by Atty. Mario D. Ortiz
Beverly Hills, Cebu City
I’d like to congratulate my good friend Consul John Domingo and Mila Espina for the well scripted program on the Independence Anniversary of the United States last July 4 at Marco Polo Plaza.
One of the most memorable events of my political career was the rare honor to welcome and present a memorial scroll to Gen. MacArthur at Plaza Independencia when he visited Cebu City in connection with his Sentimental Journey. The General was so pleased with that spontaneous show of our gratitude and affection that he hugged and kissed the young ladies who gave him bouquets.
When World War II broke out in December 1941, I was barely 19 years old and one of the seven distinguished graduates of the Advance ROTC among the colleges in Cebu. But because of my age I did not get commissioned as 2nd Lt. of the Philippine Army like my comrades. The worse happened a few months later when Lt. Col. Cabatingan informed me that the papers for my commission were lost when the ship M.V. Cebu that carried their communique to Manila was sunk by the Japanese Navy.
Douglas MacArthur
That was a bleak period in our country’s history. We became more desperate especially with the fall of Bataan and Corregidor. We thought all was lost, but then we were heartened upon hearing the news that before he escaped to Australia, Gen. Mac Arthur vowed to our people that “I shall return.”
That promise became the beacon of light and inspiration to our beleaguered Filipino soldiers so that guerillas mushroomed everywhere. I joined the resistance movement with the Bohol Area Command operating in Cebu under Capt. Casiano Cabagnot. We engaged in propaganda, sabotage and fifth column activities underground. Unfortunately for me on the night of August 5, 1944, I was seized from my residence at early dawn by some Japanese soldiers led by a fellow I knew, Edrong Cabusas, one of the undercover men.
I was immediately taken to the Kempetai, now Cebu Normal University, which was the headquarters or Japanese garrison. A month later I was transferred with other military prisoners to the Cebu Provincial Jail, which is now the Museo Sugbo or Cebu Museum.
I kept praying for our release and the fulfillment of Gen. Mac Arthur’s promise to return and liberate us. I was dismayed to learn that some allied officers of the USAFFE wanted to go straight to Japan and bypass the Philippines. But Gen. Mac Arthur’s plan prevailed and he kept his promise.
That blessed day came when the triumphant general waded along the shores of Tacloban City with our beloved President Sergio Osmeña Sr. and Gen. Carlos Romulo “who was said to have bravely fought the backlash of MacArthur”.
This indeed is the fulfillment of MacArthur’s promise to return and liberate our country. It is therefore proper that we remember Gen. MacArthur during his anniversary of US Independence because he was also instrumental in the restoration of our independence. And I dare say that we ought to celebrate our independence on July 4 together with the USA because the short-lived independence proclaimed by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo on June 12, 1898 was preempted by the Treaty of Paris when Spain ceded the Philippines to the US for 20 million pesos and we became a colony of US thereafter until we were fully granted independence on July 4, 1946. It is that independence which was restored by Gen. Mac Arthur.
Our great liberator was quoted in his farewell speech to the US Military Academy saying, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” This may be true, but for us Filipinos, the name of Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur and his glorious deeds will never fade away.
(Editor’s Note: Mario Ortiz practices law in Cebu City. He served as commissioner of the Commission on Elections Comelec in 1986 and as mayor of Cebu City in 1963.)