As I was bedding down in a small native shack, a Filipino quietly crept up to my bed, and said, "Sir! I am an emissary from General Aguinaldo in Palanan. Sir! General Aguinaldo wants to hide you from the Japanese for the duration of the war."
I was delighted; this seemed like the answer to a prayer. I had no idea where Aguinaldo had ever heard of me, or why he was interested in me. We did have one thing in common we were both doctors. I learned several things about Aguinaldo: he had been mayor of a small barrio. When the Americans took the Philippines from the Spanish in 1899, Aguinaldo appointed himself the President of the Philippines and led an insurgent army of 40,000 against the Americans and fought a long and bloody war.
Aguinaldo was finally captured in Palanan by Gen. Fred Funston; he was brought to Manila as a prisoner, where he swore an oath of allegiance to the United States and became a good friend. The Military Governor, Gen. Arthur MacArthur, the
father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, treated Aguinaldo as an honored guest in the Malacanong Palace in Manila.
General Aguinaldo's emissary told me to meet him the following day at a Spanish hacienda, the Buen-venida, near the barrio of San Mariano, about thirty miles to the south. He would lead me over the Sierra Madre Mountains to Palanan and General Aguinaldo.
The next morning the guide and I started south-attempting to find the designated hacienda. After riding all day, we finally arrived at a hacienda, but not the Buen-venida. When I inquired as to the direction to Buen-venida, the Spanish owner asked me:
"Did you come to surrender?" I answered with a very positive, "No!" He said, "Col. Warner and Major Minton are here with their staff-from Palanan." I answered, "I would like to see them!"
As I greeted Col. Warner and Major Minton, in walked another American from a different direction. Lt. Col. Theodore Kalakuka, QMC, Gen Wainwright's G-4 from Manila, saying, "I've been sent here by General Wainwright." Ted had arrived in a Jap plane from Manila with a Japanese pass. He continued, "He has ordered all Fil-American troops to surrender. If any unit does not surrender, all of the captives on Corregidor will be severely punished (probably slaughtered!)" For my benefit, he continued, "There are thousands of Americans in internment camps that are extremely sick and desperately in need of medical care. Any American who does not surrender will be considered a deserter of the United States Army!" (Several weeks later, Ted died of cerebral malaria while looking for Americans who had not surrendered.)
Col. Warner pointed out to our officers that "the Japanese have a
bounty on each of our heads. It is the beginning of the rainy season.
There is a great scarcity of food. The Japanese have warned the
Filipinos that anyone caught helping Americans would be executed. The
Filipinos can no longer afford to be friendly to Americans."