Battle of the Sibuyan Sea

This may be a day late, but let me tell you that I was taken by surprise when I read last Monday’s (page 8) Special Section of The STAR, which featured the province of Romblon, specifically the 62nd anniversary of the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, which was part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Allow me to congratulate the people of Romblon for remembering this battle even if it happened 62 years ago on Oct. 23-25, 1945.

This battle started on Oct. 23, 1944 when Japanese Admiral Takeo Kurita of Center Force sailed from Brunei, passing through the western side of Palawan, where suddenly two US subs, Dace and Darter, torpedoed and sunk Kurita’s flagship — the heavy cruiser Atago and its sister ship Maya. That would have been the end, until Kurita was rescued from the sea and took over the super battleship Yamato, the biggest warships of World War II, which carried 18-inch guns compared to the US battleships’ 16-inch guns.

The next day, the Battle of Sibuyan Sea began when Kurita’s Center Force was spotted by a US plane and Vice Admiral Halsey F. "Bull" Halsey ordered an all-out attack against the Japanese ships. However, the Japanese had plans on their own, using land based fighter bombers, they bombed the Essex class carrier USS Princeton so badly, it had to be evacuated by the heavy cruiser USS Birmingham, which went alongside the stricken carrier. Then suddenly the magazine of the US carrier blew up, killing more than 200 sailors in the USS Princeton and another 200 from the USS Birmingham. The USS Princeton was damaged beyond repair and sunk by US warships.

While this was a great victory for Kurita, it was short lived. An hour later US planes from the USS Intrepid spotted the super battleship Musashi, the sister ship of the Yamato and sunk her with a total of 17 bombs and 10 torpedoes. A thousand men and crew perished with her as she went down the Sibuyan Sea. Kurita’s Center Force had taken too much hits, his flagship the Yamato also took a bomb, but survived. It was then that Kurita reversed course, while Vice Admiral Ozawa’s decoy force was found by Halsey, who then engaged Ozawa’s carriers.

That ended the Battle of Sibuyan Sea, but Kurita again reversed his course and passed through the San Bernardino Strait and right into the Northeastern side of Samar to continue with the Battle of Leyte Gulf. There are many other famous battleships that sunk in this famous battle, one of them the Hybrid half-carrier, half-battleship Fuso, which was torpedoed between Panaon Island and Dinagat Island.

How I wished that Southern Leyte or Surigao also did their own historical commemoration of the greatest Sea Battle in the world! There’s actually a lot more to read or to write about this historical event. I just hope that Romblon would identify the locations of these warships especially the Musashi...it would be of great interest to the US or Japanese tourists, including this armchair historian.

Who knows, maybe someday, Capt. Robert Ballard, who found the RMS Titanic, the German battleship Bismarck or the late US President John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 in the Solomons might just take time to look for the USS Princeton and the Musashi lying at the bottom of the Sibuyan Sea. Who knows, he might also find another historical ship, the M/V Doña Paz that also sunk off the Sibuyan Sea.

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Remember the highly controversial Carmen Bulk Water Project in northern Cebu hatched by the Ayala Stateland Consortium to supply the Metropolitan Cebu Water District with some 40,000 cubic meters of water that could have supplied water to another 30,000 households in the MCWD service area? Well, that deal seems to be in limbo, as MCWD no longer wants to reimburse the Ayala Consortium for their development cost.

MCWD had obviously acceded to the new players (who are mostly businessmen for funds and profit), who want to bid for this water without any hydrological test of any sort, relying completely on the fact that if they win the bid, the Ayala Stateland Consortium would have to give them that hydrological study for nothing! I already suggested to the Ayala Stateland Consortium that it would be best to get out of this deal. But would they?

Meanwhile, not all is lost for MCWD, thanks to our letter writer Mr. Ernesto Labuntog and his grand idea of how to get new water source. Here’s another letter from Mr. Labuntog.

"Dear Mr. Avila...You are cordially invited to witness a demonstration of my invention that would purify highly contaminated surface water, such as the Marikina River, into drinking in just one hour. The venue is 300 meters upstream of Marikina Bridge located in Barangay Sto. Niño (Skating Rink), Marikina City. The time is 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 27, 2006.

The invention is called "Portable Water Treatment Device" or Point-of-Use (P.O.U.) Water Purifier. This simple device has fewer parts that can purify low T.D.S., raw water source with high levels of contaminants expected in our rivers, lakes irrigation, runoff and floods. Product water of which has provision to fortify with iodine that will even surpass both the National and International Standards for drinking water. The technology is supported by ITDI-DOST and registered with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

Being 100 percent Filipino, it is inexpensive and spare parts are readily available locally. The estimated operating cost is only five centavos per liter or 75 centavos per 15 liters (higher if iodized). It is lightweight at 7.0 kg (volume: 1.9 cubic feet) and easy to use. No electricity is required to operate it, which makes it ideal to use in far-flung. It is also, ideal to use during calamities such as during typhoons and landslides.

It can, without doubt, help attain the UN Millennium Development Goal to provide safe drinking water to third world countries by year 2015. I hope this backyard inventor from Pasil would meet my favorite columnist from The STAR such as Max Soliven, Alex Magno, Federico Pascual, etc. Sincerely, Ernesto A. Labuntog, tel. 929-1292, cell 0917-667-2828."

Unfortunately, I won’t be in Manila at that time. I just hope that our reporters would take notice and go there and write a report.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns in the Freeman can also be accessed through The STAR website. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable at 8 p.m. Bobit’s columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com