FVR, Erap and Macoy on the way to the ladies’ room in Washington DC

A friend who visited our Philippine Embassy on 1600 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington DC was shocked at what she saw there. As usual, the portraits of our past Presidents were hung on the walls of the Embassy – but what a strange grouping it turned out to be.

There was wall space aplenty elsewhere in the second storey where the Presidential portraits were, but somebody had placed the picture of former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada right next to the door of the Ladies’ toilet. Next to Erap was hung the portrait of President Fidel V. Ramos. On the opposite wall, directly facing the Ladies’ Room was the portrait of Ferdinand E. Marcos. What did the three Chief Executives have in common with regard to the ladies? I mean Ladies’ Room.

Sedately farther down the hall was the portrait of RM – Ramon Magsaysay. On the wall just beside the door of the Ambassador’s Office were the portraits of ex-President Cory C. Aquino and the reigning Emperadora, GMA.

When the acting Ambassador (Charge d’Affaires) was asked about it, he shrugged and said it was probably the work of a previous Ambassador. Was it immediate-past Ambassador Alberto del Rosario who set up the arrangement of the "hanging"? Or somebody else? If somebody wanted to make a statement, grouping Erap, FVR and Macoy around the entrance to the women’s toilet was, I might say, unbecoming.

Ambassador Willy Gaa ought to set things right ASAP, otherwise visitors to our Embassy there would either titter maliciously, or wax indignant. Whatever their records, past Presidents might risk going to jail, but they ought to be treated with respect.

Incidentally, although almost everybody knows – pending the formal announcement by the President – that Gaa will be designated our next Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary (how does the protocol go?) to the United States of America, Gaa has modestly occupied the room of the Charge d'Affaires, leaving the Ambassador’s room vacant.

Since the President announced last night the formal appointment of Gaa as ambassador to the United States, he can move into that room.

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It was heartwarming to know that yesterday, in Laoag City, a true Filipino hero was honored with an Ablan Day celebration and the unveiling of his statue. Monuments, however, are barren testimonials. What made Ilocos Norte’s Governor Roque Ablan Sr. a hero was his decision to valiantly fight on when most of the Philippines – with Bataan fallen – had already surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Army.

Ablan was 31 when he was elected governor of Ilocos Norte in 1937, marking him then as the youngest provincial executive of his time. (He held that record until Ninoy Aquino came along to become, postwar, the governor of Tarlac).

Ablan was a visionary. Born in Laoag on August 9, 1906, the young Ablan worked his way through school, employed as a helper in a lumberyard. This defrayed his tuition and other expenses all through elementary and later high school. Still a working student, he enrolled in the University of the Philippines in Manila, editing the Philippine Collegian and Philippinesian, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1929, then his law degree in 1930. Taking the Bar exams, he placed 9th.

As a young lawyer, he gave priority to poor clients: most of the cases he handled were related to labor disputes. On June 27, 1931, he married Manuela Ravelo, a teacher from Batac. A year later, on 22 April, she gave birth to their only child, now Congressman Roquito Ablan Jr. (I cadged all these facts from an article written by Carminda R. Arevalo, Supervising History Researcher of the National Historical Institute.)

Ablan’s period of outstanding courage and heroism was still to come. As governor of Ilocos Norte, Ablan established the Ilocos Norte provincial hospital. He also made sure of the establishment of a Philippine Normal School to train teachers to be fielded to improve the education of the youth of his and other Ilocano provinces. He beautified the provincial capital. In any event, he was handily reelected to a second term in 1941.

His world was soon turned upside down. Two days after their bombing of Pearl Harbor – on December 10, 1941 – Japanese troops belonging to the invasion force of Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma landed in Vigan (Ilocos Sur), then proceeded north to Laoag in Ilocos Norte. To avoid arrest, Governor Ablan left his provincial capital and transferred his "government" to a remote barrio near the boundary of Ilocos Norte and Apayao. He decided to organize a resistance movement. In mid-January 1941, Ablan met with Lt. Feliciano Madamba, whose 11th Infantry had been routed by the Japanese in La Union and Pangasinan. He teamed up with that USAFFE officer to organize the Ablan-Madamba Guerrilla Group of Northern Luzon. Remnants of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), reservists and other volunteers joined that resistance unit.

On January 27, 1942, the group staged their first ambush of a Japanese detachment in Solsona town, killing 60 Japanese soldiers. In retaliation, the Japanese burned down the homes of Solsona’s most prominent families the following day.

Resolving that he needed to contact Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon who had been whisked off from Corregidor by General Douglas MacArthur then brought to Washington DC to form a government in exile. Ablan hiked through the mountains for five days in March to enlist the help of Capt. Ralph Praeger who was operating an underground radio transmitter in Apayao. On March 10, he contacted Quezon, to whom he reported that "despite the occupation of Laoag and San Nicholas, Ilocos Norte, our government is still functioning and our people have not given up their allegiance to your leadership and to the Philippine Government and the United States. Every day the hatred of our people against the Japanese becomes more intense, as they rob our homes, destroy our property, kill civilians and rape our women."

In a subsequent communication, Governor Ablan requested Quezon to send him P100,000 to pay the employees and keep the underground government going. Quezon said that transmission of money was next to impossible, so he authorized the Governor to issue emergency notes. Hearing about their exiled President’s instructions raised the morale of the underground workers and resistance fighters.

Ablan reorganized the province into several sectors each of them under a designated guerrilla leader. For instance, Lt. Isabelo Monje was given charge of operations in Batac (incidentally, Marcos’ hometown), Paoay and Currimao. Vicente Cajigal was assigned the towns of Badoc, Pinili and Nueva Era. Juan Albano was named Deputy Governor, Lt. Madamba Executive Officer and Primo Lazaro and Damaso Samonte were named chiefs of the intelligence corps. Capt. Pedro Alviar was put in charge of counter-intelligence. A relay system of "runners" was set up to disseminate "news" and dispatch orders to the various sectors, linking municipalities with scattered guerrilla camps.

Ablan cheekily dubbed his own headquarters: "Malacañang of the North."

Ablan’s guerrillas fought hit-and-run battles with the Japanese Army, now under the command of Colonel Watanabe who had established his HQ in Laoag. Imperial troops hunted for Ablan and his men. Airplanes dropped leaflets calling on Ablan and his "bandits" to surrender. A series of raids on his guerrilla encampments by the Japanese inflicted heavy losses on the guerrillas, but Ablan continually evaded capture. The enemy tried "persuasion" to no avail.

On November 8, 1942, Ablan engineered his most successful raid, hitting the Japanese at Pampanniki, Solsona, killing or wounding 200 Japanese.

The last time he was seen by his family was on December 10, 1941, when he left for Cagayan to meet with Governor Marcelo Adduru.

"How I hate myself for having only one life to give for our country . . . But don’t cry," he told his wife and family. "I will be back when liberty returns to our people." He never came back to them.

Indeed, he went on fighting, and was last seen at the battle of Bumitalag, Piddig (Ilocos Norte) on February 5, 1943. He was slain there – or captured by the Japanese and executed? Nobody knows.

Belatedly, the Ablan-Madamba group was recognized by General MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area Command. Big Mac sent the submarine USS Stingray to deliver arms and supplies to his resistance group in August 1944, but Ablan was nowhere to be found. But his memory will live forever.

Madamba himself was reported killed by the Japanese.

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Someday the entire story of the Ilocano resistance movement will be told. For Ablan fought like a tiger for our country – as did many other Ilocanos.

Elsewhere, in the Ilocos provinces the United States Armed Forces in the Philippines (USAFIP-Northern Luzon) was organized, with two American officers playing a major role, Major Barnett and Captain O’Day. Our own unit was the 121st Infantry, USAFIP-NL.

The USAFIP-NL mobilized several combat regiments, like the 15th Infantry which fought the Japanese in large action encounters and finally confronted them in the Tangadan caves on the way to Abra. Another unit of the USAFIP-NL cornered Japanese Commanding General Tomoyuki Yamashita in the mountains, but he insisted on surrendering to an American officer. Down in the USAFIP-NL headquarters in Camp Spencer, Darigayos, Luna (La Union) in the final stage of the war, Yamashita was sent off with a kick in the rear by one over-angry officer.

The 121st Infantry regiment under Major Conrado Rigor fought the final, most famous battle – the battle of Bessang Pass in the mountains near Cervantes, Ilocos Sur. Among the most notable – I don’t mean to slight the other brave officers and men by neglecting to mention them –in the 121st was Capt. Desiderio Jurado (who had been my high school professor), Desi valiantly led one charge after another up the hill while the Japanese belonging to the Toba Division were rolling hand-grenades down the hill, and firing fiercely at our advancing lines from their entrenched positions in the fortified caves above. (Desi was to become an Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals a few years before he died). Another officer of the unit was then Lt. Willy Jurado. Both are brothers of MOPC Vice-President and Manila Standard Today Columnist, my cousin Emil Jurado.

Another gallant officer who distinguished himself was 1st Lt. Avelino Battad, another cousin. He and his men, too, rushed fearlessly up that murderous mountain under a hail of bullets and mortar rounds. (Manong Avelino rose to colonel before he died – one of our authentic, totally admirable heroes. He had fought in Bataan, then joined the underground when he got home to Ilocos Sur. He wrote his "memoirs," and I hope his family, when they read this will give me a copy of it, for I read the manuscript and found it compelling history in the raw. God bless you, Manong Aveling for your gallant heart and true! He should have received the Medal of Valor).

The 121st routed the Toba Division and captured the caves above Bessang Pass, the only outstanding, full-action Filipino victory over the Japanese Army in World War II. My soul rejoices and overflows with pride, when I remember the fighting 121st.!

The Ilocano nation did its part in our struggle for freedom.