of us overcame lifes greatest adversities. A few months before World War IIs wrath wreaked havoc to the Philippines in 1942, I was working as a humble clerk of the Senate president, Junmar Rivera, in his sprawling office at the Senate. As I was preparing to close the office on a very busy day in the month of November in 1941, a friend of mine, Ben Quijote, who happens to be a legal apprentice of Vice-President Marcos Dominguez, told me unexpected news which gave me feelings of happiness and of anxiety because two of our close friends in college, Diana Rivera, daughter of the Senate President and his wife Clara, and Juan Pablo Dominguez, son of the Vice-President and his wife Anna, are getting married at last on the following year yet the threat of war was becoming inevitable because Japan started amassing a huge army and a formidable armory and was already in an attack mode anytime. Yet, my anxiety faded as I started sharing with Ben the good memories that we had with the soon to be married couple including our unforgettable experience in organizing their first date. We laughed about how we bought the food and other things that were needed for their once in a lifetime experience given a very tight budget and a tight schedule. And as I had finished packing up my things before leaving the office, I said goodbye and thanked him for that surprising information.

Sadly, my anxieties came true. Just barely a month after our conversation with Ben, Pearl Harbor was attacked on a Sunday, the 7th of December of that fateful year. Because of this dramatic event, I was wary that the wedding may not push through because United States had declared war against their new rival, the once-sleeping Japanese, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of this event, Manila was vulnerable to the attacks of the Japanese because the city is the capital of Uncle Sams colony, the one and only Pearl of the Orient. Again, my worst fears happened. Manila was attacked by the Japanese on the 2nd of January of the following year, 1942. Yet, the wedding would still push through on Valen tines Day but would be hastened because the families of public officials would evacuate to the States soon after for safety. Valentines Day came. The church bells rang. Piano tunes of Mendelssohn flew seamlessly into the air. Marshalls were in full force to assist distinguished guests who donned their best traje de bodas, ternos and tuxedos. Then, five minutes before 9 in the morning, a black Cadillac arrived with the bride inside. I was also there at the wedding but being just a man coming from plebeian origins, it is a luxury for me to pay a tailor with a hefty sum for a new tuxedo which would maybe, only be used once. So, I wore a slightly faded barong Tagalog given to me by my boss two Christmases ago and the cheap black slacks that I wore in work daily. It is not the glitz and the glamour of the people who were there that made that day imprinted in my memory. Instead, a life-changing event happened on this day. An airstrike was launched by the Japanese again after several airstrikes that damaged peoples lives and property for the past few weeks.

Unfortunately, the airstrikes hit the Cathedral very hard, killing House Speaker Roy Legaspi, my two colleagues in the Senate Presidents office, Maricon Fernandez and Mariella del Rosario; Dianas brother Alexander Rivera and her friend Joan Valenzuela; Juan Pablos uncle Franco Dominguez and sister Catherine Dominguez; Bens senior officer, John Balisalisa; the First Lady Maya San Luis y Asuncion and countless innocent lives that were never accounted for. Also, scores of people were hurt, among them the Senate President himself, Ben and his fellow apprentice Nelson Yap; my neighbor and the Chief-of-staff of my boss, Justiniano Lazo; Anna Dominguez, the Vice Presidents wife and many others. I was fortunate that I was unscathed because I hid in the Cathedrals stone pillars because I always prefer to stay at the back when Im in churches. Afterwards, I ran towards the altar to check whether the bride and the groom were okay. I dragged them towards safety and I also found out that the priest was seriously hurt, with blood oozing on his face. Unfortunately, the airstrike happened before their exchange of vows, so they were not married. Then, I rushed to help some of the dignitaries to safety, even carrying a well-built Senate President and a six-footer Vice-President at the same time due to lack of rescuers. I was forced to take charge a slow calesa to the hospital to bring the injured in. A week after the airstrike, the officials met to discuss plans of evacuating the government to the United States and my friend Ysidra Gomez, the executive assistant of President Antonio San Luis, told me that the President, who was still mourning over his wifes death, plainly told them that he would be staying in the islands no mat ter what but he would let his daughter Margie to join the US group. Then and there, my boss, the

Senate President, also told the people in the meeting that he will join with the President in the country. I was wary of my bosss decision to stay here but I respected his decision because he believes that staying in the country boosts peoples morale. As the departure day came, I went to Ben at the airport who was arranging the details on the departure of several officials and their families. Among them were the VicePresident and my college professor in economics and secretary of finance, Sec. Gloria Garcia. And as I was going to Ben to say goodbyes because he would also join them in the States, I saw the face of JP, who was still shocked on the events that unfolded and especially to their impending separation with his wife- to be Diana. Soon after the planes had departed, the contingent who would be evacuating to the Mindanao frontier arrived at the port, led by the President and the Senate President and supported by several other officials together with their families. I was to be with them because the Senate President entrusted me to be their guide when we arrive in Mindanao. I was wondering why they chose Mindanao among other places, maybe because of its distance from Manila although it was riskier there than in the capital. The journey to Mindanao lasted for around a week and because many of the refugees were from the upper class, they struggled with limited food and water that the ship handled. Then, the ship landed on the far south tip of the island, which was near the bay where Gen. Paulino Santos established the first settlement in the area. I discussed to them two options where they could settle, one which was the coast and the plains around the bay area running towards a mountain named Matutum while the other one was the rich central plains farther north from the mountain but I told them that if they wanted to live in the central plains, they should learn to live with the Muslims and other locals who lived

there since prehistory. I chose these areas because they were the least desirable areas for the Japanese soldiers to go because they were once defeated by the local warriors who fought bravely and only necessity would force them to come here, which would be proven later on. Both locations were eventually settled but I have little details about the first settlement because I was with the group who went all the way to the central plains. On our way to Cotabato, as how the locals call the central plains, I met a long lost friend, 1Lt. Roberto Belida, an airman of the Philippine Armed Forces who hails from Davao and was assigned back to Mindanao after graduating from military school. I invited him to join with us to find areas where we can all be safe and said to him that the President and the Senate President was with the group. He readily joined us not only because the commander-in-chief was present but he considers him as a role model. And after a long, tough walk on the dirt road from Polomolok, as what locals call the plains near Mt. Matutum, up to the invincible central plains which was not fully subjugated to the Japanese rule because of the strong resistance movement led by the Muslims and the Lumads and supported by the early settlers, we arrived in the area. Immediately, we built our huts in the plains but as we are just starting to build, some locals rushed to our camp site with eyes full of suspicion and skepticism but later on in my life, I would understand their initial behavior because of their past experiences with foreigners and local settlers. But, their suspicion was relieved when I saw Robert talked to the locals in their dialect, for he was fluent in their language, that the people he brought here were refugees, not infidels or Japanese spies. Then sometime in the middle of 1942, I invited Robert for a cup of hot water, for coffee was very scarce during that time. Then, we talked about our adventure out from Davao

to the uncertainty of Manila life during the late 1930s. One of them was we rode secretly in a decrepit Japanese cargo ship carrying abaca just to leave Davao because a boat ride costs a hefty sum of money and we were told by our parents that we shall support on our own if we pursue in studying in Manila. Another experience that we shared was when these high-ranking public officials, namely the President and the Senate President, approached us in Luneta Park maybe because they found us sleeping there and offered us an opportunity for us to study for college which would be a great help for us to stand on our own. After this topic, he showed to me a photograph of his fiance, Janet Ampoloquio. Then he said to me that she was not approved by his parents because she was not only a love child of a certain person but by a Japanese man who was once known to be a balut vendor in their town but was really a ranking Japanese officer in disguise. He also added that his parents hated the Japanese and their love children because of a certain reason that was never disclosed to him. Because of the ridicule that Roberts fiance experienced in the hands of Roberts parents, she ran away and lived somewhere within Mindanao. After an almost overnight conversation, Robert left because he was called to mission in Davao. One hot day in the early part of 1943, I was drawing out water from the deep well when I heard gunshots, clanking sounds of metal and screams of people. I thought that it was only a routine exercise by the local warriors but it was a battle between them and the Japanese soldiers who attempted to seize the plains again. The locals, led by a young lady Mayor named Noralyn Dimaandal, fought valiantly against the Japanese soldiers who eventually left the area. I had the chance to meet her but it was only brief because she had a lot of things to attend to. After that brief meeting, I felt that I have a special

feeling towards her but I know that our group would only stay here temporarily. And as I was walking home, I saw Diana outside of her hut, which was a block away from my hut, crying over a letter that she received from JP. Since we came to the central plains, she became depressed and solitary because of her temporary separation with JP. And because of this, she lost weight and became moody. But eventually, the letter helped to alleviate the pain in Dianas head because in a summer day in April 1943, when I visited her, her best friend Kath Del Castillo told me that she was regaining her appetite and she was more relaxed unlike when I saw her in the previous months. Yet, the pains of her lovers absence remained in her heart. In the middle of the year 1943, rumors circulated all over the town regarding the President and his new lover. I first heard the rumor from Beatrice Tecson, the Presidents stylist. It was said that the President, who was nearing his sixties, was dating a beautiful and sexy dance instructor named Mitch Navarra, who was in her late twenties and was famous in their area. The rumor had spread like wildfire because the people were unaccustomed to this type of relationship wherein a person loves and dates another person half of his or her age. The President tried to deny the rumors but he cant escape the watchful eyes of the folks. There was even a rumor that they were seen kissing boldly in the rice fields. The President, who had lost his patience, spoke to the people to leave him alone for he is already a widower and its time for him to find another love. In the early months of 1944, I received a telegram from Angela Torres, the VicePresidents personal secretary, which talked about the persistent rumors of Gen. Douglas McArthurs landing in the Islands sometime within the year but made no

mention on where would McArthur land. Soon after, I hurriedly transmitted the information to the President and to the Senate President for them to plan for contingencies because of the impending and lengthy battle that may happen when McArthur lands in the Islands once again. And even the lady warrior-mayor of the area knew the rumor of the landing through her friends in Zamboanga and Sabah who were also fighting against the Japanese soldiers. October 20, 1944. It was a lazy Friday evening so I secretly turned on the radio set to listen to satellite radio broadcasts from the US to know the latest information. Even listening to the radio must be done secretly because even if there were almost no Japanese soldiers around, it is still risky because they are notorious in confiscating radio sets and beating those who listen to those radio sets afterwards, and that concern always bothers me because of the never ending rumors as regards to McArthurs return to the Islands. Then, a bombshell broadcast was began to be aired on the radio, saying that the general has already landed on the Pearl of the Orient this morning after the battle in Palo, Leyte has started. The radio also said that McArthur was accompanied by several Philippine officials, led by Vice-President Marcos Dominguez who was also the Philippine representative to the US as the provisional government operated in exile in Mindanao. The next morning, I rushed to the recreation area of the village and found my boss and the President playing chess. Without hesitation, I reported to them that McArthur has already landed in Leyte. Then after, the President called his executive assistant and gave some instructions on what to be telegrammed to the Vice-President. Then my boss told me to help him pack his bags rapidly because they would be leaving for Leyte before lunch. Because they were in a hurry, I ran to some of my Muslim

friends whether they could lend us their boats and help us navigate the mighty Rio Grande de Mindanao, which is the fastest route going to Cotabato, a town near the mouth of the river. Upon arrival in Cotabato, they would board another pump boat going to Malabang and then travel by land to reach Iligan and then straight to Leyte. After three days of travel, they arrived at Tacloban in Leyte. From Cotabato, I returned to the camp and a telegram from my boss arrived two days later, saying that they are now in Leyte and they had met with the Vice-President and Gen. McArthur. It also stated that I will be the caretaker of his family while hes away and I shall also gather the people to plan for the worst. Then, my friend, the Presidents executive assistant, sent me a letter that talked about the officials who collaborated with the Japanese, Bens situation and the status of JP. It mentioned that Ben returned to the Islands in early 1944 and became a guerilla warrior, eventually leading a guerilla group somewhere in the Visayas while JP was granted dual citizenship and was currently serving in the US Army Corps. After reading all these mail, I asked some high-ranking officials to call all the people to dig underground tunnels and bunkers underneath their houses which would serve as their hiding areas whenever a major attack really happens. 1945. This was the most dramatic year of my existence on Earth. On the first few days of January of that year, I received a telegram from my boss telling me that a great battle between the Americans and the Japanese was already in the works and he told me in the telegram that they were now in Pangasinan going southwards to Manila to fight the Japanese until the very end. Lastly, he cautioned me to be vigilant always because it would only be weeks before the battle to liberate Manila will begin and also to other islands in the archipelago. It really happened as what was planned. On February 3, the

Americans arrived in Manila and started a long, dramatic battle against the Japanese which lasted for a month perhaps because it was only in the first week of March that my boss communicated to me again. The Allied forces were victorious in liberating Manila but it was paid with a heavy price. Losses of lives and massive damage on peoples property are profound. On a joint letter made by the President, Vice-President and the Senate President, which was their first communication since January, they said that Mindanao would be next in line to be liberated from the Japanese. So, I called again the people to gather enough supplies and to make sure that their bunkers are ready because evacuation is not an option because it was very risky to travel even to the settlement near Sarangani Bay because of the high uncertainty of the places where battles may be taking place. Then almost a month after, the 10th of April, a local soldier named Alyana told the young lady Mayor that the Americans are fast approaching towards the central plains after liberating Zamboanga at the end of March and Lanao on the first days of April until the 9th. Then, that same soldier told us about this and she said that her friends from Lanao told him about this. So, we made our last-minute preparations and the Mayor assembled a formidable army to assist the American and Filipino soldiers in fighting the Japanese soldiers who were mainly reinforcements from Sabah and defeated survivors from the battle of Zamboanga that started to came in the central plains on April the 1st and made it as their passageway towards Davao, the last Japanese stronghold, to augment the Japanese forces in that said place. April 17 came. The Allied soldiers, who were led by Gen. Jonathan Wood, leader of the 24th division of the US Armed Forces and Col. Amparo Ocampo, the first Filipino woman colonel in the Philippine Army, were sighted from the mighty Rio Grande de Mindanao

after they entered through it in its mouth in Parang and spread out to other areas in Mindanao. We didnt expect that the battle has already begun. As the Allied soldiers were heading towards Digos, a town far east from the central plains, en route to their final destination which is Davao, a heavy gun battle erupted between the Allies and the Japanese in the nearby town of Kabacan, which was approximately fifty kilometers from our location, three days after they arrived in Parang. Soon after, the Japanese exchanged gunshots with the Allied forces on that town which was very frightening because we can hear the sound of rifles. One by one, both the Japanese and the Allies have casualties due to the gun fire. After an hour of intense fighting, an American fighter plane roamed around our area which brought us a feeling of fear because we may be caught in between a potential crossfire. Then a bomber plane threw some bombs in one of the newly-built nipa hideouts of the Japanese in Kabacan. Even if our location was a bit far from the target, we still heard the explosion of the bomb which was quite loud in our hiding area. The exchange of gunfire lasted for almost a day then it paused and when a brief silence came in the air, we came out briefly from the bunkers and the tunnels that we made for us to be safe to do some personal business then came back again. We lived in the bunkers for two days and two nights with almost no food and water. During the third day, the Allied forces had defeated the Japanese and liberated the town of Kabacan and then they proceeded to Digos en route to Davao and to Northern Mindanao as two separate groups. Immediately after the battle, I received a radio call from Sec. Russell de Gonzalo, the leader of the Sarangani settlement via the US soldiers. He asked me if we were safe and I said we were. I also asked him whether they were also safe and he said that they

were. We shared experiences through the conversation like hiding in bunkers for safety and other things that I forgot. Then, he invited all of us to join them there for a feast with some Allied soldiers. Immediately after the battle, the President, the Vice-President and the Senate President jointly landed on the town of Cotabato on the 28th of April, a week after the battle in the central plains. Then the governments deputy administrator during the officials absence in our area, Atty. Joy Santamaria and Prof. Lisa Nuez who hails from Parang, greeted them in Cotabato and they jointly went to our camp via the Rio Grande de Mindanao. When they had arrived in our camp, Diana greeted her father and then she asked the Vice-President about JPs situation. Then, I heard the Vice President saying that he will come back in a few months. The reply made Diana excited and anxious. Towards the middle up to the end of the year 1945, all of us packed our bags, said goodbye to the locals and to the land that we considered as our home for the past three years, left the camp and proceeded to the Sarangani settlement down south because of Sec. de Gonzalos invitation for a feast of seafood and wild boar lechon on Christmas day. As we had arrived in the Sarangani settlement, a warship coming from San Francisco, CA arrived in Sarangani Bay, carrying the rest of the members of the US contingent wherein it was led by the Vice-Presidents wife. The passengers that I have seen on the ship were the Presidents daughter Margie, the Vice -Presidents family including Juan Pablo or JP who was recently discharged from the US Army and several government officials and their families who joined the Vice-Presidents family. After the feast, all of us embarked on the US military warship and went on towards Manila. As we had arrived in Manila on the 29th of December, we had only seen the destruction that

the war has brought to this beautiful city in the Pearl of the Orient, which was comparable to Shanghai, China of the 1930s and was also at par with the city that never sleeps, New York. Shortly after arrival in the ruined city, I was approached by my friend Sam Valladolid, who works as a nurse in the Army during and beyond the War. She told me that 1Lt. Belida was missing since the Battle of Leyte ended in end October of 1944. She also told me that maybe his plane had crashed, he was captured then executed by the Japanese or he was hiding in the hinterlands of Leyte or Samar and was now starting a new life with his old identity hidden. But, she said also that before he went to Leyte, he told Sam that he will fight for Janet, no matter what it takes. But he may never accomplish his goal because of his untimely disappearance and remains missing up to this point. I also read a letter from my brod in the fraternity, Antonio Lopez, who was a classmate of Mayor Noralyn Dimaandal and one of the first settlers of the Cotabato plains, that the noble Mayor had died while fighting the Japanese during the height of the Battle of Kabacan and he also told me that her last words were Allahu Akbar, which means God is the greatest as what one of the fighters had told him. Yet, she remains an obscure figure in the consciousness of the people and in history books today. Ben, meanwhile, was released by the Allied Forces on New Years Day of 1946 after verifying that he was a guerilla fighter and not a collaborator. After being released, he resigned as a legal apprentice to the Vice-President after his term had ended. Then, he proceeded to law school together with his girlfriend Mina Pastoriza and became a prominent lawyer in Manila.

In the beginning of the year 1946, another wedding was held for JP and Diana minus the glitz and the glamour that dominated in their aborted wedding ceremony almost four years from that fateful day. But the best thing was, their union was consecrated by the Lord and was made possible because of the absence of warfare and armed resistance. A few months after the wedding, I resigned as a clerk to the Senate President as he had decided not to seek for reelection as a Senator. My boss had already made up his mind to leave politics for good after the end of the war as he wants to farm and to enjoy the great outdoors in Mindanao. Shortly after his term had ended, the Rivera family and JP sailed towards Mindanao to settle there for good. The Vice-President meanwhile, has also decided to quit politics and joined the Riveras in Mindanao with his wife and the rest of the family joining him. The President, after he announced his decision to retire in politics and after a lengthy discussion with his daughter regarding his love life, he married Mitch, the woman he loved during the war and caused another war with his constituents. Soon after, they went to Davao to settle there for good and blessed with two children of their own. Meanwhile, the Presidents daughter, Margie, stayed in Manila for a few years to finish medicine and became a full-fledged doctor and was even a medical volunteer during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. One day in July of 1946, as Uncle Sam had already set the people of the Pearl of the Orient free because we are free people in the first place and not uncivilized folks as what they perceive us and a fledging republic was already functioning, I returned to Davao to stay there for quite some time before going back to Manila to find work again. As I waited for the ship bound for Davao, I saw a girl, who had a close resemblance of Roberts girlfriend, sitting on a bench in the corner and was looking at the picture of her

fiance and cried over it. I realized that it was Janet because I found out that the picture she was holding was Robert and this was also the last time that I saw her and I have no idea what happened to her as she arrived in her destination. As I arrived in Davao and into our home, I was greeted with good news that my family was safe from harm because I constantly think of them whenever I was caught in the horrors of war. They said that Mrs. Regina Uy, the owner of one of the biggest groceries in Davao, invited them to a safe house that was very far from the Japanese, who dominated Davao, and because of this they were spared and this was the reason why those letters that I mailed to them were unanswered. They said that they recovered some of the letters but they admitted that some were destroyed or burned during the battle of Davao. Then, another piece of good news had greeted me which was a telegraph from the central plains. It stated that my former boss and the Vice-President would be having a grandchild because Diana was expecting her first child with JP. And as time passed by, it was followed by two more children as what I had found out when I visited them sometime in the early seventies before martial law was declared. And as I roamed around Davao, I realized that the city is really my home and perhaps after almost a decade of not returning home, I found out deep inside that I was really very homesick and before I had my walk back home, I had decided not to go back to Manila anymore and to stay here in Davao where I can start a new life and career instead. This is the story of my life and the story of the love shown by different people in different situations in World War II. In my synthesis with my experience during the war in my middle years, I found out that even in times of war, there is still love that prevails over war and division. Also, based on what I have witnessed, separation knows no

boundaries as in the case of JP and Diana, who remained steadfast in their mutual love even if they were physically separated. Also, true love comes after a tragedy as what was experienced by the President loving a woman half of his age. And lastly, even if there is uncertainty whether the person you love is dead or alive, there was one girl who stood out and remained hopeful that the person she loved would be found once again. I am just hoping that my writings would not go in vain but instead, it will make you a better person. This was my experience of life and love in a time of war. Now that war has been replaced by silence, what and how would your experience in life and love would be? I would like to hear from you, my friend.