The Liberation of Panay and Romblon

   On March 17, 1945, at 9:00 in the morning, Major Gamaliel Manikan who was stationed at Sitio Halin in Parara, Tigbauan, Iloilo, received an urgent coded message from General Macario Peralta Jr. that the US Army's 40th Infantry Division will land at the vicinity of Tigbauan on the following day. 

   At 3:30 o'clock in the morning of March 18, 1945, a small rubber boat, carrying Col. Rist, with six armed men of the 40th Infantry Division, C-2, jumped ashore at Namocon, Tigbauan, Iloilo. They were met by Major Manikan and Lieut. Jose Panique and staff. They made a briefing and gave Col. Rist  a map of the enemy installation. At exactly 4:00 o'clock A.M., Col. Rist and party, rowed back seaward. Major Manikan and companion, went to their CP and anxiously awaited the dawn of the climactic day.

   At the shore of Namocon, Guerrilla Lieut. Jose Panique was fetched by a PT boat to contact Landing Operation Commander General Raph Brush. He gave additional information to the General of the whereabouts of the enemy installations and the strength in the poblacion of Tigbauan and the adjacent places.

    At the first streak of the silvery rays of the sun, low-flying amphibian planes scoured the vicinity, dropping leaflets, advising the civilians to get away from the lines of landing operations.

   Before sunrise, dawn awakened the evacuees who were hiding in the hinterlands of Tigbauan, with the frightening sounds which they have never heard since the Japanese penetration in  the town of Tigbauan. They climbed the top of the hills and from there, they saw around 130 ships of  different sizes.  

   From the China Sea, several amphibian tanks and landing crafts dashed toward the deep waters afront Fatima Beach at  Parara, Tigbauan. The shoreline that sprawled from Parara up to Buyuan was lined with a great number of ships, large and small, that covered the surface of the sea .

   The Guerrillas stationed nearby, hastened to the beach to meet the Battalion Landing Team, headed by Major Long. Among them were Lieut. Napoleon B. Tenefrancia, and his staff, of the 3rd Battalion, Lieut. Eugenio T. Torrento with Supply Officers and men, Judge Juan C. Teruel  and town officials. Lieut. Napoleon B. Tenefrancia provided  beachmaster General Long with further information about the enemy.

   At exactly 5:45 A.M., the first salvo of pre-landing naval bombardment heralded the break of day with tremendous explosion. The earth trembled and the people were shocked. Overhead, light aircraft flew up and down the area. The U.S. battleship of the 7th Fleet drew nearer the coast facing the poblacion. Then, followed the shelling of the Central Elementary School building, which  blasted the Japanese garrison and the place at the mouth of the Sibalum River where some of the Japanese soldiers were posted and hiding. The Japanese soldiers were startled and scampered like quails in their nest. They tried to escape but they were cornered and killed by the men of Major Manikan who had long been looming in the dark , and shrouded by the civilians, waiting for the opportune time to attack. Those who surrendered to the American liberators, were held captives.

   Brigadier General Robert D. Shoe, Assistant Division Commander came with the second wave of landing crafts at 10:26 A.M.  Up in the brightening skies, the people on the hills and farms were  terrified by the thundering roar of countless warplanes  that hovered like dragonflies with silver wings that glistened in the sun. They flew in a formation of a giant letter "V", which meant "Victory". The folks who were shackled by their waning hope for freedom suddenly came to a shock of realization that at last, after a long agony of waiting  and despair, General Douglas MacArthur has returned, as he had promised. They were hysterically overjoyed and lay prostrate on the ground, thanking the Lord for the much longed for salvation. Like a blast of the first flood in May, they rushed from the hills down to the farms and lowlands. Unmindful of the pricking huya-huya beds, they trampled on the untrodden grounds, the piercing thorns of the sibucaw boughs drooping on their paths, they traversed the scorching sands along the rivers and ignored the blazing midday sun in March. They headed to the poblacion  running, jumping, skipping, shouting and laughing while crying.  On the way, they kept on tossing their binagtong into the air from time to time, like the hats of cowboys who won in a rodeo. 

    Upon reaching the town, thousands of them, young and old, men and women, widows and orphans, mothers and fathers and siblings who lost their loved ones, lined the beaches from the poblacion and several kilometers from the West to the East. They shook hands with, hugged and kissed every American soldier they met, weeping, and in quivering voices shouted 'Victory Joe! Victory Joe!", even if their name were not Joe. When they caught sight of the captured Japanese, like a swarm of putyukan bees, the people mobbed them with uncontrollable rage. They hurled stones at them, pulled their hair, slapped and beat them with their slippers, boxed and punched, hacked and whipped them while shaking in anger, crying, cursing and calling them names.The American soldiers tried to bar and stop them, but they were outraged to the point of madness. Three long years of hatred, grudge, bitterness, sorrow and pain pent-up in their hearts, broke loose like a wild  bull from the cage. 

   The prisoners of war were concentrated at the plaza. Then after a couple of hours, the liberating team proceeded for an encirclement move, with negro tanks unit to Iloilo City by passing Tigbauan-Leon provincial road. In barrio Cordova, the tanks unit demolished the Japanese garrison at sitio Curampao, while the artillery unit passed through Namocon toward the city. There was no resistance encountered, thus, Panay was liberated. March 18, 1945 marked the Liberation of Panay and Romblon by the American Liberation Forces. Old folks called this event "landing kang Kano" or liberation. 

Live, direct or face to face and first-hand sources of information:

Resource Person                                            Place                            Date information was attained:

1. Marina Gonzales Tejero                               Napnapan                                                    1950

        (survivor, WWII)

2. Consolacion Leonardia                                Tigbauan                                                      1953

    (Grade III teacher TCES)

3. Esperanza Taleon                                          Tigbauan                                                      1956

    (Grade VI teacher)

4. Felisa Tuminez Taasan                                Tigbauan                                                      1968 

   (Jamog Elementary Teacher)  

5. Juan T. Teruel                                                Tigbauan                                                      1968

    (Elementary School Principal)       

6. Antonio Calfoporo                                       Tigbauan                                                       1990

   (Death March Escapee)

7. Agent Kwarantay                                        DYFM Radio                                                  1998

  (Death March Escapee)

8.  WWII Veteran from Dingle                    Camp Pasica, Dingle                                    1998

    (USAFFE member)

9.  Napoleon B. Tenefrancia                        Tigbauan                                                        1972

    (Guerilla Combat Team Leader)

10. Wenceslao Aniceto                                  Tigbauan                                                        1975

    (Member, Association of 

     Ilonggo Historians)

11. Victorina Tuale                                            Napnapan, Tigbauan                              2005

    (WWII survivor)

12.  Andres Tendero                                        Tigbauan                                                    1960

     (WWII Veteran)    

References:   

1. Intermediate Geography - Miller and Polley (War Supplement)

2. A brief History of the Philippines - Leandro H. Fernandez

3. History of the Philippines - Dr. Sonia M. Zaide

4. Handumanan - Epifanio Tuclaud - Mun. Sec., member, Sumakwelan

5. Collier's Encyclopedia 

..... (from the speech of Gen. Doughlas MacArthur delivered during his visit in Iloilo City on July 4, 1961)

.....  " I know not the dignity of this man's birth, but I know the glory of his death; for the best about the Filipino Unknown Soldier - his name, his heroic deed, are known  but to God... It is perhaps a bit odd  that the world's most famous soldier, whose valor is recognized by friend and former foe, either in flowers or in prose, is.. Unknown.... But in the battle site where now, perhaps grow some  weeds, where he fell in the night without seeing the dawn, the unknown soldier rests in the bosom of God."

..... "I cannot make the same pledge, "I shall return" again, because the deepening shadows of death is now beginning to engulf me." (He died on April 5, 1964 at Washington, D.C.)     

Personal note:

... A USAFFE veteran engaged in a conversation with me in English. He said, "When Gen. MacArthur ordered his men to rescue the Filipinos and liberate the islands, the soldiers informed him, "Sir, the enemies are too many we might loose many of our war planes and destroy our battleships." The General answered, "So what?! America is a rich country. In five years, it can produce 5 battleships. In ten years, it can produce 20 war planes. But it will take 21 years to produce one Filipino to fight for the country."                  

                                                                                                   Maria Luisa Tejero-Torrento