Ugmok2

UGMOKA brief history of Ormoc

By Emil B. Justimbaste

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Chapter 1Jesuit Years...6Chapter 2The Augustinians ...16Chapter 3An Independent Parish...20Chapter 4Economy Grows...24Chapter 5Politics in the 1890s...28Chapter 6Dios-Dios in Ormoc...34Chapter 7Revolutionary Ferment...38Chapter 8Pulahan Rebellion...42Chapter 9Governance under the Americans...47Chapter 10Growth of the Sugar Industry...53Chapter 11Japanese Occupation...56Chapter 12Liberation...62

Table of Contents

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To my friends in the defunct Ormoc Historical Society who gave me the initial push to do this research;

To colleagues who provided references on certain periods of Ormoc’s history;

To Atty. Bingo Capahi who extended financial assistance in one of my trips to the National Archives in Manila;

To the Ormoc Festival and Cultural Foundation Inc. which also gave some financial assistance for one of my research trips to Cebu;

To my family for being patient with my working habits and all; and

To all those who think that the study of local history is im-portant,

I owe you all a debt of gratitude.

Acknowledgement

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I used to work as a journalist and do investigative pieces back in the ‘90s when I chanced on an article about Or-moc’s history. It appeared in one of the souvenir programs

that was published year after year. So I supposed that must have been happening ever since souvenir programs were pub-lished either by the city or the parish. People who read it, or most of those who read it anyway, must have assumed every-thing written in that brief historical account was Gospel truth.

But there was that glaring information tidbit that somehow struck a false chord: that Ormoc was a ‘barrio of Palompon.’ That started me thinking. Isabel, which is nearer to Palompon, was never known to be a barrio of Ormoc. Much less was Me-rida. But Ormoc, which is about 90 kilometers by the coastal road, a barrio of Palompon? That started me digging. First, I gathered all relevant historical materials about Ormoc, whether or not these were factual. They would be sorted out later and examined carefully. You’ll be surprised that a lot of these mate-rials are lying around waiting to be assembled.

In one of my trips to Manila, I would spend a day or two at the National Library and Archives to browse the books and ma-terials about Ormoc. At the Archives, a building beside the Na-tional Library, I was led inside a mezzanine floor where relevant archival materials are available for copying. The first index book given to me was “Erecciones de los Pueblos” (Founding of the towns). Each province has one of such books. Each town has a list of ‘founding documents’ that can be photo copied. One sim-ply has to indicate which of the documents one was interested in, and an assistant would do the copying.

This is where I learned that in 1839, Ormocanons wrote a petition to the governor general to be declared an independent parish since it had become temporarily a visita of Palompon, not a barrio. It was in 1850 when their petition was finally ap-proved. In the souvenir program, it was written Ormoc became a town in 1834. Where its writer got that information, I still can’t figure out. Earlier than that, in 1768, when the Jesuits left Ormoc, local officials were around to witness the turnover cer-emonies to the Augustinians. Meaning, even then Ormoc was already a pueblo.

Another interesting bundle at the Archives was ‘Elecciones de Gobernadorcillos’ (The election of gobernadorcillos), docu-ments related to the process of selecting local officials in the 1800s. I was able to gather documents related to the elections

Introduction

Ugmok6in 1891 and 1893. These are discussed lengthily in this book.

A third interesting bundle was the ‘Sediciones y Rebellones’ (Sedition and Rebellion) also in the 1890s. This is where I got all that information about Faustino Ablen’s arrest by the guardia civil.

In local history research, this research process never seems to end. There will always be data gaps and incomplete stories. Missing links, as it were. But one must know when to stop. Or rather decide when to say, “Enough.”

So at this point, I’d say enough, I’ve had my fill. Let oth-ers do the work of fleshing out the details. I have laid the basic groundwork. But a lot still needs to be done. To those who want to take up the challenge, I’d say, go ahead, guys. It’s your turn.

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No one knows exactly who were the first settlers of Ormoc or where they settled. But like most ancient civilizations, the Kaug-mocanos, as Fr. Ignacio Alcina called them, preferred living by the river banks and near the coast for practical reasons. They got

their drinking water from the river or from wells dug near the river and fished in their sea.

As to why Ormoc used to be called Ogmuc, local historians surmised that the first settlement was in a place that was depressed and shallow compared to its surroundings. Indeed, Ormoc’s geography is situated on the alluvial deposits of two rivers, Anilao and Malbasag, a soil rich with natural ingredients for food to grow in abundance.

The site was large enough to sustain a large settlement of several families, and their produce was sufficient to have surplus with which to trade with their Asian neighbors as indicated by relics dug by American archeologists in the early 1900s. According to Prof. Otley Beyer, ancient gold ornaments and ceramic pieces found here during excavations were proof of a well developed village that had trading activities with Asian neighbors long before contact with the Spanish explorers.

The ancients were not fond of name calling as much as westerners, although they had a system of identifying important sites with the pos-sessive term “kan”, like kan-tubo, kan-dahug, kan-bantug, kan-adieng or kan-alo. The collective term “Ogmuc” came much later, probably at the time of contact with the Spanish explorers who would write place names on their maps.

For sure, the name “Ogmuc” must have come into existence in 1571 when Miguel Lopez de Legaspi included the site as one of the places awarded to his encomiendero Fracisco de Quiros who was empowered to collect tributes in exchange for religious instruction. In Pigafetta’s account, nothing is mentioned of Ogmuc, even as Magellan, according to historian Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, was supposed to have anchored nearby on his way to Zebu, collecting food and plenty of water.

There is also no record of Augustinian friars coming ashore to baptize the natives during Legaspi’s time, most probably because there were so few of them. Apparently, the Augustinians preferred the more populous Zebu where they would build their church of stone. It was the Jesuits who

Chapter 1

The Jesuit Years

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came and stayed to preach, baptize and provide religious instruction. It was the Jesuit Fr. Pedro Chirino who first wrote

about the flourishing mission of Ogmuc in his great opus, Relacion de las Islas

Filipinas, published in 1604.

The third missionIn the island of Leyte, Ogmuc

was the third Jesuit mission, the first two being Carigara and

Du- lag. They arrived in May 1597. Its first two missionaries, Frs. Alonso Rodri-guez and Leonardo Scelsi, discovered to their pleas-ant surprise that the people were gentle and kind. They were in fact welcomed by a local chief who at once made arrangements for his baptism. He had the prayers written down so that he might learn them.

The other chiefs followed his example, copying the prayers on bam-boo strips that they used as paper. Moreover they offered all their chil-dren to be taught about the new religion, and the Jesuits built a school for them as they did in Dulag.

In the experience of the first Jesuit missionaries, Children made bet-ter converts, who later became the bridge to the more recalcitrant adults. Some of the youngest among them were exceedingly bright. They, who were scarcely able to move the heavy missal, served the mass “with grace and address,” but they were most impressive during the Holy Week. “It was a touching sight to see all the children disciplining themselves with scourges which they themselves had made for that day,” said Fr. Chirino.

On Easter Sunday, when some Spaniards visited the mission, they “augmented the solemnity of the occasion with salvos from their arque-buses.” Couples who had been living in discord accordingly attained peace and harmony in their relationships. Likewise, some abuses like usury and the resulting enslavement of those who could not pay were corrected.

Children of the early Kaogmucanos also helped the missionary priests in catechizing and instructing their elders and in preparing them, and even urging them, to receive baptism. An example is given of a four-year old child, who seeing his father somewhat lukewarm, urged and incited him with such energy that he aroused the father and caused him to entreat the Jesuits urgently for baptism.

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Another child found himself among some unbaptized natives who were eating meat on a Friday and, without thinking that it was wrong, began to eat with them. But on taking the first mouthful, he remembered that it was a Friday. So he spat it out and ran to the missionary to confess. The missionary reassured him and sent him away consoled. The priest was impressed that so young a child, and only recently baptized at that, would have such a Christian faith.

Converting the natives into Christians did not seem to be much of a problem to the early Jesuit fathers, although there were some exceptions, like the case of one chieftain who had three wives. Having several wives was customary especially for the datus in the Visayan islands. The prob-

Ugmok10lem with this particular datu however was that his wives were like himself of high rank.

The thought of renouncing two of them was painful to him. He would lose the dowry which given by his other two wives. The Jesuit mis-sionary saw his predicament, and was greatly concerned lest this man, for a slight temporal interest, might lose eternal gain. He formed a plan, and went to talk with the woman who was most beloved by the man, hoping to persuade her to receive baptism. Much persuasion, however, was not necessary for she herself desired it, and expressed herself to that effect- adding that, even though it should displease her husband, she would begin the task. Instead of returning to his house, she would go directly to that of a Christian woman, who should instruct and prepare her for baptism.

The woman expressed these sentiments not only to the missionary, but even to her husband, before many other persons. As she said, so she acted. Her solemn baptism was celebrated with many feasts, dances and rejoicings. The husband seeing this, put away the other two wives, giving them the amounts of their dowry; received baptism and was married in a Christian fashion. On the feast day of the resurrection of Christ, the Jesuits celebrated the baptism of this man and 11 oth-er chiefs, who were also baptized amid great festivities and rejoicing, and with many people attending.

The Jesuits noted that those who were baptized have known for many years matters of the Catholic faith judging by their knowledge of its mysteries. They could have been visited by the Augustinians earlier. They highly valued the confessional, and when they became sick, they clamored at once for the missionary and found relief in making their confession.

One sick native said that he always thought of a priest every day and night because he wanted to confess. But since the priest was not around, his relatives wanted to take him to another mission, but they failed to lo-cate a priest. The man did not want to die without confessing. Fortunately for him, the priest arrived and he was able to confess. After that he was so glad that he wept and never stopped to give thanks to the Lord that he had permitted the missionary to arrive at such a time. He then declared that that he could die consoled, now that he had made his confession.

In time, the Jesuits were able to develop the so-called ratio estudio-rum or pedagogical code in the teaching of catechism to children. Ac-cording to the Jesuits pioneers, it was here in Ogmuc where the code was

Ugmok 11crafted and later adopted in other missions. They divided the catechism course into several grades. Each grade had to learn part of the catechism, progressively more difficult, and pass an examination on it before going on to the next grade.

The natives wrote down what they were taught in their own language and scripts and took the bamboo home with them to study. The class pro-cedure was, first, to take the lesson down from dictation, then to repeat it orally, and then to commit it to memory. After the memory period, the bamboo strips were laid aside and the lesson was recited, either individu-ally or in unison. Finally a discussion period was devoted to getting the natives to put the lesson in their own words by answering the question on it.

Conditions in the island

Notwithstanding their successes in evangelizing the Kaogmucanos, the Jesuit missionaries had to bear with the harsh physical environment in Ogmuc and other places in the island. The head of the local Jesuit com-munity who been responsible for assigning the missionaries in the island, Fr. Diego Garcia, wrote of such conditions to the Jesuit superior General Fr. Claudio Aquaviva in Rome.

He said:“The climate of the land is excessively hot and oppressive.

Mosquitoes and poisonous vermin abound’ snakes as thick as a good sized beam; vipers which, though small, are so poisonous that few survive their sting; a great many crocodiles, here called cayman or buaya, which in some of the missions devour quite a number of peo-ple. Travel is mostly by water, with the usual attendant perils. Where we can go by land, it must be on foot, because up to now there are no mounts to be had in the Visayan islands. Even if there were, the roads are so steep in places that there is no going on horseback; one must clamber. Where the ground is level the mire is so deep, especially during rainy season, which is the greater part of the year, that horses would simply get stuck without being able to move. In fact, our mis-sionaries must do their traveling not only on foot but barefoot.”Adding to these miserable conditions was the small stipend given to

the missionaries. The 16 Jesuits assigned here had no other means of sup-port except the 800 pesos and 800 fanegas of rice given them as their an-nual stipend by the encomenderos. According to the policy of the Society, they accepted no fees whatever for masses, marriages and burials. Out of

Ugmok12this income, they had to manage to feed and clothe themselves, build and furnish their houses, pay and feed the bearers and rowers when they went forth on their missionary expeditions, and support the dozen or so boys who lived with them in each house and were being trained as catechists.

Changes in priests’ assignments

Practical considerations prompted the Jesuit superior Fr. Diego Gar-cia to reassign the missionaries in fewer houses, with some of their earlier missions being turned into “visitas” which they would regularly visit. In the first week of January 1600, he summoned all missionaries of Leyte and Samar to a conference at Palo and 26 attended. It lasted for almost a month. He questioned the wisdom of assigning Jesuits in groups of two or three to isolated mission stations, thus depriving them of the safeguards and incentives of community life.

He told the assembly that he was inclined to withdraw the missionar-ies in existing stations to a few central residences, each of which should consist of not less than six members. The directive was approved by those present at the conference. Dulag and Palo merged at Dulag, with Fran-cisco de Otazo as superior. Carigara, Alang-alang and Ogmuc reduced to one residence at Alang-alang with a community of four priests and four brothers.

He also ordained that the missionaries of each residence should tour the district assigned to them in pairs, spending several days in each town or village to instruct the people and administer the sacraments and returning at the end of their tour while another pair went out.

However, Ogmuc was made an exception. Because of its distance, it was to be administered by a priest and a brother in permanent residence, who were to be relieved from Alangalang ever three or four months. That year, the priests in Ogmuc had baptized 646 natives out of a population of more than 4,000, covering two other neighboring pueblos.

Pirates from Mindanao

Barely eight years after the Jesuits started their evangelization pro-gram, in 1605, native warriors from at least three tribal groups from the island of Mindanao started to pillage the thriving Ogmuc settlement. To them, slave trading in neighboring Borneo had become a profitable enterprise. A rich source of slaves was the Visayan islands whose datus had submitted themselves to Spanish rule. First to come were the Karagas

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(Caragans) who were not Muslims at all.The Karagas, who professed themselves to be owners and lords of the

seas, carried out on the Island of Puro “the most criminal acts that one can imagine.” Then they proceeded to Ogmuc after they were through with Baybay and other coastal towns which they left devastated.

The Kaugmukanos were quick and that was to their great advantage. Still their efforts were useless to counteract the enemy’s barbarism. The Karagas took 90 captives and they left the fields splattered with human flesh and cadavers.

Father Cristobal Jimenez, the Jesuit who ministered here, was earlier warned by a one of the residents that the raiders were on the fringes of Baybay. So accompanied by a lay-brother of the Society of Jesus, they headed for the forest with a good number of newly baptized natives who went along. They remained there for three days, barely surviving only on wild fruits.

The next attack came in 1608, this time, by the Sanguils. They came in ships like the Karagans, passing the strait of Panao(n) island at a time when the sea current was favorable for passage commonly known to sail-ors as tuig. The Sanguils first attacked the settlement of Ogmuc, plunder-ing and destroying it

From here, they proceeded to Carigara which was being erected at that time as a cabecera for Leyte. Fortunately, most of the church furnish-ings, sacred vessels of the Fathers, their personal belongings and furniture of the house had already been transferred.

Ugmok14Finally, in 1634, the third group of marauders from Mindanao, the

Maguindanaos. organized an expedition headed by a young sultan named Cachil Korralat, with 22 vessels and some 1,500 fighting men.

Unchallenged, they roamed the southern Visayas, plundering and taking prisoners where they would. Dapitan, Zamboanga was wasted first; then Maribojoc and Inabangan on the south coast of Bohol; then Cabalian and Sogod in southern Leyte. Finally, on the west coast of the latter island, Baybay and Ogmuc.

They attacked Ogmuc on December 4, 1634. The Jesuits here, fol-lowing the lead of Melchor de Vera at Carigara, had started to fortify the town, but only a small stockade of wood near the church had been completed. While the townspeople fled, 50 warriors made a stand in this stockade and the adjoining church. With them was the resident mission-ary Fr. Juan del Carpio.

The enemy was determined in exterminating the defenders. They started a fire near the fort where there was deposited a good quantity of rice and abaka, which created a lot of smoke against the defenders in the baluarte where some children suffocated. Then they decided to surrender to the enemy in view of the impossibility of continuing the resistance.

The Magindanaus took the church at their first onslaught, penned the defenders in the stockade, and set fire to it. Tormented by the heat and smoke, the gallant little garrison surrendered. The visitors immediately began to divide them up as prizes; but when they came to Fr. Carpio, a dispute arose as to whose he should be. The quarrel was laid before the commander, who chose the quickest way to end it. He ordered the Jesuit put to death. As soon as he heard his doom, Carpio knelt to pray, and praying thus received the blow of the kampilan.

Father Alzina, in his triennial Report Concerning the Bisayan Mis-sions where he was Vice-Provincial of the Jesuits, has a note concerning the death of Father Carpio.

“...Father Juan del Carpio, an elderly minister and a coadjutor formado, was killed by a Mindanaoan in the town of Ogmuc, Leyte; he was cut down to pieces with a kampilan, which is a weapon in the manner of a Turkish cutlass. And when they killed the father they burned the house, which also served as a little fortress of stone and which had more than 80 persons; and captured many of the towns-people and laid everything to waste..”

Jesuit Expulsion

Ugmok 15The vaunted success of the Jesuits in the conversion of natives to

Catholicism did not in any way deter the Spanish crown from expelling them from the Spanish colonies. Ever since they started speaking against the abuses of the Spanish authorities and the encomenderos, the Jesuits were marked.

Finally, on the morning of May 19, 1768, after 187 years, Jesuit mis-sionary work in the Philippine Islands was finished. The Pragmatic Sanc-tion of Charles III was put into effect and 148 Jesuits were prepared for the long return voyage to Europe and exile from the King’s domains.

The earlier accusations leveled against them, from the Spanish crown’s point of view, were serious enough to expel them from Spanish territories and colonies. They were charged that they preached against the government and that the Jesuit Provincial had maintained illicit commu-nication with the English general during their occupation of Manila.

These charges were by no means the deciding reasons for their expulsion. The decision to do so was based upon a different set of circum-stances. That they had preached against government abuses in the colo-nies, particularly those perpetrated against the natives, were clear enough. In fact, it was not just the Jesuits who used the pulpit to criticize Spanish civilian authorities. Other orders did as well.

But the last straw seemed to be the sermons preached in Manila in 1765 by the Jesuit, Fr. Francisco Puig. These were a series of Lenten tirades delivered in the church attached to the Colegio de Manila. It was just a matter of time before these reached the royal ears in Spain.

A few months after the expulsion orders were signed, a commander of the royal navy, Don Pablo Verdote, took charge of rounding up the Jesuits in Leyte and conveying them to Manila. The first residencia to be closed was that of Ogmuc. In his report describing the turnover, he wrote:

“On October 4, I sailed the transport under my command into Ogmuc Bay. On the 5th, I went ashore at the town of Ogmuc. I had with me the Reverend Father Fray Francisco Martinez of the Order of St. Agustin. Upon reaching the residence of the reverend father missionary of the town, I sent for the petty governor, his officials and the principal citizens. When they were all assembled in the house in the presence of the said Jesuit father, I read to them the decree of the King our lord and caused it to be translated in their language. Their unanimous reply was that they obeyed and accepted the royal orders of His Majesty. I then proceeded to make an inventory of the gold and silver vessels and the arms belonging to the church of the said town in the presence of the above-mentioned persons, who have af-

Ugmok16fixed their signatures below.”

Fr. Luis Secanell, the last Jesuit priest here in 1768 , left with the boat.

The following is a partial list of Jesuits assigned here from 1713 to 1754 researched by Fr. Cantius Kobak in the Jesuits archives in Rome:

Under the cabecera of Carigara P. Michael del Pozo, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1713 P. Joannes de Eguia, S.J. at Baybay and Ugmok, 1716 P. Josephus Grimaltos, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1717 P. Antonius Rodriguez, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1718 P. Franciscus Lobo, S.J. at Ugmok and baybay, 1726-29 P. Josephus Labrada. S.J. at Palumpong and Ugmok, 1734 P. Emmanuel Catarroja, S.J. at Palumpong and Ugmok, 1735 P. Hieronimus de Mendoza, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1736 P. Joannes Medice, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1838 P. Paschalis Torrubia, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1739 P. Franciscus Pectel, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1743 Under the newly established cabecera of Hilungos P. Joanes Baptista Lena, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1748 P. Joannes Blessa, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1751-53 P. Franciscus Salvo, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay, 1754 P. Joannes Baptista Puego, S.J. at Ugmok and Baybay

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The settlement had not changed much during the 172 years under

Jesuit tutelage. True, many Kaogmucanos had em-braced Catholicism and its practices, and a lot of them had become devotees of the faith. But there was little change in their way of life. They were still averse to living in the town.

The Augustinian Fr. Agustin Maria de Castro was profuse with complaints about their new mission, saying it was “much distempered by the heat.” The winds were strong and there were cloud-bursts that often made it impossible for one to leave the house, in addition to “the hurricanes and furious typhoons; with thunders, and formidable rays [of lightning] that kill some Indians every year, and with a thousand other intemperances.”

De Castro complained of “snakes of all colors and shapes; the riv-ers, seas and lagoons are full of very carnivorous caimans or crocodiles…besides the scorpions, centipedes, mites and other poisonous vermin with killer bites…adding that diseases are plentiful, incognito, rebellious and incurable.”

Moreover, from anywhere in the island, they seemed to be “in limbo, with very little news of the world”… with no “Gacetas (newspapers) or Mercurios, (magazines).”The isolation of the missions was further ag-gravated by the absence of “the Indians who ordinarily live in the forests, mountains and wilderness, about three or four leagues away from the church. They come [to town] only on Sundays to hear mass and to play the roosters [cockfighting]. The two [existing] roads are bad, the sun is burn-ing, the cloudbursts are many, the sandbars of the rivers are dangerous, the horses are few and bad, for which it is better to walk on the water, and the canoes and bancas are very flimsy and weak.”

Chapter 2

The Augustinians

Ugmok18The Augustinian Provincial Superior Fr. Joseph Victoria who made

a tour of his priests assigned to Leyte in 1770, noted that the land was not well cultivated, and “there is not a place where the plow has entered, because even planting for their own food was done by the hand…the lack of roads to allow traffic has reduced that province into a lingering forest.”

But de Castro commented favorably on the fertility of the land, espe-cially in the mountainous areas. He said:

“…the earth is fertile and productive, for rice, for cows and pigs, or oil and coconut wine. They have much and good quality beeswax in the mountains, excellent wood for construction, enough cocoa, tobacco, cabalonga [sic] seed, a lot of abaca or hemp and other spe-cies. “

One problem the Augustinians faced had to do with the communities that they were supposed to preach to. The Jesuits’ sudden departure had doubtless aroused the natives’ suspicion, forcing many of them to pack up their meager belong-ings and leave the pueblos for the familiar forests nearby. Unlike the Jesuits who were welcomed by the natives, the newcomers seemed to be unwelcome.

“They made bad faces at us and would run away from the white habit [of the Augustinian priest]. And though we tried to caress them and give them allowed items according to the in-structions that we took, these were not enough. Especially the children of six to twelve years, they see us as something strange and they run like deer away from our view. And if at all we continue to approach them, and if perhaps they could not be reached and they were brought by force to our presence, we could see them cry, or they throw themselves on the floor, or bite [us], or pull their hair and de-fend themselves hopelessly, and show other extremes of sorrow that caused our admiration. This happened in all towns.”

“We asked them about the cause of this novelty from some

Ugmok 19simple Indians that we found during the past year. They said that the babaylanes (that is what they call their sacrificers) had announced in all the towns that the news priests with white habits have orders to maim the boys and send them to Europe, to be used as bait [for fishing], or to fatten the tigers of the King of Spain. This is something that is believed by the Indians … “One other major cause for worry to the newcomers were the Moro

raids that had caused a lot of trouble for the early missions more than 150 years before. Apparently, the Moro depredations had persisted even up to 1770s.

In the letter of Fr. Victoria, “Leyte is a province that is continually invaded by the Moros, the reason that obliges its natives to live in fear in the towns.” He said the natives, even if they were also armed, “could neither guard nor even keep watch of the schools and the reduced number of inhabitants that live in nearby houses.”The Augustinian superior noted that in the recent years, that prov-

ince alone counted two thousand captives from the year of 68 [1768]. De Castro also wrote of the dangers brought about by the Moros of Mind-anao. He said:

“They capture many boats of the Indians and of the Spaniards, and what I noticed was that they took more than sixty of these in one year. Though the towns have their baluartes (forts) and stone walls, with stonecutters and lantacas (canons) corresponding to the capac-ity of their residents, they often do not have enough of these [struc-tures] in the face of the superior force and armada of the Moros. And though you fence the church and the convent, where you can gather the residents, [the Moros] would start a fire by throwing lit arrows, which could roast those inside if they did not surrender or give in to the general assault, as I have seen many times. Many thousands of Indians have been taken captive, and for which reason the best lands in the Bisayas are almost uninhabited. There is not a town that had not been taken and defeated by these damned pirates in Leyte.” That was one reason why in some pueblos, there was no lodging place

for the missionary to stay since their houses were destroyed during the Moro depredations. Some of them had to use the baluarte for sleeping in, Victoria said.

Despite their complaints, the Augustinians had roads and schools built. Here in Ogmuc, they built four rural schools. Fr. Victoria in the letter to his superior in Rome, narrated that he ordered his priests to clear

Ugmok20up the vicinities of the towns for the opening of roads, and to observe the Royal tributes as established by Royal Decrees. A notable change that the Augustinians did was in agriculture when they introduced work animals for plowing and the use of the plow.

Unfortunately for those times, there were simply not enough Augus-tinians to adequately replace the Jesuits. Fourteen were assigned for the entire Leyte island, but only three took care of the pueblos in the west and the south.

On record, only three Augustinians were assigned to Ogmuc: Frs. Francisco Martinez, Agustin Maria de Castro and Francisco Rodriguez. Martinez replaced the Jesuit Fr. Luis Secanell, but on the same year de Castro took over after his stint at Boljoon, Cebu. De Castro was born in La Bañeza Aug. 16, 1740, admitted to the Augustinian College in Val-ladolid, passed Mexico and spent two years there in 1757. He finished his priesthood and was ordained in Manila and appointed bibliotecario (librarian) in 1762.

The third Augustinian, Fr. Rodriguez, was born in Santiago de Gali-cia in 1742, educated in Valladolid and assigned to the parishes of Hilon-gos, Ogmuc and Palompon during the years 1774-78. He was transferred to Dulag in 1779.

The lack of priests could explain why Ogmuc reverted to the status of a “visita” attached to the parish of Palompon sometime between the years 1778 and 1850, a period of 72 years. The secular priests would take over only in 1850. From then on, the succession was unbroken.

In the meantime, Ogmuc would be governed by civilian authorities headed by gobernadores, capitanes, capitanes municipal or goberna-dorcillos, whose present-day equivalent is the municipal mayor. Unfor-tunately, no records of them exist. The first recorded gobernadorcillo, principales and cabezas of Ogmuc show up only in 1839.

Ugmok 21

The modern day towns became possible only because the early mis-sionaries assigned to preach in native settlements exerted utmost efforts to gather them into the center of the town, with the church as the focal point. This is why the origins of pueblos are always

intertwined with the origins of parishes. This is especially true in Ogmuc which became a parish as early as 1630 when the Jesuits were still preach-ing here, according to Augustinian Fr. Elviro Perez in 1901 in his book.

When the natives started to put up their residence in the town center, it became necessary to have some sort of a governing body, with the local chiefs under it. At the start, the encomenderos served as petty governors. Later, they were replaced by local chiefs or principalia, and called as gob-ernadores, capitanes municipal or gobernadorcillos. Even in the absence of a priest, Ogmuc continued to be governed by them.

But a pueblo without its own priest could not have been complete because to church authorities, it was just a visita, which would be admin-istered only at the whims of the priest of the mother parish. For all intents and purposes, a priest played a very important role in the lives of the peo-

Chapter 3

An Independent Parish

A postcard of the Ormoc church and convent in the early 1900s.

Ugmok22ple, not just in the administration of sacraments. But even in civil matters, priests were often consulted. For instance, in the election of town officials, the presence of the parish priest was often required.

Thus, the petition of Ormoc residents on October 20, 1839 to be a parish independent of its matrix Palompon seemed to have been long overdue. Signed by the gobernadorcillo Juan Simon, eight members of the principalia, 22 cabezas de barangay and five tinientes nombrados (in-cumbent barangay heads) and two testigos (witnesses), the petition was addressed to the incumbent alcalde mayor (the modern day equivalent of governor) in Tacloban Victoriano Lopez Llanoses.

In that petition, the residents argued that Ormoc already had enough tributos (tax payers) to be able to support a parish. It had 1,907 tax payers, much bigger than Palompon’s 626. Moreover, its distance from Palom-pon was about six to seven leagues by sea (equivalent to 18 to 21 miles) , which made travel difficult for the priest. The fear of Moro depredations was still fresh in their m their minds, and the weather was not always favorable. Thus, visits were infrequent and dependent on whether the par-ish priest was inclined to do so.

But the petitioners’ main arguments centered on the attitudes of the priest themselves, Don Mateo Samson and his coadjutor Don Floren-tino Antonio, whom they obviously disliked. They said these two priests treated them badly and often verbally abused them even when they took the initiative to repair façade of the church using their own funds and resources. At time, the parish priest would take justice into his own hands and make no distinction whether the person concerned came from a prominent family or from the lower classes.

In fact, not a few had gone on self-exile to Dagami or Maasin to avoid the abuses of said priests. As a result, the taxes in Ormoc had decreased. The former alcalde mayor Don Ceferino Hernandez and Don Gabriel de la Ballina, a lieutenant colonel of the guardia civil, were accordingly well informed about the customs of this priest (Fr. Samson).

In some of their visits, the petitioners continued, the priests did not give them food or water that they had to drink salt water to satisfy their thirst.

On Oct. 31, 1939, the alcalde mayor Victoriano Lopez Llanoses fa-vorably endorsed the petition to the office of the governor general and the bishopric of Cebu, without objecting to the arguments presented. Nothing was heard of the petition until 11 years later. Then on July 5, 1850, Bishop Romualdo Jimeno Ballesteros of the diocese of Cebu, wrote to the gov-ernor of the District and the Visayas about the said petition, asking how

Ugmok 23

Adocument from the NAtional Archives showing the petition of Ormoc residents to make the pueblo an independent parish.

Ugmok24

A document from the National archives showing the Spanish government approval of Ormoc as an independent parish.

Ugmok 25much tribute will remain with the parsonage of Palompon, with Quiot (Isabel) attached to it if Ormoc separated. He also wanted to know if there were already the necessary public buildings in the town of Ormoc.

In response, the governor of the district told the bishop that a year before, in 1849, Ormoc had 1,498 tribute givers and had the necessary public buildings. It also had a communication line with Carigara, al-though that was imperfect and fraught with difficulties because of the distance. The road was bad and the terrain was not favorable for travel. The tax payers of Palompon reached 636, while Isabel had 203, totaling 839. The isolation of Ormoc made it imperative to set up a new parish so that the spiritual needs of the residents of Ormoc could be taken care of, which would be impossible if there was only one priest to administer Palompon, Ormoc and Quiot.

On Aug. 16, 1850, the Cebu bishop also furnished the current parish priest of Palompon, Bibiano Luciano a copy of the letter, In response, on Sept. 23, 1850, Fr. Luciano Bibiano confirmed that indeed the distance between Palompon and Ormoc was great and that travel could only be made with great difficulty. He said this could be avoided if Ormoc had

its own priest. He also confirmed the presence of public buildings in Ormoc like a parochial house (convent), a tribunal and school.

More important, he added, inconvenience could be avoided if he was appointed parish priest of the Ormoc Parish, which would be good for his well being. Being a senior priest, he requested that he be granted his request.

On October 18, 1850, Bishop Romualdo wrote to the governor general, making his final recom-mendation to separate Ormoc from Palompon parish. The bishop also

Ugmok26conformed to the idea that Fr. Luciano be the one assigned to Ormoc “by right of his being parish priest. Effectively, not only for the reason that he alleges, in justice, he should be heard in order to avoid inconveniences that would occur later on when the parishes are to be erected, because the rights of Priests in their parsonage during their lifetime should not be curtailed, so that they will continue to take interest in undertaking visits, which is a duty of the parsonages, and in case new parishes will be formed , the original priest will not be placed in a parish worse than his own…. Palompon, with its annex can remain vacant and be provided according to canonical right.”

Finally, the Superior Gobierno y Capitania General de Pilipinas, the official governing body in Manila, in a resolution dated November 13, 1850 declared Ormoc to be an independent parish.

Then on December 13, 1850, Bishop Romualdo received his copy of the resolution, which also showed Luciano Bibiano to be the first secular parish priest of Ormoc. The parish was formally installed on December 21, 1850, evidently with much pomp and celebration.

Ugmok 27

Compared to the earlier years, the last three decades of the nineteenth

century saw commercial agriculture expanding in Leyte. In the 1870s, it had become an attractive frontier to pioneering souls. Various factors such as good soil, abundant mois-ture, good drainage and adequate labor pool made the island the leading pro-ducer of abaca in the coun-try, after the Bicol region. The growing trade in this prime export crop had, by the 1870s, created vibrant provincial port towns with expanding opportunities in commerce and shipping.

Hemp was the island’s most important export. In the 1870s, Leyte had an annual production of 70,000 to 80,000 piculs (picos) of hemp. By 1905, the scale of hemp production had so escalated, there were 22,638 hectares devoted to the crop, producing over 11 million kilos of hemp.

The surge in economic activity is indicated by the fact that between 1860 to 1900, the population of the province of Leyte rose from 134,493 to 357,641. Ormoc’s population likewise started climbing from 11,967 in 1884 to 13,315.

Around this time, there were five main collection sites for hemp in Leyte: Tacloban, Carigara, Malitbog, Ormoc and Palompon. The greater portion of the hemp from the east coast, as far as south Cabalian, was sent to Tacloban, to be shipped to Manila. All the hemp from the west coast, including the island of Biliran, was shipped to Cebu. In 1903-04, a total of 119,352 piculs was shipped out of Tacloban, 70,000 piculs out of Carigara, and 211,500 piculs from collecting points on the west coast. Leyte was

The economy growsChapter 4

Ugmok28noted for the fine quality of its abaca.

In the 1870s, an informal network of merchants and trad-ers based in the coastal towns, which served as collecting points for hemp and other crops as well as distribution points for incoming con-sumer goods from such urban centers as Cebu and Manila. In these towns, the hemp grown in the hinterlands was collected.

Many of these merchants were Spaniards and a few Chinese. In 1884, there were four Ormoc residents who were of European (evidently, Span-ish) descent. The Yrastorzas and Aboitizes were two of these families. This was also the time when the patriarch of the Tans of Ormoc, Pablo Tan, settled here and got himself baptized as a Christian with Gregorio Yras-torza as his sponsor.

The Yrastorzas had boats that transported agricultural commodities to Cebu and essential commodities back to Ormoc. Paulino Aboitiz, the patriarch of the Aboitiz shipping family, initially worked in one of the boats of Yrastorza and eventually married one of his two marriageable daughters, Emilia. When he had his own family, Paulino engaged himself in the trading of abaca in partnership with the Muerteguis of Palompon and the Morazas of Baybay.

The Spanish traders in Palompon, Ormoc, Baybay, Maasin and Malitbog dealt in abaca, buying the hemp from villagers who brought the fiber to the coastal towns, and then selling the hemp collected to trading houses in Cebu. As an adjunct to this business, they each operated a gen-eral merchandise store (tienda) stocked with such common commodities as rice, salt liquor, kerosene, candles, textiles, soap and sardines, brought in from stores and distributors in Cebu or Manila. These commodities were usually sold by to the villagers who came to town with their abaca. This kind of trading was - in those days of expanding commerce in agri-cultural crops and growing rural prosperity – a profitable business.

Ugmok 29Pablo Tan on the other hand had a blacksmithing enterprise, fabri-

cating agricultural implements, bolos, plows, scythes, knives and similar items, going outside Ormoc to neighboring Leyte towns to sell his goods. He eventually made a fortune from his business and started buying agri-cultural lands in Macabug and set up his own animal-driven sugar mill. He met his future bride in Carigara, a Salvatierra, presumably in one of his business trips, married her and sired 16 children, some of whom subsequently played important roles in Ormoc’s emerging economy and vibrant if stormy politics.

Some important infrastructures were also built during this period, like the Puente de la Reina, an old stone bridge that people used to cross to get to the shore at Candalong. Since there was no pier yet in those years, boats would dock some hundred meters from the shore where they would be met by smaller bancas from Candalong. The Puente was built under the regime of Esteban Aparis as capitan muncipal, with the super-vision of Fabian Fiel, on November 15, 1864 and finished June 30, 1866. Fiel would follow Aparis as capitan municipal in his own right.

Another bridge, the Tulay de Perdon, was built by Capitan Municipal Segundo Esmero who was penalized by Spanish authorities for failing to meet the quota of tributos from the residents. This bridge, spanning Malbasag River between Agua Dulce and Can-adieng, had bricks for its foundation and was made of wood, with a roof over it to protect it from the elements. It got its name from stories of pall bearers who would pause to rest before proceeding to the cemetery. It was often told that the dead man’s pall would become lighter, indicating that his sins had been lifted after pausing the bridge. That was interpreted as forgiveness of sins. Thus the name Tulay de Perdon.

Since Ormoc had its own secular parish priest in 1850, some of its prominent families sent their sons to the Seminario de San Carlos for their priestly education. By the 1870s, till 1904, Ormoc was blessed with producing at least eight native priests, one of whom would figure out as a founder of a pioneer Catholic School in the entire region. Note the names of the priests and the years that they were ordained.

:Prospero Esmero September 28, 1873Enrique Carillo August 13, 1876Gregorio Ortiz June 3, 1882Juan Miroy December 21, 1889Flaviano Daffon December 17, 1897Pelagio Aviles November 1, 1898

Ugmok30Ismael Cataag August 13, 1899Sergio Eamiguel June 5, 1904

By and large, its church was an imposing building of stone 240 yards long, 85 yards wide and 45 yards tall, and with a roof made of nipa. It had a parochial house made of wood, connected to the church, 150 yards wide and 75 yards from its foundation. The parish was under the Vicaria de la Costa Occidental de Leyte under the Diocese of Cebu.

Moreover, it already had a cemetery 250 yards on each side, sur-rounded by trees and strong palm trees.

Ugmok 31

Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1571 was the first to organize the municipalities in the Philippines where it was possible. But in Ormoc, that did not seem plausible at first because people tended to live outside the poblacion close to their

farms in scattered settlements. But even before the Jesuits left in 1768 they had succeeded in creating a set of municipal officials in lieu of the encomenderos who were the first gobernadores. The head official was called capitan or capitan municipal,

After some years, the municipal head was called gobernadorcillo while the head of the province alcalde mayor. Then the title returned to capitan again, as provided for under the Maura Reform Law on May 19, 1893. The title was substituted with jefe local (local chief) during the Philippine Revolution and then became known as presidente mu-nicipal (municipal president) after the inauguration of the civil govern-ment during the American occupation.

Chapter 5

Politics in the 1890s

Ugmok32The principalias (prominent residents), with the jefe local at their

head, were tasked with the construction of casas reales (royal houses), tribunales (municipal halls), churches and jails. They managed com-munal works like the repair of streets, roads, bridges and the cleaning up of rivers. They were also tasked with propagating plants and vegeta-bles, and the laying out of streets such that proper distances between built houses were observed, as a precaution in cases of fire. They were supposed to go after prohibited games [i.e., gambling] and all acts that threatened the police and public order, such as the defense from at-tacks by people with bad intentions; to promote the use of weights and measures; to engage the services of guards; for postal matters; and the accompaniment for viaticum rites.

On his part, the jefe local was not only duty-bound to take care that the described services were completed. He was also tasked to converge part of the obligations, among them to correct the shortage of policemen, to require auxiliary service for the armed force [army or navy], to dictate orders to the urban and rural police, to intervene in the branding and transport of livestock [cows, carabaos, etc.], to watch over the other municipes (municipal assets), to look after the collec-tions entrusted to the balangay (village) heads and even to exercise judicial functions, and to communicate his orders around the town by means of bandillos (town criers).

Until the Maura reforms, the gobernadorcillo was chosen among the twelve principalia that constituted the electoral body who were equally qualified to occupy that position. According to the provisions of the [royal] decree dated December 5, 1845, the gobernadorcillo could not be chosen by electors related up to the fourth degree.

The basic qualifications of the candidates to the electoral body were as follows: at least 25 years of age, knows how to read, write and speak in Spanish; must have been a teniente mayor (senior deputy) or cabeza de balangay (village head); without indebtedness to the State; has not committed any breach of contract, etc. Once verified after scru-tiny, the candidates proceeded to constitute the terna (triad) of quali-fiers, wherein the occupant of the first position would be the one who had obtained more than half of the votes; the second position went to the one with the next number of votes; and the third position went to the incumbent gobernadorcillo.

The gobernadorcillo was to be substituted by the teniente mayor in case of his absence. Likewise, the gobernadorcillo, in a group gather-

Ugmok 33

Sample of a document related to the election for gobernadorcillo in 1891.

Ugmok34

Another sample of a document related to the election for gobernadorcillo in 1891.

Ugmok 35ing of the principalia, would choose the officials and the ministros (depu-ties) for justice.

The old tribunales (municipal governments) consisted of the follow-ing: a gobernadorcillo; tenientes (deputies); jueces [in-charge] for the policia (police), for the sementeras (agriculture) and for ganados (live-stocks); former gobernadorcillos; cabezas de balangay in active duty and those that held this position for ten consecutive years. They formed the so-called principalia.

Ormoc elections in 1891

When local officials were elected in 1891, the system used was still the old one. At that time, the incumbent gobernadorcillo was Rosendo Daffon, but that was the end of his two-year term. Another set of officials had to be elected during the election day, June 22, 1891. This was presided over by the cura parroco (parish priest) Fr. Lino Codilla. As in the earlier days, elections were always held with the priest present.

The candidates for gobernadorcillo were Rufino Con-ui, Lorenzo Daffon, Fernando Ybañez, Telesforo Cabiling, Felix Eamiguel, Dandoy Cabiling, Estefanio Ortiz and Canuto Tomada.

Representatives from the principalia (prominent citizens) included the six incumbent cabezas de barangay – or cabezas actuales – and the past cabezas who had served Ormoc for 10 years or more. The cabezas actuales were Fernando Bañez, Juan Sacay, Silvestre Tibis (Teves) ,Ygnacio Ibe, Canuto Tomada and Catalino Gallano.

While the cabezas pasados were Felix Eamiguel, Estefaneo Ortiz, Anastacio Bignay Andrade Sanchez, Gaspar Cabiling, Soberino Pongos and Rosendo Dafun. These were the only people who could vote a gober-nadorcillo and other top local officials. Each could vote for two persons, his first and second choices of a gobernadorcillo. It was written on a small piece of paper with the signature of the voter at the bottom.

In that elections, Fernando Ybañez won by 10 votes over Telesforo Cabiling who got 8 votes. In the absence of Ybañez, his chief deputy who was a personal choice, Francisco Cea, would take his place, not Cabiling.

The other appointees were Estefanio Ortiz as Juez de Sementera (Chief of agriculture), Fulgencio Wagis as Juez de Policia (Chief of police) and Fernando Cataag as Juez de Ganados (chief of livestock).

Ybañez had four other deputies: Fermin Casano, Florencio Tibis (Teves) Esteban Tomapat and Eusebio Bandi. The appointed judges were Gabino Parilla and Brigildo Ablen, while the alguacils (bailiffs) were Yri-

Ugmok36

A document from the NAtional Archives showing the election results for goberdan-orcillo in 1993

neo Sacay, Leon Ginoo,, Calixtro Catingub, Bonifacio Cea and Dionisio Cabal.

That year, Ormoc had three visitas or important barangays: Dolores, Valencia and Margen. Each visita had a teniente, a juez (de paz) and a bailiff. In Dolores, these officials were Juan Diaz, Alejandro Domalan and Abundio Tugonon in that order.

Valencia had Marcial Codilla, Eusebio Regis and Daniel Ocang, while Margen had Bartolome Villamor Vicente Lilio and Gabino Bandi.

New regulations

With the implementation of the Maura reforms, the constitution of the tribunals was altered. The prior role of the principalia was passed on to a group of five individuals, one of whom was denominated as capitan (mayor), and the four tenientes (deputies): the teniente mayor (chief

Ugmok 37

Another document from the National Archives showing the election results in 1993

Ugmok38deputy), the deputy for police, the deputy for agriculture, and the deputy for livestocks. The chief deputy functioned as regidor sindico (trustee of the regime) and substituted for the capitan in cases of vacancy, absences or exigencies. These positions were conferred by election through a plu-rality of votes, by secret voting.

The hacienda municipal (municipal estate) dated back to pristine times, because it was inaugurated along with the start of the Spanish colo-nization of these islands. It was established by the laws of the Recopilacion [lit., Compilation], and was known by the name Bienes de Comunidad (Goods of the Community), the whole set of properties and resources constituting the fundos locales (local funds) or haber de los pueblos (wealth of the towns) to take care of the needs of the interior government.

1893 Elections

Despite the changes instituted under the Maura Law, the names and functions of the local officials did not change in 1893. The residents who signified intentions to become gobernadorcillo on April 27, 1893 were Francisco Cea, Telesforo Cabiling, Leon Abiles, Mateo Solidor, Canuto Tomada and Rufino Con-ui.

Members of the principalia who were designated as voters were the cabezas actuales Vicente Codilla, Fausto Odac, Juan Sacay, Hipolito Matu-gina, Antonio Bantasan, Gaspar Cabiling, Estefanio Ortiz, Mateo Solidor, Rosendo Dafon, Catalino Orillano, Mariano Dafon and Perfecto Flores. The 13th man in the group was the incumbent gobernadorcillo Fernando Bañez.

Fr. Lino Codilla and Don Francisco Fernandez Bernal, local chief of the guardia civil presided over the elections. Leon Aviles was elected gob-ernadorcillo with 9 votes, while Telesforo Cabiling, who ran again, had the same number of votes he had in the 1891 elections.

Appointed chief deputy was Franscisco Laude, Sixto Pongos became the juez de sementera: Vicente Codilla as juez de policia; and Eulalio Velasquez as juez de ganados.

Serving as alternates to Laude were Gabino Parilla, Guillermo Sacay, Pedro Laurente and Senon Ablen as the second, third, fourth and fifth deputies. Tomas Villanueva was selected the suplente (substitute) Five bailiffs were appointed. They were Ireneo Sacay, Doroteo Aparis, Jorge Colasito, Eliseo Tomada and Pedro Monteclaro.

The newly elected gobernadorcillo also appointed the tenientes, juezes and bailiffs for the three visitas of Dolores, Valencia and Davila.

Ugmok 39Dolores had Jugo Collante as teneiente, Domingo Omega as juez and Nombrellano Jandoc as bailiff.

Valencia’s new teneiente was Braulio Codilla, and its juez was Nicolas Dagan, while Daniel Ocang was designated as bailiff.

For Davila, Juan Guartizo was appointed teniente, Regino Ininte as juez and Leoterio Centino was bailiff.

Agustin Catayoc and Emilio Parilla signed as witnesses. The next year, there would be changes in the list of representatives

of the principalia. Appearing in the list were: Rufino Con-ui, Bernardo Cataag, Fabian Catingud (b), Santiago Diguingco, Gaudencio Bantasan, Agustin Catayoc, Julian Paca, Canuto Tomada, Esteban Tomapat, Ramon Sunico, Paulino Aboites (z) and Leoncio Cea. These would constitute the municipal tribunal under Gobernadorcillo Leon Aviles.

Ugmok40

Like many towns in Leyte and Samar during this period, Ormoc was gripped by religious unrest known as “Dios Dios” which ac-tually had innocent beginnings. In Samar, big numbers of people began to visit places that had patron saints known to be miracu-

lous. The Spanish-led government viewed these gatherings with alarm and so tended to suppress them and, in fact, had some local faith healers arrested and imprisoned.

In Leyte as early as 1862, an old woman named Benedicta had herself called La Santa de Leyte and drew some 4,000 followers off to Mt. Agani. She predicted that the island would sink. Benedicta began activities in Tanauan, Leyte and attracted persons from Burawen, Dagami, Palo and other towns. She was carried on a litter and led candle-lit processions to the mountains.

Sometime in 1887-88, Francisco Gonzalez published a booklet, an-nouncing his ascendance to the throne and the appearance of the mag-nificent city of Samarino on January. Guardia Civil discovered his follow-ers selling banners and slips of paper with prayers. The booklet instructed that the banners must be possessed and the prayers recited every morning at 6:00. Both banners and oraciones were supposed to preserve the people from sickness and also from harm in a coming revolution. The slips of paper were even signed by persons who claimed to be medicos titulares.

Rey (King) Francisco also issued cedulas to persons who accepted his rule. Prayers on the booklet invoked Jesus, Mary and Joseph for deliver-

ance from the plague (Libranos del Peste).”(p.55) Slips of paper with the initials SORS, whose meaning no-body could explain, were distributed by a follower of Gonzales to persons who were willing to be part of the community (empadornado en el pa-dron del DiosDios ). Available at one peseta each, the slips of paper were supposed to be an effective safeguard against epidemics.

Besides Gonzales, there were

Chapter 6

Dios Dios in Ormoc

Ugmok 41Francisco and Fruto Sales (presumably brothers) of Jaro who claimed to have been sent by God to save the people from a deluge to be sent by God to punish the perversity of humanity. Francisco was most probably the same leader claiming to save the people of Samar from a cataclysm.

On the other hand, Fruto claimed that he saw a stream on the way to Carigara. He dug a trench and dumped a sack of salt into the water and told people that from there the sea was going to gush out. Fruto sold ban-ners which were supposed to deliver the buyer from a coming pestilence and revolution.”

Fruto Sales turned out to be far from the ruler who would herd the peasants into paradise out of exploitation. By his own admission, he was a 26-year old jobless drifter, twice guilty of rape (imprisoned six months for the first and three months for the second). He was able to cure a certain woman with a herb called lacdan. He said he was not a mediquillo but seemed to be trying to become one since he was arrested in Alang-alang receiving medicinal herbs from Angel Flores.”

The colonial officials, of course, interpreted these as signs of subver-sive activity. The phenomenon was happening all over the country during this period. Because of the claims to represent God, the guardia civil subsequently called this “dios dios”, a mockery of what real religion ought to be. As long as there was an association that entailed some kind of reli-gious practice of which the colonial regime disapproved, that association was labeled as “dios-dios.”

Although in some provinces the authorities tended to be lenient, considering the movement merely as a religious aberration, in Leyte, Pro-vincial Governor, Luis Prats actively suppressed it or, more accurately, the mere signs of it. Thus, from May 1889 to May 1890 guardia civil patrols broke into a few clandestine meetings. Based on the testimonies of the accused, the guardias usually arrested people while they were going about their daily activities: buying food, selling abaca in the town or attending their crops. Many were arrested in October and November of 1889.

Most of them were sent first to their pueblo jail, then sent to Tacloban for interrogation. Prats held interrogation sessions in Tacloban, then from there, he sent the prisoners to Manila or to a penal colony.

The arrest of Faustino Ablen, aged 36, and seven other companions on April 5, 1890 in the mountains of Mahilawon above Barrio Patag was part of this repressive pattern instigated by Prats. Others in the group were Cayetano Ablen, 35; Victor Ablen, 20; Saturnino Ablen, 15; Pastor Caliwan, 23; Cayetano Caliwan, 26; Lucio de los Santos, 22; Tranquilino de los Santos, 16; and Martinito Doroja, 55. Lt. Benito Marquez, a guardia

Ugmok42civil assigned to Ormoc, was Ablen’s arresting officer with the bailiff Tran-quilino Recias. Rufino Villafuerte and Leberato Dasona served as guides.

Confiscated from Faustino were three books written in Bisaya, three rosaries, a crystal knob with a certain liquid, a knife and some money.

The eight were brought to Tacloban a few days later for investigation which started April 10, 1890. The questions asked were standard for all of them. What were their respective names, ages, civil status, places of residence? Were they aware of the reasons for their arrest? What were they doing in the house of Cayetano Caliwan during the time of their arrest? What were the books and leaflets confiscated used for? Did they buy oracciones from Faustino? Were they involved in the activities in the mountains between Ormoc and Merida in December the previous year? Did they know Fruto Sales, Francisco Sales and Angel Flores?

They all admitted their names, ages and residences, stating they were farmers and that they could neither read nor write. They explained that they only wanted to help Cayetano Caliwan’s daughter who was sick, and that’s why they were in his house at the time of their arrest. The books that were confiscated were important in the practice of their Christian religion. They denied that they paid money to buy oraccione or that they knew Francisco and Fruto Sales and Angel Flores. They also said they knew nothing about the gathering in the mountains between Ormoc and Merida the previous year.

The eight suspects were released apparently after finding that they did nothing wrong.

In the meantime, the governor re-quired the gobernadorcillo, the principalia

Ugmok 43and the parish priest to issue certificates of conduct for persons arrested. This happened not only in Ormoc but in all the towns where there were suspected members of the dios dios. All the towns were placed under a sort of martial law with the principalia and friar curates segregating the dios-dios from non-dios-dios.”

Certificates could contain positive or negative information. Some certificates even stated that a few people were actually responsible citizens but their ignorance or their desire to make money made them vulnerable to deceivers. The majority of these conduct certificates, however, were issued for persons labeled vagos, indocumentados, sin domicilio fijo. Most of whom were also accused of having taken part in secret meet-ings of dios-dios. A bad conduct certificate was as good as condemnation to prison or exile. So no matter how ignorant the detainees were of the charges against them or no matter how much they)denied their involve-ment in dios-dios, they were usually deported.

At the end of the set of marathon interrogations from April to 5 May 1890, Leyte Governor Prats stated that the majority were indeed involved in the movement as leaders or believers. Even if the members of the movement did not take up arms against the authorities, Prats was deeply concerned because the dios-dios activities prevented the authorities from collecting taxes and reaching a right quota of people for compulsory labor. In spite of exhortations by the parish priests and warnings and punishments for the cabezas, many people refused to come down from the uplands, resulting in a deficit in the coffers.

The immoderately heavy crackdown on the defenseless, harmless and non-violent dioses helped transform them into a violent, though fragmented rebel force during the Philippine American War. More than a decade later, Faustino Ablen would figure in the more deadly pulahan movement and cause serious trouble to the new American regime. The re-pressive measures instigated by the Spanish authorities and the local elite would trigger retaliatory actions from the now awakened mountain folk.

Ugmok44

Unlike several provinces in Luzon, Leyte’s residents seemed passive during the 1896 Katipunan uprising, but that did not however indicate a lack of patriotism here. In the words of the Leyteño historian Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, “we did not wait to

play our last card to help attain our desired freedom. We did not allow such an opportunity to pass because there pulsated among our people the idea of patriotism, which arose as a logical consequence and which the Spaniards had awaited.”

The second stage of the struggle for independence began after the leaders of the revolution, led by Gen. Emiliio Aguinaldo, returned from Hongkong on May 28, 1898 [sic, May 19, 1898] to Kawit, Cavite. The Filipino troops were subsequently victorious against those of Spanish General Peña. That revolutionary work culminated in the Declaration of Independence signed in Kawit on August 1 [sic, June 12], of the same year [1898], and the news of it spread like wildfire to all the islands and

Chapter 7

The Revolt in Ormoc

Ugmok 45reached Leyte.

In Tacloban at that time, one of the prisoners, Alejandro Planas, who was accused of sedition, took advantage of the situation. Armed with a knife, he freed himself and the other prisoners, shouting: “Viva la Repub-lica Filipina (Long live the Philippine Republic)!” His action s created a ripple among the local population, forcing the Spanish Governor of Leyte, Fernando S. Juarez, to turn over the control of the province to a com-mandante (major), Gabriel Galza, the son of Europeans but born in the Philippines. That gesture seemed to appease the rage of the locals against the Spaniards, and allowed them to leave without any unpleasant incident.

A Filipino regime was soon established amid great rejoicing, with the new Philippine flag raised up. A procession was at once organized “amid loud hurrahs and enthusiasm of the people and revealed their overflow-ing happiness for the glorious emblem that they then deliriously waved, “ wrote Artigas.

No such celebrations happened in Ormoc. But a transition munici-pal government was set up, with Dr. Felipe Calderon appointed as jefe local from 1898 to 1901. When the Americans took over in 1901, he was replaced in a popular election by a native-born Ormocanon, Simplicio Fiel, who was the first elected municipal president from 1901 to 1904. It was during Fiel’s time that political turbulence erupted resulting from the insurgence of the Leyte’s patriotic forces against the American invaders in mid-1901 and the resurgence of the dios-dios, who were now transformed into the deadly pulahans four years later in 1903.

American arrival

Peace was shattered with the arrival of the American gunships off the coast of the pueblo on the night of January 30, 1900. An American fleet under Brig. Gen. William A. Kobbe anchored off the port of Ormoc, its guns trained on the town center. The Kobbe expedition was aimed at securing the Samar-Leyte area and reopening the local ports for the hemp trade. A white flag was hoisted on the shore of Ormoc. Kobbe and other American officers landed and “were hospitably received by the dignitaries of the town and in a not unfriendly manner by the entire population gath-ered at the landing.” The gobernadorcillo, Mateo Solidor at once donned on his regalia to meet Kobbe. Fortunately Kobbe listened to his entreaties not to bombard the pueblo, with Solidor’s assurances that Mojica’s rebel troops were not in town and that Ormoc was a peaceful town.

The situation in Ormoc’s hinterlands was different. Unknown to the

Ugmok46

Americans then, General Mojica’s troops had taken vantage positions in the pueblo’s mountains much earlier than they did in La Paz and Burauen. They were thus able to control strategic sites with nine artillery pieces and rifles, such as Remingtons, Mausers and Krags, besides an abundant reserve of ammunition. Months later, when the Ameerican troops who were pursuing Mojica’s forces came to Ormoc were surprised in an am-bush set up by a group of bolo-wielding men. A tenacious man-to-man fighting ensued with heavy casualties on both sides.

After Mojica’s surrender in Baybay on May 18, 1901, several of his lieutenants did not follow him and, instead, regrouped to continue the fight against the Americans. Gen. Vicente Lucban, who was in Samar at that time, appointed Major Florentino Peñaranda, a native of Balugu (Barugo), to take the command over the Filipino troops which remained loyal to the cause. With him was Captain Jesus de Veyra, brother of Jaime de Veyra, who was at this time working with the Americans in the pacifi-cation of the island.

Lukban would fall in the forests of Matuginaw, Samar on February 18, 1902, making the situation for the local forces even more desperate.

Ugmok 47This was also about the time when Cebu’s General Arcadio Maxilom was captured by the American troops and Gen. Miguel Malvar of Batangas also fell into American hands. The remaining revolutionary forces in Panay, Cebu and Samar trooped to Leyte to augment Peñaranda’s forces now concentrated around Ormoc. In a sense, Ormoc was now the last rampart of the revolution in the Visayas, which had American authorities in Manila worried.

The American government in Manila sent Arturo Dance, a Filipino, l to negotiate with the group of Peñaranda and Jesus de Veyra, hoping to entice them to surrender, following the steps of Mojica and other revo-lutionary leaders. In his initial letter to Jesus de Veyra, Dancel said he wanted to convey the political state of the Filipino people about which de Veyra’s group may not have been informed, considering that they were cut off from all communications with the revolutionary leadership. He said all he wanted was “that the peace here would be more stable and honorable for all.”

Ugmok48Dancel hinted that some of those still remaining in the hills “were

guided by a confused and misunderstood patriotism,” suggesting a cease fire while his conference with the revolutionaries lasted.

Although de Veyra welcomed the conference, decisions were made by his chief Peñaranda, the interim political-military chief of the revolu-tion in the island. He had warned his comrades that the Americans would use the divide-and-rule tactics against them, suggesting instead to prepare to simultaneously attack the American troops in Ormoc, Baybay, Merida and Palompon in case of the failure of the negotiations.

According to Peñaranda, the letter of Dancel was harsh and impos-ing, adding that if there was going to be any failure in the peace talks, it would be because of people like Dancel.

Dancel’s American counterpart was even more demanding. Col. Wallace Taylor, the head of the US contingent, insisted in a joint circular with the Presidente Municipal Simplicio Fiel of Ormoc, and the repre-sentative of the insular government, Arturo Dancel, stipulating the terms of the truce with the revolutionaries, without even the concurrence of the latter. In effect, it was a declaration of martial law that placed the local forces at a disadvantage. The covenant was signed in Ormoc on May 12, 1902 by Wallace C. Taylor, Arturo Dancel, the government’s commis-sioner; and Ormoc Municipal President Simplicio Fiel. Not one of the revolutionaries was a signatory to this.

The mode of thinking of Taylor was reflected in his letter to the Or-moc municipal president, dated May 20, 1902.

“Serves to send notice to the President of Albuera to order the insurrectionists that are in the jurisdiction of Albuera and the vicinity of Ormoc as noted by Dancel. With the date [May] 21 ends the period promised to Peñaranda to concentrate in Ormoc. And in case some enter and they are in Albuera or another town outside of Ormoc, we will attack them and we will punish those municipal officials or anybody that helps the insurrectionists. Serves to answer you.”

Meanwhile, Dancel pursued his initial efforts at making the local revolutionaries surrender. On the third week of May, he enlisted the help of the municipal council of Baybay in the surrender of Peñaranda, De Veyra and their companions.

The 15-day period of truce had expired and the ceasefire was violated by the Philippine Constabulary organized by the Americans the year before. Emilio Ichon, who was sent by Peñaranda as an emissary, was am-bushed and wounded by the PC in in the road from Ormoc to Inopacan, although he was carrying with him a white flag, while three of his com-

Ugmok 49panions were killed and another one wounded. Copies of the documents he was bringing had to be resent through other emissaries and in more discrete ways by the revolutionaries. Dancel had to make excuses for the tragic lapses.

Because of these dangers, the revolutionaries were divided into several smaller groups and concentrated somewhere in Baryo San Agus-tin, from where they would proceed to Baybay. They moved out of their mountain hideouts in Ormoc at past midnight, passing through Albuera where some members of the municipal council met them. The pueblo’s municipal mayor had in the meantime disappeared, bringing with him his knapsack and a roll of buyo, leaving his wife behind. He was afraid that the PC would catch him for sympathizing with the rebels.

Finally, On May 31, 1902, Capt. Jesus de Veyra, who spoke in behalf of Peñaranda, submitted surrender documents, specifying its terms. All the officers and men of the rebel army and their arms and ammunition were to be surrendered, with no provision for a partial surrender since everybody wanted complete peace in the island.

On June 19, 1902, Peñaranda delivered his last stirring speech before his men in the final acceptance of surrender in Baybay. From then on, peace would rein in the island, albeit tenuously as bolo-welding remnants of the revolutionary forces refused to lay down their arms to continue the struggle a year later.

Ugmok50

Peace lasted for a few months after the surrender of Peñaranda. Very soon, rebellion would surge again, this time led by indig-enous peasant leaders who had not laid down their long bolos but instead resolved to continue the struggle against the Ameri-

cans. Many of these were said to be followers of the dios dios led by an Ormocanon Faustino Ablen.

. In the early part of October, 1902, more than 100 Dios-Dios from Samar arrived in the island of Biliran. Acording to the American report, the group “burned, pillaged, robbed, and killed to their heart’s content, and then made a determined attack on the small detachment of constabu-lary stationed at the town of Naval.” But they were repulsed and the at-tacks persisted for several nights in succession. Although the constabulary had lost several men, both killed and wounded, they held the band off until Peter Borseth arrived on the scene with reinforcements. A vigorous campaign was again waged, and after about six weeks’ work the island was again cleared of the Dios Dios.

This time, however, those that were not killed or captured, made their way across to the island of Leyte, instead of returning to Samar, and work-ing along down the coast arrived in the vicinity of Ormoc.

At once the Constabulary District Commander Wallace Taylor dispatched Lt. Crockett to Ormoc to take charge of the operations, and detachments from Negros Or. And Occ. and Cebu were ordered in, num-bering 125. Operations were conducted by Lts. Crockett, Hibbard, Smith and Adams and a fierce war was waged for two months before affairs became quiet. The Dios Dios, driven from the mountains of Ormoc, went on a raid north, through the towns of Villaba and San Isidro del Campo, and, met by the volunteers from Biliran, were again driven back Ormoc.

However, the American-led constabulary suffered serious reverses in Ormoc on the night of November 14 at Barrio Dolores. A detachment of 18 men sleeping in the only building of the place was attacked at midnight by the pulahans while the sentry was asleep. The moon was bright and the signs left on the post against which he was leaning showed that he was not awake when the leading pulajan cut his head from his body. The leader, rushed by the other guards, then killed another one and wounded two more. Junping into the room among the sleeping men, he jabbed left and right with his bolo, killing one more Constabulary and wounding six

Chapter 8

Pulahanism

Ugmok 51before he was killed. The assault was repulsed without further loss.

The Americans called them “pulahans” because of the red trousers and a dash of red that they wore elsewhere about their sparse clothing, de-riving the term pulahan from the word pula, which means red in Bisayan.

In the words of Governor General Smith: “The pulajan is not a rob-ber or a thief by nature -- quite the contrary. He had his little late of hemp on the side of the mountain, and breaking out his picul of the product he carried it, hank by hank, for miles and miles over the almost impassible mountain trails, to the nearest town or barrio. There, he offered it for sale and if he refused the price tendered, which was generally not more than half the value, he soon found himself arrested on a trumped-up charge and without hemp or money.

Their weapon was a heavy, crescent-shaped bolo with which they could decapitate a man at a blow. Their battle preparations consisted of bottles of holy oil, prayer books, consecrated anting-antings, and other re-ligious paraphernalia. Their mode of attack was a massed bolo rush. Their battle cry was that dreadful “Tad-Tad” which means “Chop to pieces,” and they moved into action behind waving banners.

From a military viewpoint, their tactics were unsound, as they gave no thought to casualties. They were contemptuous of death, and they rushed without thought of position or the possibility of encountering enfilading rifle fire.

They could be stopped by a determined stand of accurate riflemen if the odds were not too great. Often, the odds were too great and it resulted in the death of every soldier who faced them. When the pulajans once got to close quarters with their great knives, massacre was the result.

The conflict took on the nature of a civil war between factions, resulting in the trial and conviction of Pablo Tan, one of the richest residents in the municipality of Ormoc who was also the municipal secretary. This man was proven to be guilty of murder and of hav-ing visited the camp of the pulahans and making commercial deals with them. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment but did not serve his prison term as the family intervened. After that incident, all houses outside of the town were destroyed by the pulahans, perma-nent constabulary posts were established on the site of what had been prosperous barrios before the insurrection against America, and the people were required to rebuild about the barracks and place them-selves under the protection of the constabulary.

In January, 1903, the authorities again reported the resurgence of pu-lahan groups operating in the mountains of Ormoc under the leadership

Ugmok52

Pulahan leader Faustino Ablen after he was captured by the Philippine Constabu-lary at his mountain hideout in Dagami on June 11, 1907.

of Ablen. With him were his sub-chiefs, like Damaso Cajidoria, Mariano Villanueva, Custodio Librea, Juan Tamayo, Felipe Claros, Victor Claros, Domingo Cañiso, Nicolas Malasarte and Juan Amimipot. Cajidoria was said to lead a band on the ranch of Pablo Tan Amimipot and Malasarte led the group in Palompon where, years before, they were identified as ladrones by the local authorities during the Spanish regime.

The cholera epidemic that was raging then only served to encourage the group of Ablen who used their oraccion and anting-anting to cure the

Ugmok 53affliction. The town proper of Ormoc was cordoned so that nobody could enter or leave it, but that did not deter the dios dios leaders from practic-ing their healing powers., using them to gain more adherents and sympa-thizers.

In July 1903, the Americans used local spies to locate Ablen in the jungles of Ormoc and Dagami and attacked their stronghold by surprise, killing 32 pulahans and taking many prisoners. Ablen was able to escape though. His base had in the meantime extended to Leyte’s lowland towns, such as Burauen, Dagami, Tabon-Tabon, Pastrana and Tolosa where he had gained plenty of adherents. Here many pitched battles were fought by the pulahans against the Americans and their local boleros who were used as frontliners. The pulahans were known to be supported especially by the predominantly peasant population, using their keen knowledge of the mountainous terrain to baffle the enemy and often resorting to ambus-cades to harass the latter.

After their raid of Burauen, the Americans were convinced that the pulahans were not mere bandit gangs but should be seen as an insurrectionary force. A portion of the report of the Leyte governor in 1906 said:

“The pulahanes made no attempt to rob or molest the people of the town their principal object being to destroy the municipal records, secure the arms of the police and wreak vengeance upon that organization. After remaining in the town about two hours the band retired to the mountains.

In their attack upon the police of Burauen, they assaulted only the municipal force and a farmer (who had reportedly resisted on the road), took possession of their arms, and destroyed the official records; they did not touch the money of the municipality nor any other inhabitant of the town. In their incursions on different bar-rios toward the end of July, they committed no pillage nor offended women. They prayed and compelled persons to follow them. They asked for whatever they needed-rice and black and red cloth. This conduct and the extent of the movement made some persons believe that it was a case of sedition or insurrection.”

At one point, the military situation became alarming for the American occupation forces that 17 seventeen companies of scouts and four companies of American troops under Colonel Smith’s Eight United States Infantry were operating against the pulahanes. This according to Brig. Gen. Henry Allen of the newly organized Philippine Constabulary. General Lee was ready to bring his com-panies from Cebu to reinforce the beleaguered American troops in

Ugmok54Leyte, along with Col. Wallace Taylor to participate in operations from Albuera and Ormoc.

The movement was effectively suppressed in the island when Papa Faustino Ablen was captured on June 11th, 1907 in the mountains of Dagami. Ablen’s wife and child were earlier taken on May 29, 1907.

Ugmok 55

The arrival of the Americans brought formal changes to the local governments. For instance, the gobernadorcillo became munici-pal president. In essence, however, they were still the same. While elections were instituted in the 42 municipalities of Leyte with

more people allowed to vote, manipulation was evident in several towns, so that several dissatisfied candidates filed protests.

Order No. 40 issued by General Elwell Otis when he became the mili-tary governor stipulated a structure for the municipal government of each town, occupied by an alcalde mayor and municipal council, who were to be elected by the people. Municipal regimes were supposed to be autono-mous and decentralized, and the legitimate administrators of the interests of the people.

This order continued to be in effect until January 31, 1901, dur-ing which the Philippine Commission approved the general law for the organization of municipal governments. The new law designated to each municipality a president (mayor), a vice-president and a municipal council, and divided the munici-palities into four classes accord-ing to the number of inhabitants. The municipalities were given autonomous powers over local matters such as the amount of taxes to be collected, which were to be invested exclusively for their own benefits.

The last presidente munici-pal appointed during the Agui-naldo government in 1898, Dr. Fernando Calderon, was replaced by Simplicio Fiel in the first municipal elections of Ormoc in 1901. He assumed the post of municipal president till 1904 From then on, local elections became a regular fare, with more and more citizens participating, till the eve of the Second World War in 1941.

Chapter 9

Under American rule

Term Municipal Presidents

1901 – 1904 Simplicio Fiel1904 – 1907 Teofilo Mejia1907 - 1910 Francisco Galos1910 – 1913 Jose Codilla1913 – 1916 Silverio Zamora1916 – 1919 Ricardo Zamora1919 – 1922 Agapito Arradaza1922 – 1925 Agapito Pastor1925 – 1931 Agapito Pastor1931 – 1934 Victorio Laurente1935 – 1941 Victorio Laurente

Ugmok56

Economic development in the early 1900s

Since the last decade of the 1800 till the end of the first decade of the 1900s, there were no major leaps in the local economy. Manila hemp (abaca) was still the major crop in Ormoc as well as in the entire island of Leyte, followed by coconut. Hemp was easier to produce, requiring less labor and bringing quicker and better returns. The prices of hemp ranged from 5 to 8 pesos a picul since arrival of the Americans and the death of more than 75 percent of the carabaos.

All the hemp from the west coast, including from the island of Biliran or from the town of Leyte to the town of Malitbog, was shipped to Cebu. The towns of Palompon, Ormoc, Baybay, Maasin and Malitbog were tran-sit points for the enlarging hemp and copra trading.

The amount shipped from the west coast for the same year was about 211,500 piculs. At an average value of 25 pesos a picul, the trading showed a total sale of 10,021,300 pesos. Trading in copra was even bigger. The entire west coast of the island shipped out 250,000 piculs that year. But compared to the previous year’s record, shipment of the two main crops had gone down by 20 percent.

In Ormoc, shipping was bol-stered by the building of a wooden pier on February 22, 1900. La Naviera Filipina was organized by Aboitiz y Cia and Hijos de F. Escaño. Some of their vessels which survived until after the wra were Emilia, Picket, Baybay

It was in the trading of hemp, copra and rice that Spanish trad-ers like the Aboitizes of Ormoc, the Muerteguis of Palompon, the Morazas of Baybay and the Escaños of Malibog and Maasin flourished in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but after the civil disturbances in the province, the shift of their businesses to Cebu soon became evident. With Paulino Aboitiz advancing in years, his sons were soon taking over the family business and establishing their office in Cebu in 1910 with their partner the Muertiguis of Palompon.

1903 Ormoc PopulationPoblacion 5,419Aguiting 221Biliboy 41Boroc 1,086Catayum 461Dayhagan 1,058Dolores 1,310Donghol 430Linao 2,699Magaswe 7Patag 380San Antonio 1,049Sumangga 111Valencia 1,734Total 16,126

Ugmok 57

During the first few years of 1900, practically no food products were produced in Leyte, except in the towns of Leyte, Alang-alang and San Miguel. Indeed, much of these cereals had to be imported from other provinces. Rice was imported and served as one of the major features of commerce in the province. This article was brought from Manila and Cebu to the different commercial houses, who in turn sold to differ-ent small dealers and agents throughout the province according to the demand.

Corn production however reached higher levels especially in Baybay and Ormoc, bringing its prices down from P4 a cavan to 75 centavos. Shipments of the commodity in 1903 reached over 8,500 cavans in the entire province and were sold in the neighboring islands. Good quality cacao was likewise produced earlier in Ormoc, Biliran and Sogod.

Despite the political instability of the time, 1903 brought about an in-crease in population through in-migration. From a population of 8.107 in 1900, population in 1903 increased by almost 100 percent to 16,126. Inter-estingly, 63 Chinese arrived in Ormoc that year to carve out their fortune, eventually replacing the Spaniards in the trading of essential goods and commodities especially since the latter were moving out to Cebu then.

But of all the Chinese immigrants, it was someone from who arrived much earlier that prospered long after the post-war period. The China-man who was known as Tan Buco, got married to a Christian Nicolasa

A 1920 public transportation vehicle. (Photo courtesy of John Arradaza, Baybay, Leyte)

Ugmok58Jaguros Binondo and spent his honeymoon on board a ship for Ormoc, where he was baptized under the sponsorship of the Yrastorzas. He soon established his business of blacksmithing here , making farm implements and selling these to Ormoc farmers and the neighboring towns. A son Pablo Tan followed his footsteps, married a Salvatierra from Jaro and, at the beginning of the century, already had lands in Macabug and a ranch in Dolores. Among the Chinese, it was the Tan family that would exert enormous influence in Ormoc’s economy and politics, and one of his sons would become a senator, while other descendants would also play domi-nant roles in local politics.

Infrastructure

The principal mode of transportation at this time was by sea as the roads were hardly passable. This was especially true in the west coast. The Americans found out to their dismay that the road between Ormoc to Macrohon was overgrown and needed clearing and repairs, although it used to be well constructed. Practically all the bridges had been destroyed and the numerous streams were hard to ford. Near the larger towns were short sections that were passable for wagons, but on the whole these streams were only passable for horses but with difficulty.

Yet despite their being in a state of disrepair, the Americans noted that the engineering work done during the Spanish era was “considerable judging from the ruins remaining.” There were still stone arches up to 15-foot span, notably near Ormoc and Maasin and nearby towns. They were still serviceable but definitely needed repairs.

It was during these early American years that the latter also estab-lished a military camp. The 11th Infantry, under Major G. S. Young, were building the post, “which occupied some 100 acres and stood eighty feet above the sea, where a nice breeze was always obtainable. It promised to be one of the healthiest posts in the southern Philippines.” The camp- was named after 1LT Edward Elbert Downes, who was killed in action on June 23, 1901 in Salcedo, Eastern Samar. Nearby the Americans struck a vein of water “which gave a daily supply of seven to ten thousand gallons,” evidently referring to Agua Dulce.

As for communications, four postal routes were established by land throughout the province, and Ormoc had a weekly mail service as well as telegraph lines connecting it to the towns in the east and the provincial capital.

If there was one sector where the new American dispensation had

Ugmok 59somehow excelled in, it was in educa-tion. In September 1902, Mary B. McClellan became the first Thomasite to teach in Ormoc. By 1905, 592 pupils enrolled had en-rolled in school out of a possible school population of 4,152. There were already

11 municipal teachers that year who were part of 19 school districts under an American inspector. By 1906, another Thomasite was assigned here; this time, he was a Filipino by the name of Genaro Palami. He was placed in charge of the central school as of March 3, 1906.

The average salary of the American school teacher at that time was P193.70 a month, while that of the Filipino insular teacher P40. As for that of the municipal teacher, salary fluctuated between P10 and P35.

Everything was going well until an unfortunate incident where a pupil, named Juan Cabiling, fatally stabbed the American principal Clar-ence T. Allen with a sharpened pencil after being reportedly reprimanded and physically abused by the latter during a class which the American was facilitating. Cabiling was at first hidden by his relatives but later surren-dered. He was confined at the Iwahig Penal Colony in Palawan, got mar-ried there and returned with a family after he served his prison term.

In a bid to foster Catholic education, Padre Ismael Cataag, a native of Ormoc, set up what became as the first Catholic school in Leyte. It was first called the ‘Colegio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe’ and run by the Sisters of Compania de Jesus . Then in 1930, it was turned over to the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of the Philippines. Fr. St. Peter’s Academy, the school was later renamed St. Peter’s College.

Health was an issue that reached alarming levels in 1903. Official reports said 880 people died in Ormoc alone – 251 from malaria and 160 from Asiatic cholera. Because of the cholera that had become an epidemic, the American regime sent its sanitary inspector around the municipalities affected by the disease, one of which was Ormoc. In this account, the sani-tary inspector Dr. Charles W. Hack paints a graphic picture of the sanitary conditions found here and in a few other selected places inspected.

Ugmok60“All of these islands are narrow, and with very few exceptions the

pueblos are built along low coastline and the site selected with a view to the accessibility to the sea rather than from a sanitary standpoint. Generally speaking, sanitary conditions are bad. There is usually an estero or sluggish river through the principal part of the town, into which rubbish, garbage, refuse, etc. is dumped and allowed to accumulate and over which as many houses are built as space will permit. These are the only substitutes for serv-ers. When the water runs out at low tide, there is left a foul, stinking, slimy swap, the odor from which is sickening to one not accustomed to it. There is little or no attempt made in most places to clean the streets, yards or wa-terways. The pueblos of Barili, Cebu; Ormoc, Leyte; Calbayog, Samar and many others have accumulations of filth for months.

“…the substitute for a closet in general use consists of four bamboo poles stuck in the ground, with a small platform of the same material built up some feet, and a nipa screen on one or more sides. There are no vaults and the hogs are allowed to feed on the offal. It is no uncommon sight to see hogs in the streets covered with human feces…”

Ugmok 61

Modern Ormoc traces the roots of its progress from the sugar industry started by the Aboitiz family in the 1920s. Small sugar mills (called intusan) had been operating since Spanish days, producing muscovado and kinugay for the local mar-

kets. The cane presses in these mills were carabao-drawn and cooking of the cane juice was done in large vats until they were thick. Then they were placed on wooden racks to dry, after which these were broken into smaller pieces. One popular way was to place the cooked sugar inside a coconut shell broken in half. But production of this was done on a small scale.

The shift from abaca came in the 1920s after sugar was included in the list of products that enjoyed privileges in the U.S. market, formal-ized under tariff agreements. It was during this time that sugar centrals and their huge machines were built to process sugar cane. To feed these machines, large tracts of lands were planted to sugar cane. Although Or-moc’s sugar industry development came much later than that of Negros and Pampanga, it had a huge impact on the local economy and the lives

Chapter 10

Sugar industry grows

Ugmok62of many Ormocanons, enriching the few families who rode on the crest of the industry development. It changed the character of the local economy altogether, and almost overnight farmers shifted from abaca to planting sugar cane.

The impetus for the industry’s growth came from the U. S. when Congress enacted the Payne-Aldrich Act of 1909, giving the Philippines a 300,000-ton duty-free share of the U.S. sugar market, and in 1913 under the Underwood-Simmons Bill, weight limitation was dropped.

It did not take long before the country’s sugar growers, especially in Negros, took advantage of the quota and started building sugar mills initiated by the Carlos Milling Company in 1912, with Hawaiian money pouring in. Two other groups of Spanish investors put up small centrals at Ilog and Kabankalan in 1916 and 1917, respectively. Then a large central was built at Bais, Negros Oriental, in 1919.

This was followed by the erection of six large Filipino-owned mills: at Isabela (1919), Ma-ao (1920), Bacolod (1920), Talisay (1920), and Binal-bagan (1921), all in Negros Occidental, and at San Fernando, Pampanga (1921), with generous loans from the Philippine National Bank which was founded in 1916.

Ormoc’s own sugar mill in Ipil was built in 1919 with a rated capac-ity of only 250 tons a day. Three years earlier, Aboitiz had acquired Hda.

Ugmok 63Buroc, which was leased by one of Paulino’s sons, Guillermo, in 1921 so he could run it on his own with partner Antonio Sagardui. Guillermo renamed the hacienda after his daughter’s name Maria Teresa. Lease was to expire in 1935. But when the post-war economic crisis of 1920-21 oc-curred, prices of sugar plummeted and the factory did not operate

This would resurface in 1929 when the milling business was incor-porated into Ormoc Sugar Company with incoporators that included non-members of the Aboitiz family, like the American sugar technologist Robert Denton Hind, E. B. Ford, S. H. Deebel, Martin Geary, Tiburcio Tancinco, Bernardo Torres, Jose Sy Jong Chuy and Arsenio N. Luz. Hind was said to be responsible for securing OSCO’s share of the quota in the American market amounting to 80,000 piculs.

OSCO was still largely an Aboitiz venture though. The family had to raise money from the sale of cattle from their ranch in Masbate. Two years after its incorporation, it was producing 14,000 piculs of sugar under Paulino Jr. as manager. For its supply of sugar cane, Aboitiz and Co. took over Hda. Maria Teresa and turned over management to Fernando Moraza, a cousin, younger brother of Manuel Moraza, after World War II

OSCO later sold out to Gil Montilla of Negros Occ. who secured financing from Warner Barnes & Co. and paid P750,000 for a compnmay which had assets worth only P360,000.

Sy Jong Chuy and Arsenio N. Luz. Hindwas said to be responsible for securing OSCO’s share of the quota in the American market amounting to 80,000 piculs. OSCO was still largely an Aboitizventure though. The fam-ily had to raise money from the sale of cattle from their ranch in Masbate. Two years after its incorporation, it was producing 14,000 piculs of sugar under Paulino Jr. as manager. For its supply of sugar cane, Aboitiz and Co. took over Hda. Maria Teresa and turned over management to Fernando Moraza, a cousin, younger brother of Manuel Moraza, after World War II OSCO later sold out to Gil Montilla of Negros Occ. who secured financ-ing from Warner Barnes & Co. and paid P750,000 for a company which had assets worth only P360,000. In 1930, its interest shifting from sugar, Aboitiz bought the Ormoc Electric Light Co. from the Borromeo fam-ily, a facility which they would operate until the ‘70s as they continued to develop their interests in shipping.

Ugmok64

The stirrings of war have been felt by Ormocanons even before the Japanese came in 1942 because of developments in Manila. The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese sent shock waves of fear and anticipation on a population already charged by rumors of

war.But instead of uniting them against potential enemies and invad-

ers, the attitudes of Ormocanons were varied, depending on which side of the political fence one stood. Indeed, war divided the Ormocanos into antagonistic factions which survived even long after the war.

But while many had ambivalent attitudes towards the occupation forces, only the Tans, particularly the descendants of Pablo, seemed to have a definite choice. This was particularly true of Angel Jr., who was close to the Japanese, and to Dominador Tan, head of the Japanese Kali-bapi in Manila. Before the war, Angel Jr., together with a son of President Laurel, was sent to Japan for his studies. There he learned Nippongo in the process.

During the war, he became the driver and confidante of the Japanese

Chapter 11

Japanese Occupation

Ugmok 65in Leyte. A Japanese businessman known as Itoh used the Tan’s Rosa-lie building as a business front for his spying operations before the war. When war broke and the Japanese arrived in Ormoc, Itoh revealed his true character as a top Japanese officer. Such actuations would have tragic repercussions on the Tan family as the war progressed and the conflict among the rival political clans intensified.

Mayor Hermosilla

The majority of the residents in the town fled to mountain hideaways even before the arrival of the Japanese sometime in June 1942, with its mayor Catalino Hermosilla, leading the evacuation. He would come down a few months later, made friends with the Japanese and endeared himself to them by organizing a pro-Japanese Home Guard, the supposed guard-ians of peace and order during the Japanese occupation.

Hermosilla was said to be a consummate politician, who sided with the Japanese so long as such an alliance could enhance his political status. A Spanish mestizo, he used to be a public school teacher in Ormoc Institute, became its di-rector and a ‘Supremo’ of the ‘Legionarios del Trabajo.’ From then on, he jumped to politics, became a town councilor, a municipal vice- president until 1929 and finally a mayor in 1940 after he defeated the incumbent Mario Codilla.

Cementing his relationship with the landed class of Ormoc, he married Irene Larrazabal. However, his later actions would not save him from the wrath of the Lar-razabals who supported the guerillas and later the American occupation forces.

Hermosilla’s behavior seemed like that of other local officials who kowtowed to the Japanese, but unlike many of them, neither the Japanese nor the guerillas knew where his true loyalties lay because while he acted as mayor under the bidding of the occupation forces, he kept his lines of communication with the guerilla open.

After the war, several of his political enemies swore in their affidavits that he certainly used his position to entrench himself in power as long as his physical condition would permit. Some would claim that he issued death sentences against many of his enemies who would be subsequently executed by the guerillas. He was imprisoned on charges of collaboration but would be released because no one came forward to testify.

WLGWF

Unlike Hermosilla, the guerillas of Ormoc under Lt. Blas Miranda were steadfast in their anti-Japanese posture, notwithstanding that some

Ugmok66of his men were known to have committed excesses. Miranda was one of the junior officers in Leyte who refused to surrender to the Japanese. After the surrender of his superiors in Tacloban, Miranda and his men decided to leave the camp, taking all the firearms and ammunitions with them to establish his new underground headquarters in “Campo Langit,” the code name of his camp in Brgy. Mahilaum, a mountain village east of the city.

Miranda, who had cultivated friendship with Ormoc’s elite, used their trucks to haul equipment and supplies from various sources. Ac-cording to guerilla veteran the late Emiliano Teves, then a student at the Baybay National Agricultural School (the present Leyte State University), Miranda got the school’s generating set for his mountain headquarters. Lathes, welding equipment, drill press and several other machines from private sources were likewise hauled to the camp. Fuel came from the alcohol distillery of the Ormoc Sugar Central in Ipil. In these he was as-sisted by unsurrendered soldiers like Guillermo Cabacoy, Flaviano Cortes, Rustico Geneston, Margarito Moniesa and others.

Miranda and his group would later form the Western Leyte Guerilla Warfare Forces (WLGWF). Two other officers who did not surrender with Col. Ruperto Kangleon in Mindanao, Maj. Marcos Soliman and Capt. Aristoteles Olayvar, would journey all the way from Mindanao to Palompon, Leyte. They would establish contact with Miranda in Ormoc and set up a general service school for the WLGWF in Palompon. Though higher in rank, they would subordinate themselves to Miranda in the guerilla organization. His organiza-tional acumen would soon be reflected in the military organization that had a base camp in Brgy. Mahilawum. According to the military experts at that time, the WLGWF was by far the most organized and the biggest, having at its peak some 15,000 members scattered the neighboring towns of Palompon, Kananga, Albuera and Baybay.

According to Soliman, WLGWF’s organizational structure was patterned after that of the regular divisions with modifications to suit guerilla purposes. It had six regiments operating more or less independently, a complete general staff composed mostly of ex-reserve officers who had seen action in other fronts, but its general headquarters had a strong mobile combat team that could be moved from one locality to another in case a regiment is hard pressed. Among the vari-ous guerilla organizations in Leyte at that time, it had the most complete setup. It had a munitions ordinance which manufactured ammunitions, grenades and land mines under the direct supervision of Miranda himself who was an engi-neer by vocation and an inventor by avocation. The tools of the trade were dismantled piece by piece and transported from Barrio Ipil’s Ormoc Sugar Central Company (OSCO), a sugar mill then partly owned by the Aboitiz

Ugmok 67family, to the headquarters in Barrio Mahilaum.

In June 1943, the WLGWF already had 417 officers and some 12,000 men organized into six regiments. By then, Miranda was already known as by his nom de guerre as “Col. Briguez.” The group also had a hospital headed by the former chief of hospital of Southern Islands Hospital in Cebu, Dr. Domingo Veloso, and staffed with several other medical practi-tioners all on a voluntary basis. It also had some engineers and lawyers, a judge advocate general’s office headed by Atty. Ramon Teleron, the AGS, the OMS Corps, signal men, chaplains, a general service school for offic-ers and a signal school for signal enlisted men.

Keeping the organization intact was in itself a major feat considering the logistical requirements of survival. But Miranda was able to solve the problem by extending his links to several landowners and making friends with many of them, including the landowner Potenciano Larrazabal, who contributed heavily to the guerilla organization from his stocks of grain, sugar, coffee, in addition to monetary contributions.

Home Guard, political killings

In the meantime, Mayor Catalino Hermosilla tried his best to

Ugmok68cooperate with the Japanese, first, with the creation of the pro-Japanese Home Guard in line with the dictates of counterparts in Tacloban, Board Member Salazar and Gov. Torres. Organized in October 1942, Hermosilla established the group after he realized the strength of Japanese, intend-ing to protect the civilian population from the attacks of the guerillas. Initially, he had contacts with the guerillas, but when this was found out by the Japanese through reports by the Tan family, he was arrested by the Japanese. This prompted Hermosilla to organize the Home Guard to gain the favor of the Japanese forces.

By December 1943, the Japanese 20th Infantry Regiment was prais-ing the efforts of the Home Guard in Ormoc, adding that the evacuees had returned and showed cooperation with the Japanese. In a letter writ-ten by Hermosilla to Gov. Torres, he appealed for more Japanese soldiers in Ormoc, fearing that the guerillas of Miranda were gaining the upper hand. By this time, the HG already numbered 108 although they had only 20 rifles. He said the group needed more guns because they were being attacked by the guerillas.

The situation brought about by the presence of the Japanese in the town, backed by the Home Guards of Hermosilla, on the one hand and the guerillas on the other made for an unstable political atmosphere that presented opportunities for those who had the gun. To some guerillas, it was time for retribution especially against two prominent families here who appeared to have incurred blood debts during pre-war times.

The first to be executed were Pablo and Teofilo Mejia. Rumors were rife that some of their previous tenants did them in. But their pro-Jap-anese stance probably made it easier for the guerillas to execute them. When Augusto Tan went to Campo Langit to make inquiries, he did not return. Presumably he was also executed. This triggered the exodus of the Tans from their place in San Antonio. Only Alfonso and Enrique were left behind at Pedro Tan’s farm, while the rest of the family went to the town where they felt they were safer. Very soon, the guerillas raided the farm and burned their house. bodega, and three other buildings. They did not spare Alfonso, but Enrique was able to escape passing through the cane fields and the seashore on his bare feet. It was Enrique who informed his family about what happened at their farm. The smoke from the burning bodega, which was full of copra, continued for about a week. Both he and Angel Jr., left for a farm in Merida, but they were overtaken by the guerillas and killed. After these killings, the rest of the family fled Ormoc and came back only after the war. Their Japanese connection did not save them from the wrath of the guerillas

Ugmok 69

The October 20, 1945 landing of MacArthur and thousands of his troops in the beaches of eastern Leyte towns was a fulfillment of a promise he made four years before when he was fleeing the Japanese encirclement of Bataan and Corregidor. “I shall return,”

he said solemnly. That promise kept alive the hopes of Filipinos who had evacuated from the Japanese-controlled town centers and cities and of underground guerrilla forces who kept on hitting the enemy with hit-and-run tactics.

That he had finally landed did not assure the immediate surrender of the enemy. Instead, the Japanese, far from being demoralized, rallied its troops and reconcentrated them in Leyte in the hope of stopping the American juggernaut. The slow pace of their advance only demonstrates the perisitence and determination of their enemy. From Palo, the Japanese moved inland to Dagami, then Burauen and across its mountainous ter-rain.

liberationChapter 12

Ugmok70In the northern part of the island, the Japanese took positions in the

hills above Capoocan and Barrio Limon, guarding the road and the valley below from well-placed foxholes and bunkers. By the middle of Novem-ber elements of the Sixth Army were trying to force their way into the Ormoc Valley and others were on the eastern shore of Ormoc Bay. The Americans wanted to secure control of the valley and the port of Ormoc and thus force the Japanese into the mountains near the western coast, from which they could escape only by sea.

American units, far to the south, were moving westward toward Baybay on the shore of the Camotes Sea. On the northeastern part of the island, other US troops were making slow progress in driving down the Ormoc corridor from the Limon- Pinamopoan- Carigara area. The area has a mountainous terrain and used to be thickly forested, affording Japa-nese troops good cover.

In mid-November, there was a proposal by one of the American commanding generals, Krueger, to make an amphibious landing at a point a little south of Ormoc. The full-scale attack was going to be made on De-cember 5. For this, fire power from the US navy would play a crucial role in this landing plan. The US air force was also tapped to give air upport.

The US troops were to land about three and a half miles southeast of Ormoc, in the barrio of Deposito. This was one of the many sites selected from among many found to be uitable. The beach area selected, though narrow, had a surface of hard sand and gravel that could be used as a road by vehicles. As expected, Japanese troops already had guns in place guard-ing the area. So as theAmericans were about to land, the Japanese opened fire. But soon these were silenced by the destroyers.

There were also Japanese 3-inch guns behind Ipil which the destroy-ers quickly wiped out. Thus, when the American troops finally waded ashore, they did not suffer any casualty. Within thirty-five minutes the dvance echelon of division headquarters, including the assistant division commander and the general staff sections, were ashore. Coming after them were thousands of American troopers who would continue the as-sault toward the town of Ormoc.

Japanese reinforcements

But the Japanese would not be put aside too easily. Japanese rein-forcements from Cebu were on its way to Ormoc. A captured Japanese field order revealed that an all-out offensive would be launched against the Americans in the middle of November. The battle for Ormoc was not

Ugmok 71going to be a walk in the park for the Americans. Opposition was going to be stiff. This became evident when the American convoy steamed into Or-moc. A Japanese convoy which comprised six transports and seven escort vessels and with troop reinforcements was on its way to meet them.

US planes flew to intercept these Japanese vessels, resulting in a morning of one of the most intense aerial battles of the Leyte Campaign. Fifty-six P-47’s of two Fighter quadrons dropped 94 1,000-pound and six 500-pound bombs on the Japanese ships and strafed the vessels. Nearly all the available American aircraft were engaged in the attack.

At 8 past that same morning, the Japanese launched a strong aerial offensive against the American vessels in Ormoc Bay. The attacks con-tinued for nearly nine and a half hours. The American Air Force an hour earlier provided air cover throughout the day and “did an excellent job.” On a number of occasions, however, the Japanese airplanes slipped through the antiaircraft fire and the air protection and hit the American ships. Japanese suicide aircraft struck and badly damaged five vessels.

An American destroyer Mahan and high-speed transport were badly hit and eventually sank after the Japanese attacks. All in all, the Japanese made 16 different raids on the American ships, during which an estimated 45 to 50 aircraft attacked the formation. Thirty-six of these were believed to have been shot down.

After that day, General MacArthur in his daily communique an-nounced that the entire convoy was wiped out and that some 4,000 enemy troops lost their lives in that battle.

“The Battle of Ormoc Bay marked theend of an era of naval warfare that hadbegun with Admiral Dewey in Manila Bay.There will be wars

Ugmok72and there will be naval engagements. But never again will the full force of enemy air, sea, shore and undersea weapons be unleashed in one furious battle.”( Irwin J. Kappes in Sea Classic Magazine November 1996)

Land Battle

The land battles would have an altogether different configuration. At the barrio of Deposito where the Americans had landed unopposed, very few trenches have been dug by the Japanese because they failed to an-ticipate that the Americans would land here. So only individual trenches were dug along the coast, and the field positions in the northern part of Ipil were elementary. They took up their defensive positions only in the next coastal barrio, Ipil. The enemy plan of defense was simple. At the town of Ormoc, the Japanese, from their main defensive positions, were to stop the advance and then, gathering as much strength as possible, they were to counterattack.

The Japanese defenses, however, were not completed at the time of the American landings. The major part of the Japanese 30th Division remained on Mindanao, while the American strength was estimated to be one regiment. The Japanese had placed machine guns, and in one instance a cannon, in dugouts under the houses in Ipil. But these were soon cleared by the advancing troops, killing 66 Japanese and capturing one prisoner of war, a medical supply dump, a bivouac area, and numerous documents. After Ipil, the next target was Camp Downes.

Camp Downes

Immediately north of Ipil, the Japanese commander Colonel Mitsui had constructed a few small strong points, each of which consisted of two coconut log pillboxes, several trenches, and foxhole emplacements for machine guns. Between these positions and Camp Downes were groups of riflemen and machine gunners on the banks of the streams and at the ends of wooded ridges that extended from the northeast toward the highway. They had dug in at the bases of the trees and on the edges of the bamboo clumps. In the sector between Ipil and Camp Downes, the high-way was nine feet wide, with three-foot shoulders, and surfaced with coral or gravel. Fields of sugar cane or grassy hills lay east of the road, which was fringed with clumps of acacia or coconut trees.

At least one reinforced Japanese company had taken up its last defen-sive stand at Camp Downes. less than a mile from Ormoc, Camp Downes

Ugmok 73

had been an important Philippine Army and Constabulary camp before the war. The plateau on which it was situated lay east of the highway and commanded all approaches, most of which were open and without cover. A ravine ran along the southern side of the barrio. At Camp Downes the Japanese had placed thirteen machine guns, two 40-mm. antiaircraft guns, and three 75-mm. field pieces under the porches and in the founda-tions of buildings. These were well camouflaged and mutually supporting and were protected by concealed riflemen.

As the American division consolidated its positions in Ipil, the Japa-nese started to use reinforcements to check any further advance toward Ormoc. One infantry regiment had assembled at Dolores, northeast of Ormoc. On the night of December 7, two companies were poised to cooperate with the units under Colonel Mitsui in delaying the advance of the American forces until the arrival of the main body of one Japanese infantry. The attack started early morning as the troops under Colo-nel Hamilton moved out. But only 200 yards north, they were already encountering stiff resistance as they neared Panalian River just outside Ipil. The order was for them to reach the ravine just south of the Camp Downes plateau.

Meantime, a platoon from one company moved over water toward Camp Downes to secure information on the dispositions of the Japanese. Despite being under heavy fire, the platoon returned to report the the location of the Japanese artillery. The supporting Field Artillery Battalion

Ugmok74thereupon shelled the Japanese artillery positions.

But the continuous shelling did not wipe out determined opposition of the Japanese who used used rifles, mortars, and small artillery from dug-in positions along finger ridges and streams. The Japanese had a pre-pared position 1,000 yards in depth from which they swept the rice fields which the troops had to traverse, but fire from the American automatic weapons and mortars forced the Japanese to fall back. At one time, a Japa-nese company counterattacked and hit the advancing American chemi-cal battalion. They were however repulsed twice. The chemical company stopped both charges with high explosives and white phosphorus shells. Pressing forward, members of an infantry division captured considerable quantities of small arms and artillery ammunition.

By nightfall, they had advanced some 2,000 yards. Later reports would show that the Japanese forces suffered greatly in the course of the day. A battalion commander was severely wounded and the battalion itself had many casualties. Consequently, two battalions were alerted to join another battalion to take positions north of Ormoc, on the night of 9 December. The Japanese troops in the sector opposing the avancing American division now had an effective military strength of 1,740 Japa-nese troops.

On the early morning of December 9, American artillery started to direct their fire at the Japanese in Camp Downes, in preparation for the attack by the infantry against the camp. By 8:30, the Americna infantry was moving out toward Camp Downes. In the meantime, the Japanese had regrouped and emplaced their forces on ridges and high ground which overlooked all possible approaches to Camp Downes and Ormoc. They were defending the area with at least two companies, heavily rein-forced with automatic weapons.

Thus, the attacking forces were met with intense small arms and artillery fire. The Americans however would not be denied their target. They would secure their target before the day’s end. At one of the Japa-nese strong points that had been overrun were found 11 heavy machine guns, two 40-mm. antiaircraft guns, and three 75-mm. guns. Still late in the afternoon, Japanese aircraft strafed the regiment and inflicted several casualties.

At 30 minutes past 5:00 in the afternoon, the American infantry en-tered Camp Downes, secured the area, and established a night perimeter. Its total advance for the day was about 1,000 yards. The town of Ormoc, a few hundred meters away, was scheduled for December 10, the next day.

Ugmok 75

Ormoc town

Two infantry regiments were assigned for this. One would attack along the highway to its front while the other would move to the north-east and attempt to envelop the opposing enemy force. A third infantry unit initially was to remain stationary and defend its part of the line. Or-moc, the largest and most important commercial center in western Leyte, possessed a concrete and pile pier at which a vessel with a sixteen-foot draft, and two smaller vessels, could anchor at the same time.

On the route to Ormoc and in the town itself, the Japanese dug strong defensive positions. The favored sites were in bamboo thickets, on reverse slopes, along creek beds, and under buildings. Individual spider holes about six feet deep were covered with logs and earth and “beauti-fully camouflaged.” Against such positions, artillery and mortar fire did little more than daze the defenders.

Each position had to be searched out and destroyed. To prepare for the assault, the Americans established an observation post at Camp Downes. Artillery fire started at a few minutes past 9 in the morning against predetermined suspected Japanese positions.

Ugmok76The Navy supported the attack with its light vehicles ferrying troops

as well as weaponry. In the meantime, a company of an amphibian tank battalion with its 75-mm. howitzers moved into Ormoc--the first Ameri-can troops to enter the town. Then two platoons of the company moved through the streets and sent high explosives and smoke shells into the buildings occupied by the Japanese.

The enemy defenders were also hit from the bay from the Navy’s light crafts, coming though the pier. For a while, a firefight resulted between them and the Japanese defenders of the pier. It was these troops who fired their rockets into the center of the town. Infantry troops encountered little resistance until they neared the outskirts of Ormoc, where a deep ravine lay between the southern edge of the town and the front lines of the advancing troops.

An enemy force, which had dug in on both sides and along the top of this ravine, had to be rooted out with bayonets, grenades, and mortars. In spite of the determined enemy resistance, American casualties were very light. At the end of the short but swift battle, Ormoc “was a blaz-ing inferno of bursting white phosphorus shells, burning houses, and exploding ammunition dumps, and over it all hung a pall of heavy smoke from burning dumps mixed with the gray dust of destroyed concrete buildings,blasted by . . . artillery, mortar, and rocketfire.”

The two advancing regiments that landed in Deposito had “squeezed theenemy like a tube of toothpaste.” One had enveloped the northeast flank, while the drive of another division up the shore of Ormoc Bay banished any hopes that the Japanese might have entertained of escaping southeast by the highway. They had no choice but to move up north.

Those Japanese left behind heroically but hopelessly fought to delay the American advance. Situated in spider holes beneath the buildings, they stubbornly fought back until overcome. Street by street, house by house, the advancing American infantry cleared Ormoc, which was a scene of gutted buildings and rubble. Many ammunition and signal sup-ply dumps were captured, including a church that had been filled with artillery and small arms ammunition.

As his troops were reducing Ormoc, the American General Bruce reported to his commanding commanding general on the status of the attack and referred to a promise that had been made by the commanding general of the Fifth Air Force: “Where is the case of Scotch that was prom-ised by General Whitehead for the capture of Ormoc. I don’t drink but I have an assistant division commander and regimental commanders who do. . . .” By 5:30 in the afternoon of December 10, one American advanc-

Ugmok 77

ing infantry regiment pushed through the town, and established a night perimeter on the banks of the Anilao River on the western edge of Ormoc where it tied in with the front line of the other infantry regiment.

At long last, Ormoc was in American hands. In its drive north, the American division killed an estimated 1,506 Japanese and took 7 prison-ers. Its own casualties were 123 men killed, 329 wounded, and 13 missing in action.

“...a blazing inferno of bursting white phosphorus shells, burning houses, and exploding ammunition dumps, and over it all hung a pall of heavy smoke from burning dumps mixed with the gray dust of destroyed concrete buildings, blasted by . . . artillery, mortar, and rocket fire.”

Ugmok78

The Jesuit, Father Combes, in his Historia... referred to the townsfolk as KaUGMOKanos ( Historixcal Sketches of the Pueblos of Leyte,1580-1900 , Artigas y Cuerva-Kobak)Braganza, Fr. Vicente, SVD, “Story of Leyte,” unpublished manuscript, DWU MuseumChirino, Fr. Pedro, Relacion de las Islas Pilipinas, Rome, 1604, Manila 1969Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Resena de la Provincia de Leyte, 1914Blair and Robertson, “Assignment of Encomiendas,” The Philippine Islands, Vol. 34de la Costa, Fr. Horacio, S.J, The Jesuits in the Philippines 1581-1768Blair and Robertson, Assignment of Encomiendas, The Philippine Islands, Vol. 34A fanega was equivalent to 55.501 liters dry capacity.“Calagan: gente animosa. La nacion de los Caragas, que no constituye raza especial propiamente dicha, se extiende desde del Cabo de San Agustin hasta la punta Bilas, de Surigao”. [Combes, op. cit., cols. 777-778]. )[Note: that great portion of Alzina has been destroyed regretably and is not available, cjk] ). “Denominacion generica de los pobladores infieles que habitaban parte de la peninsula comprendida entre los senos de Sarangani y de Davao. En la actualidad, los Sanguiles ocupan una pequena zona del litoral Sur de Mindanao, entre la ensnada de Tuna y el citado seno de Sarangani’Ignacio Alzina, Historia de las islas and Indios de Bisayas...1668, Part II, Book 1Alzina, Francisco Ignacio, S.J, Pintados, June 24, 1660. Translation from Spanish is mine, Cantius J. Kobak.Braganza, Fr. Vicente, Story of Leyte, unpublished manuscript found in the DWU Museum, Tacloban CityRolando Borrinaga and Cantius Kobak, OFM, “Colonial Odyssey of Leyte,” a Translation of Reseña de la Provincia de Leyte por Manuel Arti-gas y CuervaPerez, Rev. Elviro J., Catalogo Bio-bibliografico de los Religiosos Agusti-nos de la Provincia del Santissimo Nombre de Jesus de las Islas Pilipinas, Manila, 1901Archival documents source: Erecciones de los Pueblos, 2-2-B/0119 – Leyte, 1823-1896 Mojares, Resil, Aboitiz Family and Firm in the Philippines, Cebu City, 1998:Erecciones de los Pueblos, Leyte, 1921-1891, Bk. 1, “Estado por pueblos

References

Ugmok 79que determina la extension superficial que comprende el distrito judicial actual de Leyte…”Gazetter of the Phil. IslandsFiel, Sr. Teresita Tan, RGS, “Echoes of a Generation,” a family history book of the TansEtched signs are still visible with some prominent names.Fiel, Asisclo, Manila Times, June 15, 1957. Fiel’s source was the late Rafael D. Omega, a former city treasurer.Seminario de San Carlos Yearbook, undated; from the collection of the late Asisclo FielRedondo, Felipe y Sendino, Breve Reseña Diocesis de Cebu en las Islas Pilipi-nas, Manila, 1886, p. 209Eleccion de Gobernadorcillos – Leyte, B# 118 – SDS 14589, Bundled Docu-ments, National Archives, Manila “Relacion de los Capitanes, muncipes y delegados de la principalia de los pueb-los de esta provincial constituidos tribunals municipals,” Provincia de Leyte, Año de 1894Marco, Sofia, “Dios Dios,” Philippine Studies, Vol. 49, First Quarter, 2001, p. 49“Sedicciones y Rebellones”, Bundled Documents, #10564, 1-17-A/0018, Leyte, National Archives, ManilaAuthor’s interview of Emmanuel Sabelino, son of Col. Conrado Sabelino who heard the story from his maternal grandfather Mateo Solidor himself.J. H. Grant, Provincial Governor, Philippine Commission Reports, Tacloban, Jan. 15, 1903Hurley, Vic, “Jungle Patrol”Report of the Philippine Commission, Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Depart-ment, Four Annual Report of the Philippine Commission, Part I (1903) Wash-ington: Government Printing Office: 1904, Report by Provincial Governor J.H. Grant, citing Wallace TaylorFifth Annual Report of the Philippine Commission, 1904. In three Parts, Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1905, p. 533Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department Fourth Annual Report of the Philip-pine Commission Part I, 1903, Washington: Government Printing Office: 1904, p. 840Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Dept. Seventh Annual Report of the Philippine Commission 1906. Part I. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907, Re-port of the Governor of Leyte, p. 321New York Times, July 26, 1909Report of the Philippines Commission, Report of the Provincial Governor, Prov-ince of Leyte, Office of the Provincial Governor, Tacloban, December 31,1902Report of the Governor of the Province of Leyte, Tacloban, August 6, 1904, cit-ing report for the year ending June 30, 1904, Annual Reports of the War Depart-

Ugmok80ment for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1904, Vol XI Report of the Philippine Commission Part I. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1905Census of the Philippine Islands, taken under the direction of the Philippine commission in the year 1903, in four volumes .Author: United States. Bureau of the Census. Publication Info: Washington : [Gov’t print. off.], 1905Report of the Philippine Commission, Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Depart-ment, Four Annual Report of the Philippine Commission, Part I, 1903. Wash-ington: government Printing Office: 1904, Report by Provincial Governor J.H. GrantReport of the Philippine Commission to the President. January 31, 1900[-De-cember 20, 1900] [Vol. 1, no. 1], United States. Philippine Commission (1899-1900). Washington, : Gov’t print. off., 1900-01.Census of the Philippine Islands, taken under the direction of the Philippine Commission in the year 1903, United States. Bureau of the CensusPopulation of the Philippines: by islands, provinces, municipalities, and barrios, Publication Info: [Washington, D.C.] Dept. of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census : Govt. Print. Off., 1904.Report of the Governor of the Province of Leyte, Office of the Governor, Prov-ince of Leyte, Tacloban, August 26, 1906Philippine Island. Bureau of Education. Bulletin No. 25: Official Roster of the Bureau of Education (corrected to 1 March 1906) . Manila Bureau of Printing, 1906 [L961 .P4 A3 1906], Philippines (Republic). Bureau of Public Schools, Department of Education. Annual School Reports 1901-1905Report of Provincial Governor Jaime de Veyra, Philippine Commission Reports, 1906Cabiling’s descendants are now living in a barrio of Albuera. One of his sons served as a guerilla during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.Census of the Philippine Islands, taken under the direction of the Philippine commission in the year 1903, in four volumes . United States. Bureau of the Census., Washington : [Gov’t print. off.], 1905Report of the Special Sanitary Inspection of the Islands of Cebu, Bohol, Samar and Leyte by Dr. Charles W. Hack, Special Inspection, Report of the Philippine Commission, 1903Larkin, John A. Sugar and the Origins of Modern Philippine Society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993

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