Editorial - October 20 Issue

Juez De Cuchillo At Batan

When there is war, just or unjust, between and among nations, soldiers die, innocent civilians get killed, government and private properties damaged or destroyed. People underwent untold sufferings and miseries.
The following story as we revisit October 18 and 19, 1942, 65 years ago, describes the ruthless mass murder of the 74 Batangnons in the cruel hands of the foreign invaders, the Japanese. This is the story of the cruelties and ruthlessness of human beings to their fellow beings; the inhumanity to humanity, motivated by greed of power and imperialism of a strong nation over a weak one, the Philippines.
It was a tranquil and sunny afternoon of October 18, 1942. Although it was wartime, the people of Batan, particularly in the Poblacion, were on their routine daily tasks of wartime living enjoying the unusually peaceful day. The children were in the streets playing while the older ones grouped themselves in street corners chatting. Nobody expected any enemy invasion or any event that would cost human blood and human lives. But all at a sudden, news from Barangay Mandong reached the Poblacion saying that a Japanese ship was sighted about a kilometer off-shore of Mandong. The ship was raising a white flag as it moved to the direction of Batan Bay. The residents of the Poblacion were not alarmed by the coming Japanese ship. Perhaps, the residents understood the message of the white flag to mean peace. Nobody understood that the white flag would mean that the people should prepare for a surrender.
While the ship was nearing the delta of the Batan Bay, it raised a red flag. This time, the residents got fearfully alarmed. The message was clear that something bloody would happen. Quickly, the people of the Poblacion bundled out things they could carry in a pace half-running and left the Poblacion to seek safe hiding places. Some crossed the Sugod River for the mangroves, others hide in thick bushes far from the road side, still others submerged themselves with their heads above water at river banks sheltered with thick branches.
However, some braver residents waited for some while and observed the movements of the ship and at what direction the Japanese soldiers would land. The ship was nearing the shore of the Poblacion while a black flag was raised. The message was massacre or “Juez de Cuchillo,” some local story tellers put it.
At this time, the last minute-observers left the Poblacion running. They were in panic looking for places to hide. At this time, any hiding place far from the road side was safe enough because the Japanese soldiers captured the civilians they met on the way.
It was about 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon of October 18, 1942 when the Japanese soldiers touched the shore of the Poblacion. Upon landing, the soldiers formed into three groups. One group went to the direction of Ambolong, the second group towards Mandong and the third group passed through the trail to sitio Batuan of Mandong. For about two hours, all civilians the Japanese met were captured.
They brought their captives to the Poblacion. The reason perhaps was if the soldiers prolong their search, they would be caught by the dark and it would be difficult to manage their captives. The estimated number of soldiers were about 25.
The captives were brought to the Poblacion, Batan just about sunset, before the dust ensued. At the Poblacion, there was a big residential building owned by Pedro Salazar where at the ground floor were three vacant commercial stores. The captured civilians were imprisoned inside this house. Presently, the location of the said building owned by Pedro Salazar stands the residential building of Eduard Delfin.
For about ten agonizing hours, the captured civilians were held captives not exactly sure of what the soldiers would do. But during these ten agonizing hours of captivity, the victims prepared for their impending death. From the testimonies of a survivor, Ana L. Bautista, she heard moaning from the prisoners at the other rooms. Some able-bodied male prisoners were badly beaten by the soldiers. At about 2:00 o’clock A.M. of October 19, 1942, the two catholic priests, Rev. Father Francisco Bolivar and Rev. Father Bartholome Conanan exhorted the prisoners of their impending execution.
The prisoners were told to pray the act of contrition and the two priests administered the general absolution. At this point before deaths, what is important is eternity. The prisoners in many similar ways had the deaths of martyrs who offered their sufferings before death to Almighty God. Contrition and absolution before death were the graces the victims received.
At about 4:00 o’clock in the morning of October 19, 1942, the prisoners were told to stand. Starting from the first prison room, the prisoners were told to form a single line. Then the prisoners walked to the execution room across the street at the ground floor of the building owned by Sixto Laurente, presently the site of the Batan Rural Bank. The prisoners, calm and resigned to the will of God were beheaded. When the Japanese soldiers left at about 5:00 o’clock that morning, Dikoy Bautista crawled out from the file of dead bodies. He survived the beheading. There were five other survivors who escaped through the back door few minutes before the execution. They were Ana L. Bautista, Marcelina Pañer and her small son, Benjamin and Meñang Cortes with her small daughter.
The dead bodies were buried at the execution site by civilian volunteers right that day when the Japanese soldiers left. The remains of the victims of Juez de Cuchillo were transferred to the Municipal Cemetery after the war.
From Batan on October 19, 1942, the Japanese soldiers went to Kalibo through Altavas, Balete and Banga. At sitio Bangkerohan, Linayasan, Altavas, the soldiers killed a number of civilians. Then at Balete, civilians were also killed and thrown to Balete river. At Poblacion, Banga October 21, 1942, civilians, mostly males gathered to welcome the Japanese soldiers at the crossing of Banga–Balete–Libacao–Kalibo in front of the public market. But they were unlucky.
They were massacred, machine gunned and bayoneted. Without any warning, hundreds of civilians were fired by machine gun. At the Banga town plaza stands a monument, a marker erected in honor of the memory of the victims of the Japanese atrocities.
It was 65 years ago and Batanganons’ hearts still ache when they remember the Juez de Cuchillo in Batan. /MP