Col. Fabian M. Sanchez, Cebuano War Hero (Last of two parts)
Colonel Sanchez was truly a warrior of freedom. Before bearing arms against the Japanese Imperial Army, he worked while in college as a reporter of The FREEMAN (founded in 1919 by Don Paulino Gullas, one of the martyred Cebuano officials as he was executed by the Japanese Imperial Army). Fabian became a captain of an inter-island vessel and in one of his voyages met his future wife, Genoveva Mercado, of Tanjay, Negros Oriental.
He was assigned in the province of Bohol as Commander of the Training Cadre tasked with the training of the Citizens Army. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt federalized the Philippine Army, Sanchez was commissioned into the USAFFE (United States Army Forces in the Far East) as first lieutenant. When Philippines officially became involved in World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, he was assigned in Cebu at the Eighth Military District. After the fall of Bataan, and so with the Philippine and American military forces, Sanchez chose not to surrender and continued the fight and became part of the key officers of the legendary Col. James Cushing of the Cebu Area Command.
The legacy of patriotism of Col. Fabian M. Sanchez continues with his five children and descendants: Violeta (more known as Sister Merced Sanchez of the ICM Sisters and directress of St. Theresa’s College), Gualbert (who finished Medicine at the University of Santo Tomas and retired as a colonel of the US Air Force Medical Corps), Emma (a ballerina), Alexander (a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and the PAF Flying School who served as superintendent of the Maximum Security Compound of Bilibid from 1998 to 2001), and Evelyn (a retired employee of the State of California).
God truly blesses the descendants of this warrior, as the grandchildren of Col. Sanchez excelled in their chosen field of work for humanity: Ramon (wrote several Broadway plays and works as a teacher in North Hollywood), James (a graduate of the US Air Force Academy Class of 1990), Angelica (a former reporter of The FREEMAN and presently executive director of the League of Provinces of the Philippines), Alexander II (an Industrial Engineering graduate of the University of San Carlos, a safety engineer, one-time Hollywood aficionado and currently in the precious metals and jewelry business).
Col. Fabian M. Sanchez and his family are a testament that Cebu indeed is the birthplace of heroes and great men and women.
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