Igorot documentary captures ‘battle among the clouds’

Igorot documentary captures ‘battle among the clouds’
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer
Last updated 02:56am (Mla time) 08/22/2007

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – They often tell of their trials and triumphs during World War II over cups of native coffee or tapuy (rice wine) at social gatherings. But old Igorot soldiers of World War II are not just fading away; they are also dying and their heirs worry that nobody is left to tell their stories.

Fortunately for the veterans, some of their grandchildren, anxious that such part of Benguet’s historic gem will be forgotten altogether, have thought of documenting in film their grandfathers’ stories of valor, courage and sacrifice.

The premier showing of the first documentary about Igorot war veterans was the highlight of a series of activities honoring Benguet’s World War II heroes on Aug. 15, the day the province was liberated from the Japanese Imperial Army 62 years ago.

Thanks to the initiatives of ResearchMate, a local research group, and the Outstanding Students of the Cordillera Administrative Region (Oscar) Alumni Community Inc., which produced the documentary, Aug. 15 from now on may yet be institutionalized as an important Benguet historic holiday.

Many members and associates of ResearchMate and Oscar are either children or grandchildren of World War II veterans. Their common interest in local history finally led them to embark on a film project about their forebears’ heroism even with a shoestring budget.

The 45-minute “Our Igorot Fathers, the Heroes: The Untold Story of the 66th Infantry Regiment, USAFIP-NL” chronicles how, six months after the fall of Bataan in April 1942, Igorot soldiers returned to Benguet to help build the resistance movement until the Japanese finally surrendered in 1945.

The film seeks to tell more comprehensively what used to be vignettes of the whole story of the Igorot resistance against the Japanese Imperial Army in the last war.

Turning north towards Benguet and other parts of the Cordillera was the wisest decision for the resistance movement after the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942. For one, the rugged and forested terrain of the mountain region was ideal for guerrilla warfare.

The other reason, which the film also noted, is that Benguet and the other mountain provinces had self-sufficient sweet potato and upland rice-producing communities to support the guerrillas in hiding.

Battle trails

In making the documentary “we had to follow and visit the trails of actual battles, which still have traces of foxholes, as we interviewed surviving veterans and reenacted encounters (between the Japanese and Igorot guerrillas),” says Betty Lestino of ResearchMate.

The filmmakers visited actual battle sites in the towns of Sablan, Tuba, La Trinidad, Bokod, Kabayan, Buguias, Mankayan and Kapangan.

“In the process, we were able to collect bomb and ammunition shells and other war gear, which we plan to put in a museum,” says Lestino.

To reenact the battles, the filmmakers had to employ 35 volunteer talents from Benguet and Mt. Province, who underwent a weeklong military training under the La Trinidad police and a consultant from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The 66th Infantry

Given the filmmakers’ meager budget, which they solicited from the Benguet provincial government and other donors, the documentary may not have the perfect simulation of war battles shown in well-funded movies.

But the documentary sufficiently shows how the 66th Infantry Regiment of the USAFIP-NL (United States Armed Forces in the Philippines-Northern Luzon) liberated Baguio City and Benguet.

Composed mostly of soldiers from Benguet and Mt. Province, the 66th Infantry had to face a well-entrenched and battle-tested enemy.

When the USAFIP-NL set its D-Day on Jan. 4, 1945, the Japanese had already established strategic defense lines in Benguet, which they had practically controlled since after the war broke in 1941.

The Japanese had controlled Naguilian and Kennon roads, the Mountain Trail (now Halsema Highway), and the gold and copper-rich Lepanto area.

But there was no stopping the 66th Infantry, which was attached to the US Sixth Army Division. The Igorot soldiers launched their assault along the Japanese’s Rosario-Damortis line of defense so they could approach Baguio City through Naguilian and Kennon roads.

Simultaneous assaults

The infantry’s simultaneous assaults against the Japanese in these two main roads finally liberated Sablan on April 10 and Tuba on April 26. All these led to more assaults that finally liberated Baguio City on April 27 and La Trinidad on May 3.

In June 1945, the USAFIP-NL mother unit ushered in the 66th Infantry to reinforce the 121st and 15th Infantry in a battle with the Japanese at Bessang Pass, Ilocos Sur.

The 66th Infantry was again assigned for combat operations in the Tagudin to Cervantes Highway at the right flank of Bessang Pass.

On June 14, after more than five months of armed clashes at and around Bessang Pass, where almost all soldiers of the 121st Infantry were killed, this “bloody and decisive battle among the clouds” (as a war chronicle described it) was finally won, “swinging open Yamashita’s western door.”

After the battles at Bessang Pass, all units of the USAFIP-NL continued their assault into the Mt. Province (at that time Mt. Province comprised what is now the provinces of the Cordillera).

For its part, the 66th Infantry tested its mettle in the villages of Comillas and Lepanto in Mankayan up to Abatan and Loo Valley in Buguias town. Here the 66th Infantry, after launching its assault on June 17, 1945, faced the regular and battle-tested 19th Division, also called the Tora Division, of the Japanese army numbering about 2,000 troops.

After 27 days of fierce fighting, Lepanto in Mankayan was finally liberated on July 20, eliminating what the film noted was “one of the best fortified enemy positions in Northern Luzon, nay, the whole Southwest Pacific area.”

From Lepanto and Mankayan, the 66th Infantry pursued the enemy to Abatan in Buguias, securing the area on July 27.

While the 66th Infantry was pursuing the remaining Japanese at Loo Valley on Aug. 15, Emperor Hirohito of Japan went on radio for the first time to order all Japanese to lay down their arms.

With this, USAFIP-NL commanding officer, Col. Russell W. Volckmann, issued a ceasefire order. Japan surrendered, and after five years of conflict Benguet was finally liberated on Aug. 15, 1945.

The documentary has helped remind Benguet’s officials to celebrate for the first time the province’s liberation anniversary.

“Benguet’s celebration of its Liberation Day serves as a reminder of the gallantry and sacrifices of our own local heroes,” says a flyer of ResearchMate and Oscar. “The trails (the 66th Infantry) left reflect the Igorots’ inherent bravery, love for family, and love for freedom.”

Singing the Blues under the Rain

After a two-month dry spell, the rains brought by two storms finally fell. The storms came shortly after Manila Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales encouraged his parish priests to lead their parishioners in praying for rain. The rest of us, particularly our Ilocano and Cagayan Valley brothers and sisters, have also been praying for rain for their parched farmlands.

As a result of typhoons Chedeng and Dodong, some lowland regions were flooded, forcing villagers to evacuate. But parts of northern Luzon, particularly Ilocandia and Cagayan Valley, reports say, need more rain so rice farmers can finally plow their fields and plant their seedlings. Other reports say water levels in our dams and reservoirs are still below minimum capacity.

This is the challenge: How can we distribute rain? How can we ensure that the torrents brought by typhoons fall on the parched rice fields of Ilocandia and Cagayan Valley rather than on flood-prone Manila and its adjoining towns? This can be a challenge for our science and technology department and science schools. And this certainly requires no emergency power, which Malacañang (the presidential palace) has claimed it needed to address the ensuing crisis brought about by the dry spell. The best that the presidential palace may yet have to do is to exercise its political will in helping mobilize the necessary human resources and funds to support initiatives addressing our water needs.

Other countries like India have proactive measures in addressing their water crisis. They, for example, have developed technologies that can harvest rain and water from fog. So during the dry months they have water to use at home and in their farms.

The idea of harvesting rain is putting to good use what Nature freely provides. My German neighbor, a retired NATO personnel married to a Filipina, can teach us a lesson or two in maximizing one of Nature’s important gifts. He has built at his yard an underground water reservoir designed to collect water from his house’s roof. Through an electric pump, the collected water is pumped into the kitchen and bathrooms. The collected rain water supplements an electric generator-run deep well water system.

Like other cities, Baguio is actually wasting plenty of rain water. Nature has so designed our land in such a way that when it rains these free universal solvent should be caught in our catch-basins or valleys and plateaus. Through our catch-basins rain water percolates underground, finding its way through our aquifers and into our springs. (An aquifer is an underground bed or layer of earth, gravel, or porous stone that yields water.)

But with so much cement covering wide swaths of our lands in Baguio not all rain water percolates underground to supply our aquifers. This is simply because almost every square inch of Baguio is cement. Every square meter of cement-covered land deprives every cubic meter of rain water from percolating into the ground. Since rain water no longer percolates into our grounds, what we have during the rainy season is water runoff that floods our drainage, creeks and City Camp Lagoon. This runoff ends up causing soil erosion and landslides, resulting in damage to human lives and property.

One challenge for the city government is to protect whatever has remained of its vital catch-basins. Maybe the city government, with the help of the environment and natural resources department and barangay (village) officials, can start identifying whatever remaining watersheds or catch-basins at the barangay level. And the barangay governments that can really protect and sustain (through proper reforestation and barring squatting) identified catch-basins and watersheds can be given some kind of incentives.

Water, not oil, is seen as the bone of conflict in the future. So it’s time to start looking for ways to put to maximum use the rains that come to us in abundance during the typhoon season. Otherwise, we’ll just end up singing the blues under the rain.

Planting Trees

One has succeeded in life, says a Chinese adage, if he has climbed mountains, written a book, planted trees and has sired a son.

Climbing mountains, however, does not necessarily and literally refer to Mounts Pulag or Everest. But of course, it’s a great bonus if we conquered even some less popular mountain peaks within our lifetime. Mountains could also refer to big obstacles in life such as dilemmas and other psychological, emotional and spiritual battles, in which we emerged victorious even if we stumbled along the way.

Writing a book has long been part of Chinese civilization. Whether they used to write on a roll of sliced bamboos or on a scroll of paper, the Chinese have long valued writing down knowledge and ancient wisdom to be passed on to future generations.

And why is planting trees included in the Chinese proverb? Trees have to be felled to produce paper for one’s book. So it’s just proper that one should replenish the trees that were used to produce his book.

Fathering a son, if not a daughter, has something to do with the continuity of the human race.

But let’s zero in on planting trees. The rains, although irregular until this writing, have come and it’s the right time to plant those seedlings. Before we know it, it’s going to be summer again and trying to plant seedlings for photo opportunities won’t do our environment any good.

Planting materials is no problem. One can ask seedlings from the environment and natural resources department.

If you wish to plant Benguet Arabica coffee, you can look around for seedlings growing randomly under the shade of mother trees in a neighbor’s yard. Some few Arabica coffee plants in our backyard, which now heave with green beans, actually came from a neighbor’s backyard in my hometown of Kibungan.

Or better yet – produce your own seedlings. Some of the fruits that you buy from the market such as jackfruit and star apple have plenty of seeds, which can easily germinate. Just put some soil even into recycled plastic bags or tetra-pack juice containers and the seed shoots are eager to break free from the good brown earth to embrace the sunshine.

If you sowed the seeds of the jackfruit you ate six months ago, you already have some seedlings to plant this rainy season. It’s a pity if these seeds would just end up at the garbage dump in Irisan. Mother Nature has designed that every tree or plant must be propagated through their seeds, if not through cuttings or tubers, in the same way that we humans continue to sire sons and daughters for the continuity of the human race.

Choking up our City

Our own perverted view of ourselves and of the world continues to choke up our city.

Take the case of my favorite neighbor. My neighbor, whom we can call Xman, has his own justification for building his junk shop beside a creek where all members of the neighborhood pass through to check their water pipes upstream.

“Look at Brookside (a village in Baguio), all houses and shops crowd both banks of the river,” Xman retorted, when reminded of a Department of Environment and Natural Resources policy, which bans any structures within six meters from a creek or river. He typifies the ‘everybody-is-doing-it-and-the-government-is-not-implementing-its-laws anyway’ disease, which has infected many of us. No wonder many of us have become incapable of making a positive dent in our community even in our own little way.

Xman could be credited for engaging in the business of buying and selling junk – from bottles, plastics and papers to scrap metal. He is actually helping recycle what would have ended up at a garbage dump, thus reducing wastes and maximizing resources.

But he built his junkshop at a place where it should not be. His junkshop is choking up the creek and has practically blocked the whole neighborhood members’ passage way to their water sources upstream. The whole neighborhood has been using the passage way for decades. But Xman and his family arrived in the neighborhood just two summers ago and started appropriating for themselves the community’s path way. Where in the world have you seen this? In our culture back home, we cannot just do this because of our culture of bain. Other cultures have their own hiya. But Xman seems to be lacking in this.

Xman began his junkshop business without first surveying where to properly put it. He and his family came to the neighborhood and made sure their presence was felt by making life inconvenient for their neighbors.

Xman also had a junked jeep, which has been permanently parked beside the public road a few meters from where he and his family now live. That space and part of his junkshop used to be where young boys in the neighborhood played basketball at a single basketball ring. The space also used to be where cab drivers would maneuver when they would bring passengers to our neighborhood. Xman appropriated all these spaces for himself.

Xman must be making good business because just recently he acquired a second-hand or third-hand pickup truck. The truck is now parked on one side of a bridge also not far from Xman’s home. When asked if he could do something so the truck wouldn’t obstruct traffic, he boastfully retorted: “Why are you complaining when you have no vehicle?”

His message is clear: those who have no vehicles in the neighborhood have no right to complain against Xman, who has appropriated again for himself another big chunk of a nearby bridge.

So how can you solve a problem like Xman? Frankly, I don’t know. You try to talk it out with him but you discover he and you have different wavelengths. His line of reasoning defies everything that is ethical. A Bayani Fernando in our village or in the city might know. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Bayani Fernando here.

Xman’s case is amusing. He typifies the person who has nary any sense of community or sensitivity to the rights of others. Parking his pickup truck and another junked jeep on a public road and expanding his junkshop beside the creek must be his way of flaunting what he has materially.

People from other provinces, including us, come to this city to seek livelihoods we cannot find back home. This city may not be the hometown of our birth so we may not have a close affinity to it. But this city is also our home. Home is where our family is. And since this city is our home, it is expected of us to help in our home’s good housekeeping.

But our experience with Xman and how some enterprising people have appropriated sidewalks for their vulcanizing or auto-mechanic shops and other businesses even at the heart of the city continue to show us that we no longer treat Baguio as our home. Apparently, we are treating the city like a lemon, which we can squeeze dry or a cow that we can milk to our hearts’ content without taking care of the lemon tree or the cow.

Such attitudinal or behavioral disease of people plus the apparent lack of political will of officials to implement laws are creating a disaster now choking up our city.