Remembering the Battle of Leyte

Sixty-two years ago today, American forces bearing President Sergio Osmeña Sr. and the American Caesar Gen. Douglas McArthur landed on Red Beach near Tacloban City, thus fulfilling the promise made famous by Gen. MacArthur to the Filipinos while he was in Australia, saying, "I Shall Return," a vow that kept many Filipinos from totally surrendering our country to the clutches of Japanese Imperial Forces… a promise kept!

Only decades later in history would Filipinos learn why there was a major shift in Gen. MacArthur’s invasion plans for the Philippines, which were slated to be in Mindanao, but ended up on the shores of Tacloban. Thanks to a few unsung Cebuano guerrillas under the command of Gen. James Cushing… who is now on record as the one who captured the highest ranking Japanese naval officer in the entire World War II.

That Japanese officer is Rear Admiral Shigeru Fukudome, Chief of Staff of Admiral Mineichi Koga who took over from Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who was killed in an American ambush over Rabaul on April 19, 1943. You can read all about this great story in the article entitled, "The Z-Plan Story: Japan’s 1944 Naval Battle Strategy Drifts into US Hands," written by Greg Bradsher and which appeared last November in the magazine Prologue by the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) of the United States or in a book entitled The Rescue by Steven Trent Smith, which you can find in good bookstores.

If you didn’t know, just a day before the Tacloban landings, a group of Japanese naval officers landed in what is now Clark Air Force Base and created the most horrifying military tactic ever seen during World War II, the dreaded "Kamikaze" or the "Divine Wind" which the desperate Japanese forces put to good use against the US forces in Leyte.

A few days after the Tacloban landings, began the famous "Battle of Leyte Gulf," history’s largest, most far-flung naval engagement that took place on Oct. 22-25, which included the Battle of Surigao Strait on Oct. 24, 1944 and the Battle of Cape Engaño and the Battle of Samar on Oct. 25, 1944. This was the greatest sea battle that would never be repeated again. While this battle did not necessarily involved Filipinos, it, however, happened right here on our shores around the San Bernardino Strait and the Surigao Straits.

The Americans lost one light carrier, two escort carriers (the Gambier Bay and St. Lo), 250 aircraft, two destroyers (the Johnston and the Samuel B. Roberts), and 2,800 lives. The jeep carrier St. Lo was to have the distinction of being the first US warship to have been sunk by Kamikaze attacks. On the other side, the Japanese lost four carriers, three battleships, six heavy and four light cruisers and 11 destroyers, and the lives of 10,000 Japanese sailors.

Because the Japan naval forces lost the Battle of Leyte Gulf, it marked the end of Japanese domination. Losing the Philippines meant already losing the war even long before the Americans dropped the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Sixty-two years later, it is sad that the Philippines has not become a major naval power… otherwise, with a few PT-Boat fleet, we could have threatened the sea lanes in the China Sea where passes the world’s greatest oil tanker fleet that fuels the economies of China and Japan.

Every year, I always write about this historic event in order to remind our readers that history was made in our midst and it should never be forgotten. That’s why whenever I go to Tacloban City, I always stay at the Alejandro’s Hotel, which is virtually a war museum about those historic events that unfolded right there in Leyte and Samar. How I wished someone made a war memorial on the Battle of Leyte Gulf! You can actually make one near Panaon Island or Dinagat or in the eastern side of Samar or Leyte.

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I heard that the Judicial Bar Council is now in search of people for two slots in the Court of Appeals (CA) and one of the names I gathered being pushed is Executive Judge Simeon P. Dumdum Jr. from Balamban, Cebu. Let me just put my own sales pitch about Jun Dumdum, a man I personally know who deserves this post. Aside from being a valedictorian of Balamban Central Elementary School in his hometown, he was also a valedictorian in his secondary school at the St. Francis Academy, also in Balamban, in 1964.

More importantly, he entered the San Carlos Seminary in Guadalupe, Makati, but changed his mind about the priesthood and took up law and was admitted into the Philippine Bar on April 30, 1977 (1976 Bar examination rating: 85.05 percent). Now if his academics don’t impress you, this executive judge from Balamban is a Carlos Palanca Memorial Literary Awardee in (English) Poetry for the years 1981 (when he got third place), 1982 (second place), 1983 (third place again), and 1984 (second place again).

Jun Dumdum had a lot of books published, namely The Gift of Sleep (New Day Publishers, 1982), Third World Opera (New Day Publishers, 1987), Love in the Time of the Camera (Anvil, 1998), Poems Selected and New (ORP, Ateneo de Manila University, 2000), and My Pledge of Love Cannot Be Broken (UST Publishing House, 2002). He was also awarded Best Columnist in 1994 by the Cebu Archdiocesan Mass Media Awards and an Outstanding Alumnus in Literature by the University of San Carlos in 1996. In 1998 he was a National Fellow for Poetry of the University of the Philippines Creative Writing Center and a Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for English Poetry on Aug. 25, 2001 by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL).

The Supreme Court awarded him for "Best Decision" Criminal Case, 2nd Level Courts in the 2005 Judicial Excellence Awards. Together with this writer, he was awarded the Garbo sa Sugbo (Pride of Cebu) Award by the Cebu provincial government last Aug. 5. He was also cited as an Outstanding Alumnus, Judiciary-Regional Trial Court, 2006 by the University of San Carlos. Honestly, I do not have enough space to print all the things that Judge Simeon "Jun" Dumdum has done. Mind you, it is not a habit of this writer to promote friends to higher posts. I’m merely overjoyed that he was chosen among the other names to be in the Court of Appeals and all I’m saying here is that Judge Simeon Dumdum, the "Humble Poet from Balamban," is the right man for this job.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns in The Freeman can also be accessed through The Philippine STAR website (www.philstar.com). He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable. Bobit’s columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com.