BADO DANGWA HUNTED DEAD OR ALIVE
After the Japanese occupied Baguio City it spread like wild fire that Bado Dangwa, had aided the United States Army with the use of his buses, trucks and cars. It also circulated that the Igorot chieftain had “looted” the prewar Japanese bazars in the city and supplied the goods to the retreating American forces to Bataan. Bado Dangwa’s loyalty to the Americans marked him as Japanese Enemy No.1. Japanese Gen. Masaharu Homma ordered his troops to conduct a massive hunt for the capture of Bado Dangwa dead or alive.
AMERICAN STRUGGLERS
Lt. Col. Martin Moses (ASN: 0-16924) was the commanding officer of the 15th Infantry Regiment (Philippine Scouts) while Lt. Col. Arthur K. Noble of 960 Chicago Boulevard, San Antonio, Texas commanded the Philippine Constabulary Regiment. Both infantries were constituent elements of the 11th Division that was known as the most heroic and die-hard defenders of Bataan and Corregidor in WW II. The Moses-Noble command consisted of Igorot and Ilocano soldiers who were coded as G.I.s that stood for genuine Igorots or genuine Ilocanos. The Igorot warriors demonstrated in their soldiery the deepest sense of unequalled discipline, stainless loyalty and full dedication to the United States Forces in the Far East. The Igorots, coming from the mountainous Cordilleras of Northern Luzon fought ferociously, thick and thin, side by side with the Americans against the Japanese. In Bataan, the Igorots crawled and crept in the dark to slash the necks of Japanese sentinels. They climbed armored tanks in motion and lobbed hand grenades into the cockpits immobilizing enemy tanks. The Igorots dedicated and committed themselves to sacrifice their lives, fighting the Japanese invaders. Many spilled the last drop of their blood in the battlefields for the restoration of freedom, liberty and democracy that was trampled upon by the enemy. They sacrificed their lives so others may survive and so that the on-coming generations may once again breathe the sweet air of freedom. Said General Douglas MacArthur of the Igorots on what he saw and observed during the Bataan Campaign in 1942:
“Many desperate acts of courage and heroism have fallen under my observation in many fields of battle in many parts of the world. I have seen forlorn hopes become realities. I have seen last-ditch stands and innumerable acts of personal heroism that defy description. But for the sheer breath-taking and heart-stopping description, I have never known the equal of those Igorots riding the enemy tanks”. 66th Infantry File.
The material body of the Igorot soldier was already consigned to the sands and dust of Bataan and Corregidor. Many died of sickness and hunger in the battlefields with their material bodies beyond recovery by their kins, yet equally, many survived because of the strong morale that they had, a legacy from “Kabunyan” handed down from one generation to another. Of the 259 Dangwa Tranco drivers, conductors and helpers who manned the commandeered fleet of Bado Dangwa, many died while enroute to Bataan. When Bataan and Corregidor fell to the enemy on April 9 and on May 6,1942 respectively, the Igorots were ordered to destroy beyond repair their vehicles in order to prevent utilization of the equipment by the Japanese and the Igorots deligently carried out the order while other soldiers fled. But with the limited tools within reach for them to totally destroy the vehicles, the witty Japanese soon revived many and used them in their ruthless war campaign in Baguio-Benguet area and the whole Mt. Province.
GEN. DOUGLAS MACARTHUR’S PARTING ADVICE
On order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur executed Orange Plan 2 – the code for the general’s escape with his family to Australia. The convoy of the general departed Corregidor on March 11,1942 by PT boats, crossing and ducking danger zones in the ocean, got to the Delmonte Pineapple Plantation Airport of his fellow Americans in Mindanao and then boarded a B-17 bomber plane to Australia and finally established his GHQ in Brisbane.
Prior to turning over his entire command of the Bataan and Corregidor defenders to Gen. Jonathan Wainwright and his departure to Australia, General Douglas MacArthur had left advice to his forces that if surrender becomes imminent, the Mountain Province would be a strategic place where to retreat until help from outside arrives and so it did happen for many American officers who refused surrender to the Japanese. Sgt. Julio Bolislis who survived the dreaded Bataan Death March from Bataan to Capas, Tarlac recalled in later years that disloyal Filipinos captured by the Japanese had spied to the enemy the well-entrenched and underground pipeline that supplied water to the U.S., British and Filipino forces in Bataan and in the Malinta Fort Tunnel in Corregidor that was immediately cut off by the enemy. After 14 days without water supply, surrender became imminent. U.S. officers: Martin Moses, Arthur K. Noble, Donald Blackburn, Everett Warner, Robert Arnold, Russell W. Volckmann, Ralph Praeger, Parker Calvert, George Barnett, Arthur Murphy, John Elliott, Grafton Spencer, Fish and Klugue all together agreed that escape, not surrender was the vital element of their immediate move. They penetrated the Mountain Region of the Igorots.
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