Nasugbu (Poblacion), Batangas: Historical Data Part III

PART III

PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV | PART V

[p. 6]

Mayor	Vice-Mayor
1934-1940
Ciriaco Alvarez	1st Term – Dr. Aniano Mauricio 2nd Term – Dr. Isaias Dumatol
1941-1945
Florencio Oliva	Leon Lagos
Feb. - March 1945
Major Basilio Fernando – appointed Military Mayor.
March  - April 145
Atty. Jose Villadolid – appointed Civil Mayor
1945-1946
Mr. Leon Lagos – Appointed Mayor
1946
Mr. Crisanto Villaviray – Appointed Mr. Jose Cuenca – Appointed
1946-1947
Mr. Juan Salanguit – Appointed
1948-1951
Atty. Gregorio Pañganiban	Mr. Jose Advincula
1952 (Incumbent)
Mr. Policarpio Cabalag	Mr. Moises Rojales

MUNICIPAL TREASURERS

1.  Mariano Alix Jr.	1901-1902
2.  Francisco Alix Sr.	1902-1946 (Note:  Excluding the Japanese Occupation.  He [Alix Sr.] did not accept the position.
3.  Emilio Limjoco	Japanese Occupation
4.  Victoriano Eusebio	Appointed Acting Mun.  Treas. Vice – Francisco Alix
5.  Vicente Villacrusis	Incumbent

JUDGES OF THE PEACE

1.  Juan Mendoza	7.  Lorenzo Brotonel
2.  Simon Samaniego	8.  Dominador Rodriguez
3.  Lucas Advincula	9.  Jose D. Castllo
4.  Marcelo Ermita	10. Aponilario Apacible
5.  Salvador Araullo	11. Martin Biscocho
6.  Vicente Oliva Sr.	12. Rodolfo Castillo (incumbent)

CHIEFS OF POLICE

1.  Dionisio Flores	5.  Eduardo Alvarez
2.  Lucas Advincula	6.  Leon Villafranca
3.  Santiago Simuangco	7.  Diego Dimayuga
4.  Pedro Alarma	8.  Petronilo Sapico

[p. 7]

Important Facts, Incidents or Events that Took Place

A. Spanish Regime

[pp. 8-12 missing.]

[p. 13]

WORLD WAR II

On December 8, 1941, the news of war spread like wildfire in Nasugbu. All classes in the high school and elementary grades were closed and the people prepared to evacuate the barrios. The next day, soldiers of the 42^nd Regiment, 41^st Division, Philippine Army under General Lim arrived. They established their headquarters in the ruins of the old church in “Lumang Bayan.” Elements of the 45^th Phil. Scouts in Fort Stotsenburg also arrived and established their headquarters in the town plaza. The Phil. Scouts recruited some able-bodied men in the town. Two of them were Primitivo Sobreviñas and Oyen Cudiamat. Every day, Japanese Zero fighters and bombers passed but made no bombing on the town. At night, total blackout was enforced with members of the Bolo Battalion patrolling the town. At this time, the Japanese retailer, Yamaoka, the Izumite family and Japanese sympathizers were already rounded up and detained. No untoward incident happened except the looting of the Japanese store.

Christmas of 1941 came and the soldiers were preparing for a midnight mass in the old church when the order to retreat to Bataan came. All the soldiers of the 41^st Infantry Division and the Phil. Scouts left that Christmas Eve hurriedly. When the soldiers had left, more people evacuated to the barrios. Meanwhile, Manila residents who were employees of the Roxas y Cia evacuated to this town. Houses of nipa and bamboo were constructed in the hacienda compound.

New Year, 1942, was ushered in uneventfully here in Nasugbu except for the news that the Japanese had landed in different places and would eventually come. On the first week of January, 1942, the Japanese came. At first, it was only a platoon who also left, but after a week, a horde of Japanese soldiers arrived. The school and the municipal building were made into garrisons and general headquarters. They also established their own government with Mr. Florencio Oliva as Mayor, Mr. Felipe Oliva as Secretary, and Mr. Emilio Limjoco as Treasurer, the incumbent Treasurer, Mr. Francisco Alix Sr., having refused to serve the Japanese government. For almost two months, Nasugbu was used as a stepping stone of the Japanese soldiers in their attack on Corregidor and Bataan. Later on, they moved to Lumbañgan, a barrio of Nasugbu, where they stayed until liberation.

[p. 14]

At the beginning of the Japanese rule, neighborhood organizations were organized. The people of the poblacion were censused with a leader in every block. The people never suffered acute shortage of food as the rice harvest of Nasugbu was enough for all the people. Rations of rice, soup, lard, cigarettes, matches and other commodities were given. Locally-made cigarettes flooded the market. To remedy [the] hoarding of rice, the BIBA (Bigasang Bayan) was organized with Atty. Pedro Gallardo as manager. A group of Japanese agriculturists also arrived and converted the sugarcane fields into cotton fields. Hundreds of people, men and women, were employed in the cotton fields.

After the surrender of Bataan on April 9, 1942, guerrilla organizations were secretly organized. The first to start such [a] movement was Sisenando (Dado) Destreza, a local and youthful man. His organization was a unit of an organization in Cavite. Some of his men were Teodulo Botones, Miguel Cochingco, and Lucas Rodriguez. This organization did a remarkable job of liquidating spies and Japanese sympathizers up to 1943. However, the organizers met a tragic death due to intramural fights among other guerrilla organizations. One night, they were all murdered except Teodulo Botones and Mike Cochingco, who were able to escape. The persons responsible for these murders are still alive and should not, therefore, be mentioned. Other guerrillas organized themselves like the Fil-American Irregular, their founder was Gasilao on December 2, 1942; and the ROTC under Col. Terry Magtanggol, with its headquarters in Kutad, Looc. These organizations did remarkable jobs, too. They were able to harbor escaped American soldiers and sent valuable information by radio to Australia. The ROTC unit here often had to rendezvous with U.S. submarines in Kutad Cave, a place not far from the poblacion. They were given guns, ammunition, food, and cigarettes marked “I Shall Return.”

Due to information sent by these organizations, the poblacion was spared during the landing of the American forces. Another guerrilla organization worthy of mention was the Golden Regiment organized in Sept. 1944 by Col. Eduardo Alabastro, the overall commander of Southern Luzon. The local organization was under Eduardo Villadolid, an Ex-USAFFE officer. The Blue Eagle

[p. 15]

counted with a large number of members with most of the prominent citizens holding key positions. All of these guerrilla organizations were under Lt. Col. J. D. Vanderpool, the guerrilla coordinator.

Sometime in 1944, two Japanese Zero fighters made a forced landing at the beach. They were hurriedly repaired but were spotted by U.S. forces. These Zero fighters were strafed and totally destroyed. During this time, the Japanese were becoming fierce. People suspected of being anti-Japanese were apprehended and beaten up in their garrison in Lumbañgan.

At about the second week of January, 1945, the people woke up one early morning surrounded by Japanese soldiers. All the people found in houses and streets were herded to the plaza. They were hogtied, loaded in trucks and taken to their garrison for questioning. Some of them were unfortunate as they were found red-handed with evidence of guerrilla activities. After a thorough questioning and beating, many were released but eight of them were retained, highly suspected of active guerrilla activities. These eight were sentenced to die.

On January 16, 1945, they were taken by the Kempetai to their mountain headquarters in Aga, a barrio of Nasugbu 25 kilometers away from the poblacion. They were Jose Rustia, a surveyor by profession and father of six girls; Felipe Oliva, the municipal secretary, nephew of the mayor; Fidel Vargas, ex-USAFFE; Antonio Alix, son of the chief sacristan of the local parish church and father of many small children; Antonio Zabarte, son of an administrator of one of the haciendas of Nasugbu; Marcelo Sobreviñas, a student; Gelacio Cupo and Roming, nephew of Jose Rustia. It was late in the evening when they were taken to the coconut groves and were made to dig their own graves. All of them except Roming, who was able to escape miraculously to tell the tale, were brutally murdered by the vicious and cruel Kempetai.

On January 31, 1945, the 11^th Airborne Division under General Swing landed in Nasugbu. The American forces landed without any resistance from the Japanese. Nasugbu became the evacuation center of thousands of people from neighboring towns. Mayor Oliva was arrested for having collaborated with the enemy, and a Military Mayor, Maj. Basilio Fernando, was appointed.

[p. 16]

This page is either missing from the original document or the document was erroneously paginated.

[p. 17]

AFTER WORLD WAR II

For three solid years and a month, the people lived in terror and in want. After the hectic days under Japanese rule, the people once more enjoyed life in a democracy. The people were better clothed and fed and at last they again lived decently and could sleep without entertaining the fear of death during the night because during the Japanese occupation, death lurked in every corner.

This place became the seat of the provincial government. Colonel Fortunato Borbon was appointed military provincial governor with the youthful Atty. Lino Inciong of Tuy as his Secretary.

A certain Major Basilio Fernando was then appointed as the military town mayor. He served from February to March, 1945. Mr. Francisco Alix Sr. sought reinstatement as the municipal treasurer. He did not serve the Japanese regime.

On March 8, 1945, schools were opened. The effect of the war on the lives of the people and the buy and sell business gave problems to school officials. There were not enough professionally trained teachers who could be employed. Some of the teachers who were teaching here during the pre-war [period] had gone home to their respective places. So, high school graduates were taken in to teach.

There were not enough classrooms. Classes had to be conducted in the home of the civic-spirited citizens. These temporary classrooms were had free.

Another problem was the [lack of] textbooks and school equipment like hyloplates [?], desks, tables and chairs. Teachers had to improvise these things and had to make the best of the materials they had on hand. The initiative and resourcefulness of the teachers were greatly challenged.

On March 15, 1945, classes in Wawa were organized like in the poblacion, classes were held in the homes of civic-spirited citizens. Then, classes in other barrios were opened later when the conditions proved to be normal.

The Nasugbu Institute, a private institution, was also opened after the liberation in July, 1945. First year to third year classes were opened, as follows:

[p. 18]

3 – 1^st year sections; 2 – 2^nd year sections; and 1 – third year class. The total enrolment of that year was 281 students. Seven teachers were employed with Director M. Kasilag.

In the year 1947-1948, a complete high school was established. In July, 1949, courses in Typewriting and Stenography were offered. Another important construction was accomplished, the building of a permanent schoolhouse.

At present, the institute is housed in a big and spacious building which was completed in 1952. There are 640 students and 16 members of the faculty, respectively.

After Major Basilio Fernando, Atty. Jose Valladolid was appointed civil mayor. He served from March to April, 1945.

Next to him was Mr. Leon Lagos. He served as Acting Mayor of the pre-war days [and] was appointed by this Governor Modesto Castillo. He served in that capacity for months only.

In the same year, there was another appointee to the Office of the Mayor. This man was Mr. Jose Cuenca (R.I.P.). He was fair in complexion, stocky, approachable and very generous. One time, when he was a municipal councilor, he did not collect his per diems. He devoted the money to a worthy cause. As a mayor, he did the same. Part of his salary went to the school as aid to the teachers who were then so poorly paid. He also financed a great part of the expenses incurred when holding civic parades. So to say that this man showed his love to his fellowmen in deeds and not in words alone.

Then later, a former schoolteacher, Mr. Juan Salanguit, was appointed to the post of the mayor. His short term 1946-1947 proved to be successful. He also won the hearts of his townsmen but he was not able to run for [the] mayoralty during the elections in 1947 because his very good friend, Atty. Gregorio Pañganiban, was the candidate.

In [the] 1947 elections, the political rival of Atty. Gregorio Pañganiban was Mr. Leon Lagos. Mr. Jose Advincula and Mr. Constancio Enriquez were the

PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV | PART V

Transcribed from “Historical Data of the Municipality of Nasugbu,” 1953, online at the National Library of the Philippines Digital Collections.