Taruc's narrow escape

Media

Part of National Weekly

Title: Taruc's narrow escape
Language: English
Year: 1949
Rights
Fulltext: Page 4 NATIONAL WEEKLY October 8, 1949 Taruc's Narrow Escape LUIS M. TARUC On a dank dark dav in March, 1947, the tacit. defiance of law, the reign of terror and blocdshed of Tanc rn Central Luzon came near to an end. Three days before, ieports had reached the Commandos' headquarters at Arayat, Pampanga, informing Col. Na1poleon Valeriano that 1 Taruc himself was bivouacked at barrio San Ro-~ que in San Luis Pampanga,:1 Taruc's hometown. With the 1 Huk Supremo were the men' I comprising Squadron 5 un- · der the command of "BUNDALION", the famed S~uad ron 21 of "CABALLERO". ~mid an unidentified Huk unit. Without delav two commando groups" under Lts. Constantino Cruz and Riza!ino Del Prado were dispatched to San Roque. Accompanying the "Nenitas" as guide was Bonifacio Bondoc, ex-Huk commander, who was better known as "LAPUL.A!PU". Bondoc was cap-· tured at M:alolos and was at thP time wi'l'h the commandos. Both Nenita. groups left San Luis on foot shortly after dark on the second· day 'T'he sfrategy as mapped out by the commandes to be employed at San Roque was for r'ne ~roup und:er Lt. Cruz to form a line along the edge of the barrio. while Lt. De1 T'rado':s group was to make a circuit and come up on the Huiks from the rear. This THE 1NSlDE STORW" OF THE SAN ROQUE INCIDENT 'VHEN HUK SUPREMO LUIS M. TARUC NARRO\\'LY cSCAPED DEATH OR CAPTURE. By E. L. MAR TELINO Staff l\1iember l:IFTH IN A SERIES OF THE "SKULL COMMANDOS" A "Nenita" group advances toward its objective, commando style, in the "Operations Arayat". would be accomplished by using Bonrl-Oc as a ruse and ~·endinig- him up ahead with the advance scouts. Tho only dange1· of failure in the undertaking lay in the fa<:t that if Bondoc should give the commandos away, the latter would fall an easy prey to the foe which outnumbered them ten to one. About 7 :00 p.m., the commandos reached barrio San .Juan .Pambilo. Both irroup~ were still together, a.nd Lt. Cruz who was the senior offiicer, decided not to los·2 'time. He ordered the party to proceed to the obj ,'ctive. They had not gom half a kilometer farther when Bondoc, \\·ho wa~ c scouting ' ahE!ad. rnied ·~ men fo1 civilia1i clothes. In the moonlight, he made out the carbines in their hand5. Signalling the cnmmandos to halt, he approached the two men cautiouslv. Bondoc came up to within six meters of the men when they let him have it. A bullet struck him through his right check and came out his left jaw. · Almost simultaneously the N enitas returned the fire. An ir.;tense exch'ange of volleys ensued and lasted for about thirtv mir.utes until the Huks finiallv withdrew. A brief reconnoiter by some commandos revealed 14 dead dissidents amoni_g- the tall "falahib" grasses. Lt. Cruz, sensing that he had con:tuc.ted Taruc's rear j!uard, hastened in pursuit. Again, barely 500 yards away while crossini; a small creek, the Nenitas were ontce more ambushed. A yell was heard from behind. The Huks had f l a u k e d the commandos. They turned and there was another veil. Then a deadly fire poured in from two sides, and for a moment. all was confusion and panic. Lt. Cruz dashed forward and calling his men to rally, broke through the enemy cordon in feverish haste. Finding '.:1 ck.ep bank in the creek's bed, he ordered his men to seek cover and sit still.' ,!It was ob•:ious that rr'an1c was well pr-:i~ect ed. So Cruz took shelter and decided to wait for daylight. Mea'Ilwhile, Huk firtng con. tinued. Buliets whin~d abo,·p the commandos' heads. Ta1{ ing count Of his men Lt. Cruz noted·1another ca;ualty with--:a bullet hol-e or.· his right :..rm. The Huks werie giving it ti'.> them and i~_is not surprising that the comm~mdos experi·enced dreadful fdght during those few hours. Sgt. Effren Bugia actua'ly went down on his knees, ready to meet the end and pwyed. Another commando, S /Sgt. Jose Caringal had his l1e1•riet dentOctober 8, 1949 NATIONAL WEEKLY Page 33 Operations Palomar - On the strength of intelligenc:e reports that the district of 'Palomar in Tondo is a nest of dissident elements the Mani·lia · Police at three o'clock in the morning Sunday cordoned the place and launched a ve. ritable "zona.'' Altogether a total of 68 suspects were .rounded up by the police, two were held by them for illegal -possession of firearms and the rest were turned over to 1-he P'hilippine Constabulary G-2 for further investiga.tion. .. · The tmo held by the police \·.'ere Genaro Ramos, 36, of 1020 Narcisa Rizal street, and Ernesto Estrella, 22, of 821 Asuncion exten-;ion. From Ramos an unlicensed carbine was seized and a Japanese .rifle from Estrella. The cordoning of the disirict and the screening of all re ·idents were made on the ~trength of reports gathered by Capt. Ambrocio Lorenzo who is in charge of the MPD mtelligcnce section that the }:luks had planned to rise up in ·ai·ms sometime before or &ft.er the elections. Althou2h .110 top Huks were taken. "Operations Palomar" proved to all and sundry that the po-lice could cope with any situation that may arise. Murray Ca5e - The trial .,~ l'frs. Ester del Rosario ficit already reachinr; to Pl09.000,000: th.: difficult situation is furtl1e,1.· aggravated by the release of P30, 000,000 for guerrilla currency redemption and the approval by the President of P2,000.000 eorrespondin~ to two months' bonus deductible frnra l~ackpav certificates. PC-AFP Vendetta _Two Philippine Army soldiers were killed and five PC men were injured more or less seriously, one of them a captain when members of the two units clashed in Bamban, Tarlac, last Friday afternoon. Killed were Pfc. AlfrPdn Guimba and Pfc. Juanito .Tardeleza, both of the 3r:l Heavy M6rtar Co., AFP, while those suffering from grenade shrapnel injuries were Capt. Felipe Bruan, commanding officer of tht> J02n<l PC company, Sgt. Alfonso Mabor and three privaties. Murray who is accused of Two witnesses declared 1··:lJ·ric1de for the death of her that the two were drunk and husband, George C. Murray, they picked a quarrel with w.as schedwed to begin Tues- -~~~ ~~~~ day at the Quezon City court of-first instance. Mrs. TARUC'S NARROW ... Murray has for her counsel (Continued from page 5) a:. battery of lawyers including ex-Justice Mariano H. de .Toya and Atty. Amado Yatco .. . O.n the prosecution side ASst. Prov. Fiscal Irineo V. Bernardo will appear, possibly assisted by :Legal ~xoerts from the PC and the NBI. "Gloomy Sunday" - Whoever wins the Philippine presidency will not enjoy a holi - day with the present precarious financial position of the Philippines. With a current annual expenditures of !P'2J5-0,000,000, low income and a detheir objective was Taruc si.nd 'T'aruc was somewhere ihere. The dissidents would not fight so stuibbornly if thPir Supremo was not ameng 1 hem in that barrio. ThP. barrio became a fort. Port holes were cut from the nipa sidings of the houses and rifle slugs sent from them with gaining rapidity. Dnring the battle, shouts encou:;.·aged the Huk oarrio Karrison. Wn men's voices singing martiai nirs gave the scene n touch of a melodrama. Soon the command0s got hrn PC ~oldiers whom thev manhandled. It was wh~n the matt.er was renorted tn the PC that Capt_ Brmrn ·~ame with three soldiers and a non-com officer. He wac: trying to effect the surrender of the two privates when one of them hurled a hand gre. r.arle at them which exploded. Th" two werP afterwardi:: riddle<l with pr, bullets. President Elpidio Quirino charged the Avelino Party an<l th~ Nacionaiista Partv with "collusion." stating that the two partisan groups are conniving to reduce the majority party into a minority b·J excluding Quirino ele.ctiqn inspectors from the chairmanshio of the board. Realizing that the Quirinistas are placed at a disadvantage as a result of the Sup., t·eme Court nlling granting the Avelino group an inspector, Perez proposes to file a motion for reconsideratlo, ~·eeking the withdrawal of such inspector. He recom raonds that instcac! of an elec· tion inspector of the A-:eliu '1 v:ing, an inspecto·· b'.!1C·'1·Sd"·!Y to the commissir:~. on elo.ctio·1 be appointed. Check Forgerv - A c!P.rl~ in the department of fin.'.'.~·'.::) has been suspended by s~r. Pio P1~dro~a in connection and not one found its m,nk. with a US VetP.rans Adminis- He escaped wiiliout a ~rratch, tration check in the amount hotly pursued, but nen·r of P9.309 whi~h has bet'ln col. caught. Taruc v;a3 aypat·entlected by impostors. The ly sure of his safety. He haJ check belonsred to Ruben G. fl. ready exit in case of a tight Tiburcio of Bananka Mari- pinch and he had wisely P• O· kina. Rizal. who came' to thP vided ample warning and pi. Lt· offices of the U8V A to claim ~ection around his camp. Had the check. It was only then it not be~n for the fact that when the forgery w~s dis· ·the commandos were delayed cover.ed. · · ' by three ambuscades along the way, Taruc would havr· been easily trapped. "Collusioni" - As Speaker Eugenio Perez :expressed his fear of a Nacionalista inspired thl'leat to peace and order, Strange as it may seem. this running fight lasted thrc-c days, with scarcely a stop ftH' food or water for the com·1 ~1andos. Upon returmng tn within clo-;p range and they the battalion headquarters m began using their Name Arayat, Lt. Cruz and hie; men throwers and hand grenades. 1·:ere summoned to l\faiiib This orecipitated the clim:~.x rtnd individually commender) and the desperados made a for their courage and: braver.-..· rush for rhe back wav with by Gen. Mariano N. Castaii~ the intention of effecting a11 da himself. escape. A hand to hand com- ' bat ensuec·. The Huks fought (Next week we shall brinl? their wa.y out of the barrio. ~ou the intriguing story of lE'avin~ b~hind a few casual- the capture and release of ties. · - Huk CommBinders LIWA YW AY and ILANG, said to b~ the most beautiful women in the whob Hukba.Iahao o:·. ganization. Don't fail to "C1 a copy of r.ext week's is~flt~·0;· the NATIONAL WEEKL1. and read alI about the ins:cb :,lory of these Huk Arnaz:-cs. -Ed.). Taruc narrowly escaped th e commandos' clutches ngain. Part of his fleein.~ g-roup was sighted by the Neuitas. But the Huk supremo i::eemed to bear a charmed existence. A hundred bullets were speeded towards him October 8, 1949 cd by a H uk bullet while squatting. 1 The N~nitas were v;aiting for the onshrng-ht of the Huks and wer<! ready to die fighting. in a case like this, Lt. Cruz pla11ned a decided stand with his men forming a crowder! circle in the creek. A rude embankment had been thrown up· around them. But the Huk £ttack did not come that night. By dawn, the emmy firing had ceased. Lt. Cr!1z decide:-l to work his way to San H.< que by the swamps and "talahih" fields. He was sure that Rl1 trails were closely watched by the Huks. This de'..our to11' a whole day and the commandos did not get a single bite of food since their suppP!' prior to leaving San Luis. To quench their thirst. ;he commandos V\'et their faces and mouths i1n. carabao :rn..ud holl's &nd sucked raw ~nails the~· picked up in creek'>. ' At about noon of the th:.r.il day, the comman'los approached barrio San Roque. The barrio was sm·round'erl by open rke fields with a radius of approximately 500 yru-ds · Everythin~ SP.emed auiet in the village. The Ne~itas were fatigued by this time but Lt. Cruz did not ' . . want to waste a smg:le m1;.1u te. While Lt. Del Prado proceeded to malrn ris way to the flank, a lime was forme:d bv Lt. Cruz and an a.dvanco made. Just as the commandos P.merged from ~he "talahi:b" infested area into the rice fields, the Huks from the barrio opened· fire. It was as though the. commamhs we1·e expected aud'. the Huks ha<l prepared a receptic·n of fire for th'em. rrhe fight raged furiously. lt was a question of annihilation for one side or the other, and both , Huk and Commando fought like demons. Lt. -Cruz shouted to the commandos to disperse and rush into the barrio. It was every man for himself but their advances were repulsed. Lt. Cruz kept drivi·ng his men forward, remembering that (Continued On page 33) NATIONAL WEEKLY Page 5 From base camp in Arayat, Pampanga, comma~dos entruck for a mission. COSMOPOLITAN COLLEGES, SECOND QUARTER ENROLLMEN't STILL OPEN • RAFAEL PALMA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION • COLLEGE OF COMMERCE~ BUS. ADMINISTRATION • COLLEGE OF AR TS ~ SCIENCES • SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE • SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM • COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING (1st to 2nd Yrs.) • COLLEGIATE SECRETARIAL - SPECIAL COURSES • JUAN LUNA INSTITUTE (Solis, Tondo)-NORM/\L • COS.l\lOPOLlTAN ACADEMY (Cavite City)--lst ~2nd year5 of NORMAL, EDUCATION, COMMERCE, LIBERiis~L ARTS.~ ENGINEERING - SECRETARIAL First Quarter subjects will be offered REGULAR CLASSES BEGINNING OCT. 5 ABAD SAN'TOS LAW SCHOOL (Formerly Cosmopolitan Law College) Luzco Bldg .. Corner David ~ Dasmarinas FIRST YEAR SPEClAL CLASS-COl\.lPLETE COURSE Enrollment Still Open COSMOPOLITAN COLLEGES Plaza Sta. Crpz. Manila