Aludio Reyes' Request for Reconsideration of Non-Recognition of his Guerrilla Outfit, September 1946
[TRANSCRIPTION]
The President Quezon’s Own Guerrillas or PQOG was one of the large guerrilla organizations that operated in Southern Luzon during the Japanese occupation and into the liberation of Batangas. It had many affiliated outfits in Batangas, many of which filed for official recognition by the United States Army that they were elements of the Philippine Army in the service of the U.S. Armed forces during the liberation. Among these were Companies A, B, C and D of the 38th Regiment, 35th Division, I Corps of the PQOG. In this page is a transcription1 a request for reconsideration from one Aludio Reyes after the initial application for recognition of the companies mentioned was not favorably considered by the United States Army.
September 17, 1946
To Lt. Col. W. P. Moore, AGD
Ass’t Adj Gen
(Thru Proper Channels)
M a n i l a
S i r :
Pursuant to your letter dated 27 August 1946, which finally disapproved my application for the recognition of A, B, C, & D Companies, 38th Regt., 35th Division, I would like to request your honor that the case be reconsidered for the following reasons:
1. That said companies maintained opposition to the enemy prior to the liberation. Our encounters with the Japs on many occasions will prove that we had done our best to counteract the incessant raids during the last part of 1945;
2. That 80% of my men devoted full-time duty to military duties in the field. Despite the rigorous treatment that the families of these men were suffering from the bestial Japs, they never left the field with the fervent hope that some way or another, they would have the opportunity to inflict maximum damage to the enemy, physically and militarily;
3. That prior to the liberation, one could not expect to have sufficient number of arms due to the fact that firearms and other weapons were confiscated by the Japanese Imperial Forces. It should be noted that our firearms were primarily taken from ambushed Japanese soldiers and sabotage of firearms confiscated by the Japanese from the civilians;
4. That the unit under my nominal control functioned as a combat unit before the liberation. Despite the fact that our firearms were very few and other handicaps which hampered our military activities, the several encounters with the Japs had minimized the raids and massacres of civilians in our sector, though it is not without regret to say that these encounters had caused the deaths of some of my men; and
5. That the unit did not follow the “lay-low” policy. Just after the downfall of Corregidor, sometime in the year 1942, we began our sabotage and intelligence work. We reported gradually to our Division Commander which had then its temporary headquarters in the barrio of Sto. Toribio, this municipality, all military detachments and other installations of strategic value. In the year of 1943, we began our sabotage of firearms. This work not only exposed to dangers our lives but the lives of our families also. It is common knowledge that families of guerrillas were forced to show the whereabouts of their kin who were actively engaged in the underground movement. We harassed the enemy anytime and anywhere we had occasion to.
In view of the aforementioned, I fervently hope that my application for recognition will be given due consideration, notwithstanding the rigorous standards prescribed by General MacArthur.
1st Bn., 38th Regt., 35th Div.