Liberation of Biñán

^{Veterans of the Hunters ROTC guerrillas (📷 Pacific Atrocities Education).}

It was the Hunters ROTC guerrillas that liberated Biñán from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). On 3 February 1945, they attacked the town from three fronts: Carmona from the west, San Pedro Tunasán from the north, and Santa Rosa from the south. Led by Commander Marcial Alintanahin (two-time Municipal President), the Hunters stormed Biñán which was held captive by around 30 Japanese soldiers and about 50 Filipino collaborators. Biñán was freed in just one day.

Ironically, it was during the liberation of the Philippine Islands in 1945 when La Laguna and the rest of the country suffered the brunt of war. Many Lagunense towns such as Luisiana were totally destroyed. Many splendid churches such as Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Pagsanján were flattened into rubble.

The Philippine Islands were liberated from the cruel clutches of the IJA when Japan officially surrendered on 7 September 1945. A year after the war, on 4 July 1946, the Philippine Islands was declared independent by the US Government. It was a symbolic date for it was when the US declared her independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1776. But it was almost a cheerless independence for Filipinos because the country was incapacitated as a result of the preceding war. Both infrastructure and economy were in shambles. Hundreds of thousands have perished. The Hukbalahap group turned rogue and rebelled against the government.

During the postwar tumult, La Laguna was left without a governor for a period of three years (1945–1948). The first governor under the new republic was Juan Pambúan who was responsible for La Laguna’s postwar rehabilitation. Biñán, however, was fortunate for having survived the carpet bombings during the closing days of World War II. That is why many ancestral houses dating back to the Spanish times have been preserved up to this day.

Today, Biñán celebrates the 78th anniversary of its liberation from the IJA.

#ArawNgBiñán2023

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“I shall return”

TODAY IN FILIPINO HISTORY: 20 March 1942 — An escaping General Douglas MacArthur who arrived at Terowie, South Australia makes his famous speech regarding the fall of Filipinas to the Imperial Japanese Army in which he says: “I came through and I shall return”. That declaration has become one of the most iconic lines from World War II and in all of World History.

On a personal note, this speech reminds me not of MacArthur but of another historical figure who is almost forgotten in our country’s history: Simón de Anda, the irrepressible Spanish Basque Governor-General of Filipinas from 1770 to 1776.

De Anda was then an oidor or member judge of the Audiencia Real (Spain’s appellate court in its colonies/overseas provinces) when the British, on account of the Seven Years’ War, invaded Filipinas in 1762. While many high-ranking government officials, including then interim governor-general and Archbishop Manuel Rojo del Río, already surrendered to the invaders, de Anda and his followers refused to do so. Instead, he established a new Spanish base in Bacolor, Pampanga and from there launched the country’s first-ever guerrilla resistance against the British. He thus proved to be a big thorn on the side of the British until the latter left the archipelago two years later.

During those tumultuous two years under the British, de Anda made no promises and neither did he leave Filipinas. He stuck it out with Filipinos through thick and thin and gave the enemy an armed resistance that they more than deserved. But “Dugout Doug” was all drama when he said “I shall return”, leaving the Filipinos to fend for themselves against the Japs. And when he did return, it was a disaster: the death of Intramuros, the heart and soul of the country.

Today in Filipino History: execution of Wenceslao Vinzons

TODAY IN FILIPINO HISTORY – 15 July 1942: Wenceslao Vinzons, Filipino politician and one of the leaders of the armed resistance against the Japanese invasion and occupation of Filipinas during World War II, was bayoneted to death by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) for refusing to cooperate with them. Executed together with him was his father Gabino, his wife Liwayway, his sister Milagros, and children Aurora and Alexander (both of which were below 10 years of age).

Vinzons was born in the town of Indán, Camarines Norte on 28 September 1910. He took up law at the University of the Philippines College of Law and placed third in the bar examinations of 1933. While in UP, he became a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi, the oldest Greek-letter organization and fraternity in Asia. He became president of the student council and editor-in-chief as well of the Philippine Collegian.

After graduation, Vinzons, along with Narciso J. Alegre and Arturo M. Tolentino (future senator and Vice President to strongman Ferdinand Marcos) founded the Young Philippines Party, a political party which actively campaigned for the independence of Filipinas against U.S. occupation. In 1934, after the passage of the Tydings–McDuffie Act which laid the groundwork for independence, Vinzons successfully sought election as a delegate representing his home province to the 1935 Constitutional Convention. At 24, he was the youngest delegate as well as the youngest signer of the 1935 Constitution.

In 1940, he was elected governor of his province. The following year, he successfully ran for election to the National Assembly (forerunner of today’s House of Representatives), representing the lone district of Camarines Norte. His service in the legislature, however, was short-lived due to the Japanese invasion of Filipinas in December 1941.

He founded and led the Vinzons Guerrillas, the first resistance group to fight the Japanese invaders. Their first battle with the enemy happened in Barrio Lanitón in nearby Basud, Camarines Norte. At its peak, this group’s membership ballooned to almost 3,000 which included Aetas who used poisoned arrows in their skirmishes against the IJA. This group was even able to liberate the provincial capital of Dáet from the Japanese. During the early months of the war, the Vinzons Guerrillas were able to kill around 3,000 IJA troops, prompting the enemy to make him one of their primary targets.

After the fall of Bataán and Corregidor, more IJA troops poured in into the country, compelling Vinzons to disperse his troops into smaller guerrilla units using the forest mountains of the Bícol region for their hideout. Vinzons was eventually captured by the enemy on 8 July 1942. He was brought to Daét where he was killed with family members after refusing to swear allegiance to the Japanese flag. According to reports, Major Tsuneoka Noburo stabbed Vinzon’s belly with a bayonet while Corporal Kuzumi Taiku hit him hard with a rifle butt at the back of the head. He was only 31 years of age, a very young martyr.

Vinzons Hall (photo: Tito Encarnación).

Vinzons Hall in UP Dilimán was named after him. The name of his hometown was also changed from Indán to Vinzons (now a 3rd class municipality) to honor his memory. In 2016, on the occasion of his 106th birth anniversary, the 17th Congress of the Philippines passed a resolution to extol his heroism and virtues during World War II.

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