It is May once again and the City of Naga celebrates “The Liberation of Naga”.

On May 1 and 2 of 1942, two large guerrilla groups from Camp Isarog and the Tangcong Vaca Guerrilla Unit, assisted by other smaller guerrilla bands in Camarines Sur which included Agtas from Camp Isarog, armed with bows and arrows, launched their successful attack on Japanese-occupied Naga.

According to the book The Guerrilla Resistance Movement in the Philippines by Maj. Gen. Charles A. Willoughby (MacArthur’s intelligence officer), 30 Americans and other prisoners who were about to be executed by the Japanese were freed in this undertaking.

As a result, Naga was fully re-taken from its Japanese captors and a victory parade was held by the victorious guerrillas in the centro of Naga to mark what is now known as “The Liberation of Naga.” To them and to the people of Bicol this was a significant victory. They were able to capture Naga, this time without the help of American forces.

The victory, however, was short-lived. A few days later, Japanese reinforcements arrived in Naga, and Naga fell into Japanese control once more.

Although this operation was short-lived, the people of Naga never forgot this occasion. The battle became an inspiration to the guerrillas and the other people who helped out in the resistance. They proved for the first time that they could stand up to the conquerors if they fought united.

Nevertheless, the battle was not fought in vain. Many other battles loomed ahead. World War II in the Philippines was at an early stage. It was not until April 1945 that Naga was retaken, this time with the arrival of the American liberation forces aided by the guerrillas.

The fight to liberate Naga will always hold a special place in my heart. Two large guerrilla units played major roles in the Liberation of Naga – The Camp Isarog Guerrilla Unit and the Tangcong Vaca Guerrilla Unit.

Books, articles, journals, etc.., have been written about the guerrilla resistance in Bicol. I have read some of them and in my youth, my father’s fellow veterans would tell me stories about their war experiences.

Reflecting on these books and stories about the Bicol guerrillas, one thing makes me sad. I refer to a lot of divisions and in-fighting among the local guerrillas themselves and with other fellow Bicol guerrilla units.

These are mentioned in written accounts of different books with different versions of the guerrilla activities in Bicol. These were serious feuds that led to extremes, such as killing each other. Accounts about a guerrilla leader hunting down another guerrilla leader because of a woman, a guerrilla group wanting a wider territory of command, and another group wanting to hold a territory for political ambitions are told.

In Gen. Willoughby’s book about the guerrillas in Bicol, for example, he states: “The Bicol resistance movement remains one of the most confused and least productive…  fightings between units over matters of area command almost exceeds any fighting against the Japanese.”

To add to these problems Gen. Willoughby states further: “While the larger units that emerged were typically committed to the de facto preservation of law and order in their areas, several small units donned the guise of loyal guerrillas for the sheer purpose of banditry and forced tribute from civilians.”

I am neither a historian nor a journalist. I understand that instances like the ones mentioned by Gen. Willoughby occurred during the war. But I also believe that contrary to what Gen. Willoughby stated, the Guerillas in Bicol were one of the most productive groups in the fight against the Japanese invaders. While reading Gen. Willoughby’s book there were other accounts that were not accurate. He stated in his book that a small unit of guerrillas under the Aureus brothers was absorbed by the Tangcong Vaca Guerrilla unit. This is not true and this was denied by Tangcong Vaca military commander Maj. Miranda himself in another book.

Naturally, I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to ask my father what motivated him and his family to get involved in the resistance movement.

At the risk of speaking about my family, allow me to cast modesty aside for a while to say that during the course of the war, my father was seriously wounded 3 times in separate encounters with the enemy. He lost his brother Jesus in Bataan (the body was never recovered). His father who earlier fought with the Katipuneros under Gen. Arejola, was tortured to death by Japanese soldiers. He and his four other brothers never saw their father again. All his other siblings were incarcerated. I think these were motivations enough to participate actively in the resistance movement.

Below are excerpts from the memoir of Col. Mariano S. Aureus about how it all started:

Invasion

The Japanese landed in Legazpi on December 12, 1941. Two days later, Sunday, they captured Naga, the capital of Camarines Sur. Peace-loving Naga was too weak to ward off the invaders, so there was no resistance at all. Many, however, evacuated to the mountains.

The Japanese wanted it to appear that they came as Liberators, not invaders, and their single purpose was to obtain maximum assistance in their effort to include the Bicolanos in their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In the words of the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Imperial Forces, General Masaharu Homma, “Our purpose was to emancipate you from the oppressive domination of the U.S.A. letting you establish ‘the Philippines for the Filipinos’ as a member of the Co-Prosperity Sphere in the Greater East Asia and making you enjoy your own prosperity and culture.”

So, the invaders established the Military Provincial Government for Camarines Sur. Unlike the national government, the set-up for the provincial and municipal governments remained the same – except for the fact that none of the officers were elected by the people.

Then they tried to “Japanize” the Bicolanos by encouraging the study of Nippongo and discouraging English. Textbooks that came from the US were taken away. Radio sets were reconditioned to prevent shortwave broadcasts from abroad. Heavy penalties were meted out for listening to these sets. There was an over-all program to “rejuvenate” the culture. But there was only one party, the KALIBAPI. Japanese professors were imported from abroad.

The Scorched Earth

On December 11, 1941, I took the night train from Tutuban to Libmanan. By force of circumstances, I was compelled to give up my job as a Revisor in the Auditing Office of the Philippine Sweepstakes Office in Manila. Despite the long trip I could not sleep. In Manila there were constant air raids and black outs all over and I saw confusion marked on the faces of everyone. I kept worrying about my parents in my hometown.

Although we had previously felt the imminent danger of war breaking out in the country, the suddenness of it all was unbelievable. All I remembered in that long night trip was my recollection that 3 months back I had received an order from Ramon D’Salva who was with the General Auditing Office, to report for active service. Since we were employed, we were classified as second batch, and therefore our training was deferred until December.

Although I knew that war had broken out, still I did not realize how serious the situation was. Later I found out that that train I took homeward was the last trip. When I arrived, I learned that the Japanese forces had landed in Legazpi and were on their way to Naga.

I was met at the station by my elder brother Leon. Right there and then he told me of his plan to take up arms and wage a guerrilla warfare against the Japanese.

Meanwhile in occupied Naga, the Japanese tried all means to persuade the townsfolk by leaflets, propaganda letters, bribes. When the Nagueños saw through these artificial promises and refused to pledge allegiance to them, the Japanese grew nervous. They began to threaten and harass. The townspeople resented this and refused all the more to be taken in. The enemy panicked. They turned savage and began their atrocities by torturing and executing the populace. Rapes, decapitation, the extermination of villages became the order of the day. When these diabolical acts spread, we were filled with horror: we were no longer witnessing a war but mass murders.

It is mainly because of these atrocities that the people decided to fight back. Leon had long seen this. And so did Elias Madrid.

Organization

I believe, and many share my opinion, that one of the most outstanding guerrilla leaders in the Bicol Region was my late brother, Leon. Founder, organizer, and “brains” of the movement, we often dubbed him as the “Mabini” of the organization. His resistance activities are known by all Bicols who have been affected by the war. The most idealistic of the men, he voluntarily refused his own recognition after the war in protest against the U.S. Army’s refusal to recognize all his men. “All or nothing.” Until his death in December 31, 1969, he remained officially unrecognized.

Leon was an intensely earnest young man when the war broke out. Already a family man, we looked up to him as an elder brother. Obviously, we knew that he was the most grieved by the atrocities, for almost every day he would remind us over and over of the Japanese cruelties to Filipinos.

One day I heard him straining at the top of his voice: “our people are oppressed by the enemy and I cannot stand it any longer. We must fight back. We must all unite against the Japanese Imperial Army and take back our homes, our country. Only traitors do not want to fight Japan!”

In appearance, Leon did not look like a warrior at all. He was frail-built and ascetic, but there was something in him that seemed to derive an assurance of command. He was totally free of pomp and ceremony, yet his presence was felt everywhere he went. He spoke plainly yet there was a peculiar air in his words revealing the scholar, the voracious reader, the deep student of history and politics, and the able writer that he was. He was careless in his appearance and habits of personality, but strangely meticulous about details of duty and excellence. I also sensed that my brother had a feeling of deep religious faith, and his inner spiritual convictions were contagious. Above all he was a man of considerable depth of pride for his country that all of us to a man regarded him the noblest of us all.

With a keen sense of organization, he wrote the Declaration of Principles of the Tangcong Vaca Guerrilla Unit (TVGU).

In the old house in Libmanan, “Eyon” led me to the back of the stairs and I saw, for the first time, as he uncovered them, our first arms: a dozen darts and two shotguns. Our first rifle, later on was donated by Luis Los Baños, another outstanding guerrilla leader, who was also fighting on the battlefields of Albay.

One night, my brother and Elias Madrid introduced me to a young man in leather jacket. He was Madrid’s nephew and had just arrived from Legazpi where he worked as Finance Sergeant, PA at the Regan Barracks. He gave his name: Juan Q. Miranda. His designation: Overall Commander.

Our first recruits included Simeon Ayala, who was a former Philippine Constabulary soldier in Libmanan, Nick Peñaredondo, and Honorato Osio.

In Tangcong Vaca, the passes and defiles were guarded with guns and the terrain was such that we could hold a number of men. Since we were engaged in underground fighting, our objective was to weaken the solid force by destroying their moving forces. Positional warfare was to be avoided since we had no auxiliary force, no rear, no line of supplies and communication. In a long positional battle the enemy had all the advantage, and the longer the battle, the lesser our chances of winning.

So, we were to retreat when the enemy attacked and attack when the enemy retreated. Since our main force was small, we emphasized surprise as our main element. We planned carefully every detail of our plan of attack and retreat. We planned how to feint, like pretending to attack front while attacking the side. We also planned for emergencies. For example, once it becomes clear that our calculations backfired, we prepared how to disengage and withdraw as quickly as possible.

 In a word, we planned and waited and trained until we believed we were ready to strike back.

What followed were several triumphs that held back the enemy until the Philippines was finally liberated from Japanese occupation:

• As early as February 1942 a train was burned down by Tangcong Vaca guerrillas in Sipocot. The train was carrying rice to Japanese troops. Two Japanese soldiers and one civilian burned with the train.
• On April 11, 1942 the huge Balongay (Calabanga) barge and wharf used for transporting Japanese troops and military armaments were destroyed.
• April 27, 1942, thousands of cavans of palay owned by the Japanese Imperial Army housed at the NARIC bodega in Libmanan were taken and freely distributed to the people. Some of the cavans were stored by the TVGU in Pamplona, Canaman, Gainza, and Libmanan for future use.
• April 30, the fortnightly resistance paper Voice of Freedom in mimeograph form published by the TVGU and edited by Leon Sa. Aureus under the pen name Rosan Eulanes came out with its first issue.
• October 9, 70 Japanese soldiers were killed at Nagboton, Malinao, Libmanan.
• May 2, 1943, 63 Japanese soldiers and 35 PC Japanese sympathizers were killed at Nayog, Gabi, Sipocot.

The long list of achievements goes on but their two most outstanding triumphs were the November 28, 1942 ambush which took the life of a Japanese General and the lives of 186 of his soldiers. The ambush took place at Taguilid Pass in Pamplona, Camarines Sur, without the loss of a single Tangcong Vaca guerrilla.

And the other one is “The Liberation of Naga.”

This article is dedicated to all the brave men and women of the Tangcong Vaca Guerrilla Unit.

May Almighty God bless their souls forever.

(Sources: The Guerilla Resistance Movement in the Philippines by Maj. Gen. Charles Willoughby, Jose Obias for The Liberation of Naga photo, the Historico Cultural Heritage of Libmanan, Memoirs of TVGU intel officer Mariano S. Aureus, and The Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Bikol People by Fr. James O’Brien, S.J.)

About the author