Search over for missing medal of Pinoy hero

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union, Philippines – The missing medal of the late Corporal Jose Baliton Nisperos, the first Asian and Filipino to receive the United States Congressional Medal of Honor, was formally returned to his heirs here Thursday.

“We’re very happy, very grateful, not only our family, not only his (Nisperos) heirs, but the whole country as well. We are very proud because he is an Ilocano. The search is over for the missing medal,” declared Ma. Delilah Viduya Turzar, Nisperos’ great granddaughter.

Turzar said the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society advised her to donate the medal to a museum so that it will be preserved and secured.    

“We will donate it to the city government of San Fernando because they will be putting up a World War II museum. It will be secured and the public can view it,” Turzar said.

Mayor Pablo Ortega said the city government is preparing the museum. He said the medal would be temporarily kept secured inside a glass box at the city hall for public viewing.

“The city government will take care of it and will be kept in a museum to make sure that it will not be stolen or lost again. It will be open for viewing,” Ortega said.

Ortega was able to locate the medal with the help of three friends, Edward de los Santos, and lawyers Jorge de los Santos and Jose Escao, members of the Bayanihan Collectors Club in Manila.

“When they (friends) read in the newspapers about the article of Nisperos and the appeal of his heirs for the return of the medal, they immediately informed me that they knew where the medal was,” Ortega said.

He said the collector who kept the medal voluntarily returned it without any compensation.  

The medal was lost when one of Nisperos’ relatives took it when he died in 1922.

The relative allegedly promised to help his widow Potenciana claim benefits from the US government. 

The relative allegedly sold the medal, and its whereabouts was unknown until it was auctioned off last year in Manila for $1,100.

Last April 2, after 100 years since he fought with Moro rebels in Lapurap, Basilan on Sept. 24, 1911, Nisperos was reburied at the Lingsat public cemetery here with full military honors.

The US Veterans Multi-organizational Honor Guard did the military honors while Filipino policemen gave the 21-gun salute.

Nisperos was recruited to the 34th Company United States Army Philippine Scouts Division that was engaged in a battle to suppress the Moro Resistance (1899-1913) in the Southern Philippines when the country was a territorial property and colony of the United States.

On Sept. 24, 1911, Nisperos together with his mother unit, the 34th Company, was ambushed in Basilan by a large group of rebels armed with bolos and spears. 

His unit had a handful of casualties during the ambush but Nisperos fought back with one hand even while his body and left hand were badly wounded. Because of his act, the 34th Company Philippine Scouts was spared from total annihilation.

For his gallantry, bravery, and valor in the battlefield, Nisperos was awarded on Nov. 25, 1912 the US Congressional Medal of Honor.

He was medically discharged from the service due to the severity of his wounds and given a pension of $55 per month. He died in 1922 at the age of 34 after a long illness. Nisperos was born in Barangay Tanqui here on Dec. 30, 1887.