Cebuano treasures : Col. Manuel F. Segura War hero

CEBU, Philippines - Twenty-four awards in medals and badges: Military Merit Medal with Four Bronze Anahaw Leaves (which means he was awarded the MMM five times), US Bronze Star Medal with "V" Device for Heroism in Ground Combat, Distinguished Unit Emblem with Two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters, American Defense Service Medal with Clasp (for Foreign Service), Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with Four Bronze Combat Stars, World War II Victory Medal, Philippine Defense Ribbon with One Bronze Combat Star, Philippine Liberation Ribbon with Two Bronze Combat Stars, Philippine Independence Ribbon, Long Service Medal with One Bronze Star, Anti-Dissidence Campaign Medal, Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation Badge, Combat Infantryman's Badge, AFP Parachute Badge with Star, US Basic Parachute Badge, and the American Campaign Medal.

The recipient, Colonel Manuel Felimon Segura, has joined his Creator at 95 years old after his systems crashed in a Manila hospital late last year. Five years ago, he accorded me hospitality in his Mambaling residence and shared his journals, giving me one of the best interviews and finds of a lifetime.

Never did I learn Col. Maning's war exploits in any of my History class discussions. But a war veteran-neighbor from the mountain barangay of Tabunan passed on a brittle, moth-eaten copy of a book Col. Maning authored and thus spurred an interest to sit down with him in 2008. The opportunity gleaned a heap of information that made me all the more proud of our Cebuano freedom fighters, most especially those who defended my side of the universe - Toledo.

His two books are a compendium of testaments to heroism by soldiers and civilians alike of the Cebu resistance movement after the fall of Bataan. It exposed the Great South's significant position in the fall of the Japanese Imperial Army here.

Footnote in history

The dauntless yet under-armed Cebuanos inflicted the highest number of enemy force killed per guerrilla fighter in the Philippines. The imminent invasion of Australia was thwarted when General Meinichi Koga, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Imperial Army who was carrying the classified blueprint of the military plan to invade Australia, was captured by Cebuano guerrillas off the coast of Minglanilla.

Yet, it was observed that such brave tale remains a footnote in military history. Thanks to retired Col. Maning's skills in journal keeping, war time elegies and victories are carefully annotated in his two books-"Tabunan: The Exploits of Cebu Guerrillas" (1975) and "The Koga Papers: Stories of World War II in Cebu, Philippines" (1992).

Cebu City's mountain barangay of Tabunan once served as headquarters of the severely tested but unvanquished Cebu guerrillas where "heroes fought and the devil flourished". It contained the bitterest struggles to regain freedom as told with blood-and-sweat realism because Col. Maning was there as Adjutant General of the Cebu Area Command.

Meanwhile, "The Koga Papers" narrated how Cebu served as the most important Japanese base south of Manila with valiant race of men and women who, in darker days, were grim in protest against the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese and solemn in the fevered struggle to regain freedom.

Fervent in their cause, Cebuano guerrillas gained control of the southern part of Cebu Island even before the American liberation. It is acknowledged that more Japanese were killed in Cebu than in any other part of the country. The discovery of the blueprint of the military plan to invade Australia brought by Gen. Koga, after his plane which took off in Palau crashed onto the highlands of San Fernando, was instrumental in General Douglas MacArthur's decision to make a landing in Palo, Leyte.

When the United States Armed Forces in the Far East surrendered to the Japanese, Col. Maning refused to bow to the Japs and instead joined the guerrilla forces in Cebu where he fought many battles starting as a platoon leader with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and later as the Operations and Combat Officer of the Central Cebu Sector with the rank of Captain. He eventually became the Adjutant General of the Cebu Area Command with the rank of Major, until the end of the Second World War. Under the command of Col. James M. Cushing, the Cebu Area Command was recognized by MacArthur on September 3, 1942, as part of his South West Pacific Area Command.

Bravery, loyalty and patriotism were put to the test. As if on cue, the resistance movement began the moment the Japanese landed on Philippine shores. Filipino guerrillas opposed strongly and inflicted many casualties in the enemy's advance. The guerrilla threat was such that the Japs had to put up a fence around the entire city of Cebu to keep the guerrillas at bay.

Col. Maning, very sharp at 89 then, recalled vividly some of these big battles of Cebu and some other actions he got involved in. The first of these was the Battle of Babag Ridge that started on September 15, 1942, which lasted for 10 days and 10 nights and resulted in the killing of 650 Japs.

At that time, Vice Admiral Takajiro Onishi thought of and devised the kamikaze ("kami" for divine, "kaze" for wind) suicide attacks on American warships by Japanese pilots who were willing to crash their explosive-laden airplanes onto American aircraft carriers, battleships and other US Navy ships. So the celebrated Kamikaze Special Attack Corps was organized in Cebu and utilized airplanes specifically designed for Kamikaze operations.

Defending the "Shire"

Col. Maning recalled that during one of their many attacks on the Japanese Toledo Garrison on December 20, 1942, a messenger was hit while delivering a message to him. He carried the wounded messenger across open dry rice fields through heavy rifle, machinegun and mortar fire to the Advance Command Post to receive medical care. Then, he returned to the frontline. In the course of the same battle, two patriots were wounded - one on his left and the other on his right. He carried them in two precarious trips, rapidly walking and half running again through heavy rifle, machinegun and mortar fire across the same open dry rice fields and grasslands to the Advance Command Post.

On January 27, 1943, he fought a battle for three days and three nights against a 900-strong Japanese punitive expedition that they had surrounded in the Valley of Malubog, Toledo. They occupied the high grounds around them. In the late afternoon of the third day, remnants of less than 150 enemy troops were able to break out of the valley leaving some 750 enemy dead.

A total of 11,898 Japanese were killed in 119 encounters and ambushes in the battles here. Forty-five of these battles took place within Cebu City. Some 10,565 Japanese surrendered in Cebu.

But above these merits and the badges pinned on his overseas cap is his prized war trophy - a Japanese Katana - after defeating Lt. Yoshio Kimura in one of the said battles. He, too, emphasized that he cherished most the experience when that compatriot who had a 25-centavo-size part of his skull chipped off in the Malubog battle survived the war like the other two patriots he had helped in other battles, and he was able to meet him again.