MALACAÑAN PALACE Manila May 16, 1970 The Mansion, Baguio 10:50 PM, Sunday May 17th I write this only tonight as the trip by boat last night was rough and I went to sleep at 11:00 PM. We started from Pier 15 at 8:15 and arrived at the San Fernando pier at 9:45 AM today. Outside..
Read moreAugust 1, 1945 Wednesday
Today has been declared a legal holiday to commemorate the death anniversary of Pres. Quezon. This is a very fitting tribute, Pres. Quezon will pass in history as the greatest man we have ever produced. Correctly, he can be called the father of the Philippines. He it was who was able to insure the independence..
Read moreJuly 6, 1945 Friday
Yulo continued to be very bitter against everybody. He has lost confidence in Osmeña and in Roxas in so far as our situation is concerned. As to MacArthur, he says MacArthur will do only what would be for his own convenience. He thinks Osmeña is useless. As to Roxas, he resented the fact that both..
Read moreApril 29, 1945
The Headquarters of General MacArthur announced today the entry of his troops in Baguio, after wiping out the Japanese defenses. It took the liberators four months at the cost of a great number of men and materials to scale the mountain, blow up machine gun nests, seal thousands of caves and exterminate their defenders, and..
Read moreApril 29, 1945 Sunday
It was 3 o'clock in the morning; the boat started to move. We could not see anything; it was pitch black. Destination unknown. In the dark, the events of the past days came back to me. We left Irisan, a town about six kilometers from Baguio on April 12, 1945 headed towards Agoo, an American-captured..
Read moreFebruary 25, 1945
Corregidor and Bataan of historic memories were taken with relative ease. History did not repeat itself. The small but epic peninsula was cleaned of Japanese by an American division which two weeks earlier had landed in Subic. Troops also landed on Corregidor from the air and from the sea in a simultaneous landing screened by..
Read moreJanuary 23, 1945
". . . and Sheridan only twenty miles away." So runs the old poem. If we had a poet in our midst, we might do a poem, somewhat like this: With detonations far and wide They dynamite the countryside. We rush to look, return to shiver, As our houses quake and quiver! Shooting, looting little..
Read moreDec. 28, 1944
In the broiling sun, on our mat rolls, we lay surrounded by straw bags, cloth bags, and jumbled possessions, a perspiring, tired, confused crowd. About two-thirty, they announced that trucks would be coming soon, but not as many as before so the trunks and heavy bags must be left by the road under guard till..
Read moreDec. 25, 1944
The dancing and general excitement of the day, not to mention the pitiful overeating (if one can call it that), was too much for Bede. As the last tune died away and he was sure he would not miss any more, he went tearing past us through the kitchen, sending word back by his sister..
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