For my novel, The Buggy Driver, I used Yay Panlilio's accounts of guerrilla warfare to flesh out the character and activities of the character of Gabriella and my Uncle Moises.
One of the most famous guerilla leaders of the Filipino resistance, Yay Panlilio,
led the Marking Guerillas in Luzon. Panlilio spent three harrowing years of covert guerilla operations in the brutal jungles of Luzon battling for freedom against the Japanese Occupation. She watched hundreds of her "boys" make the ultimate sacrifice for the well-being of their loved ones. The guerrillas were passionate and fearless, willing to do anything to protect their families and to secure the future for their children and their children's children. Many joined the resistance to vindicate the deaths of their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, who suffered mightily under the regime. Panlilio's book is a moving tribute to their many acts of bravery and love.
Half-American and half-Filipino, Panlilio wrote: Filipinos will die for love, and Americans will die for principle. I am half-and-half. I die the same way." Exceptional in her courage, she fought alongside her boys on the front lines, and was renowned for being the brains of the Marking Guerillas.
Filipino Guerillas mobilized shortly after the U.S. surrender in May of 1942 that ended conventional military operations against the Japanese. For three years, Filipino guerillas banded together in various units, and by late 1944, had gained control of 36 of the Philippines’ 48 provinces. They were by and large supported by the entire population of the Filipinos.
This guerilla dominance of the countryside was the backbone of the success of the American invasion that began at Leyte in October 1944. Before the invasion, guerillas sent thousands of intelligence reports each month to the Allied command in Australia. These reports detailed troop allocations, military movements and installations, supply lines, and the daily routine of the occupiers. Guerrillas also secretly sabotaged various Japanese activities and sent out propaganda to lift Filipino morale.
Every guerilla was on a daily run for his life. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos died in the jungles, either of disease, starvation, being tortured, or in gun battles. Home Guards and runners (guerillas living in the cities and towns who acted as spies and couriers) were in constant peril of being reported and arrested. By the end of the war, all boys over 14 years old were suspects. Many met a gruesome and anonymous death, including my Uncle Moises whom we know was affiliated with the Marking Guerillas.
Their stories came to the forefront in 2014 when the American Government gave recognition for their contribution to the World War II war effort alongside the United States. Their contribution and the extent of their sacrifices, however, will probably never be fully known, as so many of them have passed away, and their testimonies never documented.
Their plight was aptly penned in a touching memorial poem by General Carlos in 1945:
To the men who fought In defense of the Philippines In the 1941-1942 campaign The ill-trained, ill-armed recruits In straw helmets and rubbers shoes The pilots without planes The sailors without ships The men on horseback Fighting tanks with sabers The gunners short of shells The soldiers with obsolete rifles Hungry in the foxholes of Bataan And the batteries of Corregidor Racked by dysentery, malaria, beriberi Surviving on false hopes Defeated at long last by their bodies Sent to die in their faceless thousands In the long cruel march to Capas And in the concentration camps This memorial is dedicated By their grateful countrymen Who will not forget That their defeat was weakness of the flesh But victory of faith loyalty and love.
~ Carlos P. Romulo
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