Gen. MacArthur's escape from the Philippines

As promised, we're bringing you the historic escape of the American Cesar, Gen. Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor down to Cagayan de Oro, which have been widely told and documented and its parallel incidents that few Filipinos ever heard or read about. I have two books on this, one entitled, "MacArthur's Escape" by George W. Smith given to me by my cousin, Joe Suaco and the other sent by my uncle Dr. Alfredo Segura entitled, "MacArthur's Undercover War…Spies, Saboteurs, Guerrillas and Secret Missions" written by William B. Breuer. Both are great books to read and give us a good insight of history.

I'm sure most Filipinos will remember the famous fighting words of the late Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon when he said, "I would rather see the Philippines run like hell by Filipinos rather than see it run like heaven by Americans." Pundits have called this the "Curse of Quezon" which is why today we are run like hell by stupid Filipinos. But there had to be something more to Pres. Quezon's statement and why he made this remark.

Sixty five years ago exactly on March 11, 1942, Gen. Douglas MacArthur boarded a Patrol Torpedo (PT-Boat) Boat no.41 under the Command of Lt. John Bulkeley and his small flotilla of three other PT-Boats and left the island of Corregidor at sundown for the 33-hour 620 mile trip to Cagayan de Oro. With the American Cesar was his wife Jean and 5-year-old son Arthur. Many of MacArthur's critic's say that MacArthur was running away from a fight with the Japanese Lt. Gen. Masaharo Homma who already landed in the Gulf of Lingayen by Dec.22, 1941 and was headed towards Manila.

In truth, Gen. MacArthur wasn't happy that he was leaving his men trapped in the Philippines. But he was doing so under the orders of his Commander in Chief, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who saw the desperate situation in the Philippines and completely understood that the United States was ill-prepared to come up with reinforcements to defend the Philippines. He wanted Gen. MacArthur to set up his headquarters in faraway Australia and from there, make plans to retake the Philippines.

While Gen. MacArthur escaped from Corregidor using PT-Boats, Pres. Quezon and his Cabinet left the island via a submarine and were dropped in the island of Negros. Pres. Quezon who headed the team seeking independence for the Philippines counted Pres. Roosevelt as a friend. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, he was confident that the Americans would repulse the Japanese invaders. What he didn't know was that America itself was ill-prepared for war.

The Americans were unprepared in Pearl Harbor as they were unprepared for the Japanese invasion in the Philippines. Gen. Homma was already in Manila, which was declared an Open City, when Pres. Quezon heard a radio broadcast over Radio Tokyo that the Japanese Premier Gen. Hideki Tojo "promised to grant the Philippines Full Independence" something that Pres. Quezon and his Vice-President Don Sergio Osmeña, Sr. have been fighting for a long time.

Fearing that America had abandoned the Philippines especially with the flight of Gen. MacArthur, Pres. Quezon told his aide, Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, "we must try to save ourselves, and to hell with America… the fight between the United States and Japan is not our fight." Indeed this was the sentiment echoed by many Filipinos… that this war wasn't our fight. Unfortunately, they forgot that when the Japanese invaders started killing Filipinos, this fight became our fight too and there was no need to declare war!

Gen. MacArthur knew the sentiments of Pres. Quezon. When he arrived in Cagayan de Oro, he ordered Lt. Bulkeley on a top-secret mission to go over to Negros Island and find Pres. Quezon and his cabinet and bring them to the Del Monte Plantation in Cagayan where they had an airstrip that was still under American hands. From there, they would all fly to Australia together and make plans for a grandiose comeback.

What puzzled Lt. Bulkeley was when Gen. MacArthur angrily told him, "I don't care how you get him here - just do it! We're sending Quezon to Australia to form a Philippine government-in-exile, whether he likes it or not!" Lt. Bulkeley who didn't know the trappings of politics always thought that Pres. Quezon was a staunch ally of America, so he was quite surprised why MacArthur was sending for Quezon whether he liked it or not.

Gen. MacArthur also asked Don Andres Soriano to be with Lt. Bulkeley as a guide on his mission to rescue the Philippine President in Negros. But Lt. Bulkeley's mind was already confused. "Was he really going on a rescue mission… or was this going to be a kidnapping?" We will continue this story in this column tomorrow.

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