LIBERATION (1945)

Finally, after the long agonizing years of waiting, peace came at last.
General MacArthur made good his promise to return and free the Filipinos from bondage.
Japan was ultimately brought to her knees.

People didn't care whether the war was won and the Filipino soldiers were the conquering heroes, what mattered most was the days of fear were finally over.
At long last, the glorious dawn of hope and peace has come.

After the last shot has been fired and the guns had finally fallen silent, Papa was assigned as the Depot In-charge at Mindanao Zone (now known as San Miguel).
He was tasked to make an inventory of the remnants of war.
Twenty tents of war materials and/or equipment consisting of army trucks and jeeps, guns and other armaments, parachutes, beds or "tejeras", all sorts of ammunitionsand medicines.
All those things he brought and turned over at Camp Evangelista with not a strand or piece missingand/or lost.
Every single thing was accounted for.

Early on he was offered an assignment in Corregidor as a member of the elite Philippine Scout but Mama was not sold to the idea.
For years she had lead a life fraught with perils and traumatic experiences and she wants nothing but a peaceful life with her family. Free from fear and anxiety.
So, papa declined the offer politely and was given an honorable discharge with distinction from the military service.
With him were his brother-in-law, Alfredo Cahuan (whom we call Papa Pedong) and a certain Vaguchay.

When peace and order was fully restored, his love for his teaching profession took center stage.
Papa was chosen to open the first of its kind Tent Schools in Camp 12 (now known as Phillips) by no less than General Manager of the now defunct Philippine Packing Corporation, Merc Phillips.

It was situated under the teak tress where the jeep terminal is now located.
Just as what its name implies, the school was made up of tents, perhaps salvaged from junk war materialsand the desks were improvised from scraps of lumber.
His first pupils to name a few were Araya Amante, Perla Alay and Ignacio Fabia.
It was named Plantation Elementary School and at present is now a landmark in Camp Phillips.
Little did Papa know that someday his oldest son, Carlito (Manong Boy) would take over as the school Principal of the school that he has started.

But since being a farmer was second nature to him, he went back with his family to Kaangaan. (near Ticala) and took up his farm implements once more.
He was a farmer who loved the feel of the newly turned dirt, the smell of the rain-soaked earth ready for planting, the whiff of corn almost ready for harvest and the ripening rice grains.
The fertile smell of the soil pleases him, but most of all, he could not ignore the satisfaction he derives from being a farmer.
His life moved to the rhythm of planting and the harvesting, the rains and the drought.


(to be continued)