Marcos’s wartime activities during World War
II can be divided into the following:
1.
Alleged Heroic Exploits in Bataan (Period Covering
January – April, 1942);
2.
Non-Heroic Exploits around the Philippines (Period Covering May, 1942-December, 1944); and
3.
Alleged Heroic Exploits in Kiangan, Mt. Province (Period covering January – April,
1945).
Notice that
the first period covers only about four months; the last one covers also four
months while the middle period where no heroic exploits or no medals awarded to
Marcos covers about two and a half years which is most of the wartime period.
Analyzing
the events, if you center on MacArthur’s presence, the wartime activities of
Marcos can also be divided into the following:
1.
Alleged Heroic Exploits while MacArthur was around;
2.
Non-Heroic Exploits in the absence of MacArthur; and
3.
Alleged Heroic Exploits after the return of MacArthur.
This article
focuses on the first period.
The Alleged Heroic Exploits in Bataan
while MacArthur was still around.
It was in
Bataan where he allegedly earned his first medals. As his drumbeaters led by
his hagiographer Hartzell Spence wrote, “Marcos single-handedly delayed the
Fall of Bataan temporarily”. In another instance, it was proclaimed that
“Marcos delayed the Fall of Bataan by three months”. Later on, the apologists
declared that he “considerably” delayed it, and during his 1982 US State Visit,
his Ministry of Information settled on the delay as “weeks”.
It was also
alleged that MacArthur called him a one-man Army. He allegedly received among
others not only a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star and a Purple Heart
but he was also recommended for a US Congressional Medal of Honor.
When World
War II broke out, the Philippines was still a colony of the United States. The
Philippine Army and the fighting guerillas were all under the command of the
United States Military. Awards, decorations, back pay benefits, reparation and
other claims were reviewed and granted by US military authorities. Any of the
former involving World War II is kept in the US military archives. All
documents and files supporting any claim or award are stored in pre-designated
archives. Decisions on any application for reparations or recognition for back
pay benefits are also found in the same archives.
The
reporters of the Washington Post and the New York Times, researchers and
historians have scoured and meticulously examined the Philippine War records.
They found no documentary evidence supporting any of the awards allegedly given
to Marcos. John Sharkey of the Washington Post interviewed Philippine and
American survivors of the war and looked into the personal files of Marcos at
the U.S. military records center in St. Louis, Missouri. He found no evidence
to substantiate the claims of Marcos. He also could not find “any independent,
outside corroboration” to buttress the claim that Marcos was recommended for
the Congressional Medal of Honor.
According to
US Army rules and as recorded in the files, awardees usually receive a letter
from the GHQ of the appropriate command such as USIP, USAFFEE, SWAP, AFWESPAC,
etc; and general orders that contain the details of the citation.
When asked
about the absence of any authentic documentation, then Marcos’ Minister of
Information Cendana came up with a very convenient excuse; “the fire that
burned a portion of the military archives in St. Louis, Missouri.”
Colonel Boni
Gillego who also did extensive research on the issue came up with this response
to Cendana’s lame excuse; “It seems that this fire was so selective and
discriminating as to destroy only the documents among others that would
substantiate Marcos’ claims. Actually, most of the documents in the St. Louis
archives had been previously duplicated and dispersed to other archives. In
effect, it is not difficult to reconstruct a veteran’s record once certain
details such as date of birth and serial number are furnished.”
Gillego went
further by citing some examples. One is the case of Sgt. Ambrosio Lappay of
Angadena, Isabela - an unsung but genuine, not counterfeit, war hero. There
exists on record G.O., dated March 13, 1942, issued by USAFFE Headquarters
awarding him for “extraordinary heroism in action in the vicinity of Trail No.
7 and the Pilar-Bagac Road, Bataan, Philippines on 17 February 1942.” He also
noted that the order was issued less than a month after the performance.
Another
example mentioned by Gillego is the case of our ace Captain Jesus Villamor
(after whom the Villamor Air Base was named). He received his Distinguish
Service Cross Medal per G.O. No. 48, USAFFE Headquarters, dated 21 December
1942 for engaging Japanese zero fighters in aerial combat on the 10th
and 12th of December 1941. It was General MacArthur himself who
pinned the DSC Medal on Villamor.
Marcos
allegedly received a letter from Major J.A. Marshall, Assistant Adjutant
General, USFIP acknowledging the validity of his claim. To verify the assertion
in the letter, Sharkey requested the Department of the Army for confirmation.
The reply to Sharkey was that “search of USFIP special and general orders has
found nothing conveying an award to Marcos.”
As Sharkey
was doing his research, he also found two official lists of some 120 Americans
and Filipinos who were awarded the DSC during the Bataan campaign. One list was
transmitted to the War Department in Washington, D.C. by General Jonathan M.
Wainwright on April 12 shortly before his surrender. The other, “List of
Recipients of Awards and Decorations issued between December 7, 1941 through
June 30, 1945,” was compiled by General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in
Tokyo after the end of the war.
The name of
Ambrosio Lappay appears in both lists. The name of Ferdinand E. Marcos does
not. Strange!
Marcos’
Foreign Affairs Secretary Carlos P. Romulo authored the books, “I Saw the Fall
of the Philippines” (Garden City, Double Day, 1946) and “I Walked With Heroes”
(Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, 1961). There was no mention of Marcos in
either of the books. The heroes that Romulo walked with did not include Marcos.
In Romulo’s
broadcast, “The Voice of Freedom”, the exploits of heroes in Corregidor and
Bataan were told. Survivors said Marcos was never mentioned. Yet this man was
depicted by his hagiographers as one who singlehandedly delayed the fall of
Bataan by three months.
William
Manchester, author of “American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964 (New York:
Dell Publishing Co., 1978) never mentioned Marcos despite citing Romulo as one
of his sources.
Paraphrasing
Boni Gillego; “To borrow Churchill’s felicitous phrase, Marcos’ award for his
Bataan exploits is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.”
Regarding
the alleged statement of MacArthur that “Marcos was a one man Army”, no
confirmation could be found in the General’s own “Reminiscences” (New York:
McGraw Hill, 1964).
Lastly,
Marcos claimed that he was recommended for a U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor
ala Sergeant York of World War I and Audie Murphy of World War II. General
Wainwright allegedly gave instructions by phone to General Capinpin to write
the letter of recommendation. The letter was supposedly lost during the
confusing transfer from Bataan to Corregidor.
Like the
others no authentic document supporting the claim could be found. Marcos had
the chance to confirm the instructions and recommendation from General
Wainwright and General Capinpin, respectively when they were still alive. As
Gillego asserted, it was not done because it was untrue. Expectedly, no U.S.
Congressional Medal of Honor was ever awarded.
