MINDANAO DAILY TRUTH. JUSTICE. PROGRESS.
Volume IX, No. 277
www.mindanaodailynews.com
Mon-Tue, May 11-12, 2020
P15.00
MAY 12, 2020
75th Anniversary of Cagayan’s Liberation during World War 2
T
ODAY, May 12, 2020 is the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of what was then known as Cagayan (or Cagayan de Misamis to the older folks) from the Japanese Empire during World War II.
Unfortunately, due to restrictions enforced by the city government according to the IATF general community quarantine guidelines, no public ceremonies are still allowed to mark this milestone in our local his-
tory. According to the account documented in “The History of the Mindanao Guerrillas” shared with us by the late president of the American Guerrillas of Mindanao (AGOM) Virginia Hansen Holmes, Cagayan, Misamis (as Cagayan de Oro was then known) was wrested from the Japanese by the US forces and guerrillas under the 10th Military District, US Forces in the Philippines (USFIP) on 12 May 1945. However, as early as May 9, 1945, operations were already underway for the liberation of the city. Iponan-Cagayan Operation 9 May 1945 “Just before the landing of American forces in Mindanao on 10 May 1945, there were still Japanese pockets totaling about 300 men in the area west of the Cagayan River.” St Augustine Cathedral was bombed by the Americans during the battle to liberate “In coordination with See LIBERATION, page 11
Cagayan on May 9-12, 1945.
DepEd-10 chief: Education has to continue at all costs CAGAYAN de Oro City --“We make sure that education has to continue at all costs and in different modalities,” said Regional Director Arturo B. Bayocot during Talakayan sa PIA held recently. The Department of Edu-
cation (DepEd) announced August 24 as the opening of classes for the next school year. Bayocot said the opening may be face to face or online, depending on the local conditions of the area. He said August 24 is still months away and they are
hopeful that all will be back to normalcy. However still, the director said the department is braced and ready to all possibilities. Face to face classes could be conducted having basic measures that include social distancing which will
MINDANAO DAILY
reduce class population to 15 persons. If face to face classes will be a remote possibility due to COVID-19 pandemic threat, the mode of delivery of education will be made online. See EDUCATION, page 11
Casualty of War. The residence of Pastor Ilogon took a direct hit from a bomb dropped by US planes on May 10, 1945, the second day of the Battle for the Liberation of Cagayan. (Ilogon Family Archives)
Captain Andres Bacal:
Cagayan’s Forgotten War Hero By RAUL B. ILOGON
My interest in our local world war history started six years ago. But studying it with the absence of written primary sources compounded with the dying population of veterans was a hard task to do. Our local historians were silent about it perhaps because word-of-mouth and pass down stories were hard to validate without written primary sources. Yet Cagayan de Oro is blessed with so much written history. Our local heroes were properly documented starting with the arrival of the Spaniards. But after the Fil-Am War
Capt Andres Bacal, the CO of 109th regiment which retook Patag airstrip on May 9, 1945. photo courtesy of raul b. ilogon
the trail suddenly turns cold. Therefore I considered World War 2 as the missing See HERO, page 9
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