archived information maybe found at this website:
http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/MacArthur%20Reports/MacArthur%20V1/ch10.htm
(retyped verbatim by me; please excuse typos if any)
Attachment C: After Action Reports and Decoration and Award Forms
M/Sgt Dacquel
Our Mission to the Philippines
By M-Sgt. Isidoro D. Dacquel
7 June 1945
Pursuant to instructions, S-2 & S-3, 1st Ron Sn SP Trs, the following REPORT OF OPERATIONS, Weather Team under M/Sgt. Isidoro D. Dacquel.
R-52744389, is hereby submitted:
We, (M/Sgt Dacquel, S/Sgt Francisca, Sgt Mintanar and Opl Savacion), left TABRAGALBA, QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA, on 7 June 1944 and boarded the submarine "NORWHALL" at DARWIN 8 June for the PHILIPPINES. We went out of your way to shell the oil refineries at CERAM arriving off Panay waters 20 June 1944. Promptly at 1800 that memorable day, we surfaced off LIPATA, a small town on the west central coast of PANAY and stared unloading our precious cargoes under cover of darkness. The Cuerrilleros showed neither planning nor organization in their efforts to unload the cargoes of the submarine, so fifty tons of her cargoes were thrown overboard. They were concerned more of looting the cargoes than of unloading. The officer in charge of the unloading was one, LT Col Cerilo Garcia Chief of PANAY.
The Japs were at LAPATA whil our sub was being unloaded and only the good fighting abilities of one CAPT Cadjao and his men were we able to land. This officer and his brave men repeatedly made themselves conspicuous by their successful encounter with the enemy time and time again hereafter but for all these good work and specially this one, he and his men were never compensated nor even commended. The sub was able to sink two Jap troopships that following morning before it submerged for her return trip; otherwise, i would not have been able to write this report for surely they would have taken cared of us before we could even go any further.
We landed at 0400 21 June 1944. At 1000 the Japs machine gunned and straffed us and later dropped a bomb at our supply dump but missed by a hundred feet. We took to the hills immediately and stayed there under cover for three days until one Sgt Ramos, a SWPA man, sent us work that we are moving to BITADTUM, a small barrio further up the coast where one Lt Mendosa, PHILIPPINE ARMY, was maintaining "a sort of a radio station". We stayed there for a week awaiting instructions from GHQ and at the same time trying to locate our instruments which were separated from us in the mad scramble for safety. The instructions from GHQ came but was withheld from us for a week before it was revealed to us. Then they told us we were moving to SOLIDO, still further north and mid-central northern PANAY. So, from BITADTUN to SOLIDO we moved; set the station and began operations after too much bickering about how our reports should be handled. Garcia and one 1st Lt Irineo Ames insisted on running our mission to suit themselves while I remained adamant and insisted on running it according to my "Operational Instructions"; GHQ backed us up and we won.
Everything went on smoothly for a spell but soon the Japs began fishing us off the air. Then one night the Guerrilla Intelligence told us the Japs were coming of us. We escaped under cover of darkness and took the northwesterly direction on the provincial road towards BIGON, a small barrio located at the northern shore of the northwestern tip of PANAY. Here we set our Station only for a few days in danger of being captured. I split my party in two; S/Sgt Francisca and Sgt Kintanar took the overland route through winding trails across the high mountains towards PUCIO POINT; while Opl Salvacion and I redoubled back on the provincial read to PANDAN on the west coast of PANAY thence along the shore northward to LIBERTAD. This was in mid September. We set up our Station at LIBERTAD, moving twice in the vicinity until Christmas Day, 1944 when we moved to PUCIO POINT.
In the meantime, under instructions form GHQ, S/Sgt Francisca and Sgt Kintanar were ordered to TAPAZ center of PANAY to establish Station "BAHALANA 005".
That left Opl Salvacion and myself running "Bahala na 004" with three-in-one mission; Weather, Air & Coast Watch; while S/Sgt Francisca and Sgt Kintanar, weather observations only.
Opl Salvacion and I operated at PUCIO POINT until 22 April, 1945, when under orders from Garcia, our Guerrilla Station Complement left us to shift for ourselves. Col Peralta, the Guerrilla Chief of PANAY, sent us a message to report to ILOILO but provided no means of getting there. So I hired a sailboat for for MINDORO and reported there for instructions. left MINDORO at 1900 24 May, 1945 and arrived at HOLLANDIA, NEW GUINEA at 1700 25 May, stopping at TACLOBAN, LEYTE overnight. At TACLOBAN, my shirt, with all my priced possession was stolen frm me between 2330 and 0100. We stayed at SIX CAMP, TROOP MOVEMENT , CASUAL DET, TENT 56.
The above is my "OPERATIONAL REPORT" in brief. Lots of details have been omitted. There are three matters i would like to take up and tell the world. First, the cooperation we got from the Guerrilla Chiefs of PANAY with regards to our mission; second, what became of the supplies sent to PANAY by sub; the third and last but not least, the people of PANAY - the civilians - their suffering and privations resulting in the maltreatment they received from the Guerrillas as well as from the enemy.
Lt Col Garcia and 1st Ames gave practically no or little cooperation to our mission. Lt Irineo Ames was openly working against us in all of our endeavors. The Lt Colonel was indifferent to all our efforts. As a Commander of Troops, he displayed lack of planning and organization and delighted only in skinning his officers n their poker game parties daily. Like Lt Ames, he is untrustworthy, undependable and shifty. He systematically stripped my station of its equipment and supplies making it almost impossible to continue with operations until I got to MINDORO by sailboat to obtain medicine, food and equipment. According to MEMO I received from Col Peralta from the beginning, he is supposed to protect us, feed us and quarter us. But this man took our "K" rations and left us nothing to eat the very day we landed. He even sent a man with instructions that we give him twenty-five Pesos for which to buy food. We gave him the money ate one meal out of it, then he disappeared with the money and all. He left us shift for ourselves for everything and we practically starved from the day we landed until that very day I got supplies from MINDORO the last week of January, 1945.
All of the supplies brought by our submarines were misappropriated by the Guerrilla Chief. Clothing, food, equipment, medicine and even arms and ammunition found themselves in the hands of the people not entitled to have them. Kost of the clothing and medicines found their ways in "caches" and "Hideouts" of the principal Guerrilla Chiefs to be sold at fancy prices by agents especially favored by them. A pack of cigarettes was selling at 20 pesos; one gallon can of GI coffee, three hundred pesos; a bar of Palm Olive soap, forty-five pesos; toothbrush, twenty-five pesos each; a suit of khaki, one hundred and fifty pesos; half a "fasco" of lard, six pesos; a box of matches, five pesos; sulfanilamide; twenty-five pesos a tablet; and sausage, a Peso a link.
Of all the supplies sent to use in PANAY, we receive only a small jar of ovaltine, a packet of razor blades and a cartoon of matches. GHQ shipped our supplies and our equipment but went he sub got there, Garcia informed us that our supplies were thrown overboard at CEBU harbor when the sub went aground; and yet his house was stacked up to the ceiling with can goods. in that particular submarine that brought our supplies but did not get them, every box was opened in front Garcia. He first handed-picked what he wanted out of the box and then divided what was left in teh same box between Col Peralta and himself. He hand-picked again his share of that division and then gave one-sixth of it to the troops - his troops. The submarine that picked up the Americans who were shot down form the different parts of the VISAYAS and gathered at LIBERTAD, was boarded exclusively by himself, his wife, his servants and his henchmen. Fromt he sub they got plenty of food, medicines and odd and ends and yet there was absolutely nothing for anybody else.
The civilians of PANAY suffered as much from the Guerrillas as they did from the Japs. The people had nobody to turn to for protection. The Guerrillas did more damage to private and public properties than the Japs. They burned homes, school houses, and churches promiscuously; every town in PANAY was ravaged by fire. Wanton destruction of property was the order of the day. Arms intended to be used against the enemy were used against them for commandeering food and supplies. Often time a man's only carabao used for tilling his farm was shot to feed the hungry Guerrillas. The only explanation given was that the Japs would have done the same. so he was not losing anything. Even his fish catch is partially taken from him by "percentage". School teachers are used as procurement agents for food and clothing, serving without pay despite the fact
that these poor school teachers have never been paid ever since the Japs took over. The school teachers gather the clothes, Gacia distributes them to his troops and then collects from the Finance the cost of the clothes and pockets.it. Mrs Garcia used government transportation for her commercial enterprises profitably. As the wife of the Colonel, she thinks she has with her the authority of the Colonel too. She uses this assumed authority to a great advantage in all her dealings with the civilians.
The people of PANAY are suffering terribly from lack of food, medicines and clothing as the result of the exploitations y the Japs and the Guerrillas. The Japs gathered the crops and burned what they could not carry; they took their clothes and everything of value. The Gerrilleros on the other hand, come after and gleaned what was left.
In my sector, the people, in order to relieve their miserable conditions, go the MINDORO to trade their chickens, pigs, fruits, egges and souvenirs for the necessities of life; but when they get back, the Guerrilleros, waiting for them at the beaches, confiscate or cammandeer whatever they bring, back. Here again the carvine is very handy. The people of PANAY are absolutely helpless against these abuses so long as these Guerrilleros have arms in their possession. The people say, "You can't win or argue with a fellow who has his gun stuch on your ribs". The Guerrilla Chiefs' idea of service to their country is "War Lording". They have at their bidding their own army and bodyguards always at their sides and disposal.
Garcia is directly responsible for the murder of two Americans at MALAY, PANAY, 9 April, 1943. Their only crime was that these two men knew too much of his shady activities. I have talked to people who knew these men- people who fed them, clothed them people who even tried their best to hide them from both the Japs and the LT Colonel. The People praised and admired them for their galantry - for their sympathy and pity for their unjust fate. These people loved them like their own.
Like these two soldiers, McKie and Oakley, I have committed the same offense towards the Lt Colonel. I, too, know too much of his shady activities. He was gunning for me and only good luck kept me from suffering the same fate. He laid many traps for me. He was sorely disappointed when I got out of PANAY without so much trouble despite the fact that he had many agents guarding the beaches.
Outstanding among his accusers of wrong-doings, abuses and shady deals are the local officials in all the towns in my sector, including the school teachers and private individuals. In KALIBO, CAPIZ where he established his headquarters, the Alba and Albar families are very indignant. Among the school teachers int eh same town, MIss Amiola Lim is just as indignant. In SOLIDO, the Magallanes family; Padre Illio of MALAY and three others in the same town were the eye-witnesses to this infamous crime). In BURUANGA, CAPIZ you will find charming miss Bun Oastan, a good typical Samaritan to the Americans, tell you how these men lost their lives. She mothered all the refugee Americans; helped them, nursed them; clothed them; fed them; and even tried her best to hid them from all harm. In the same town also you will find the Mayor and on Lt Cortez very bitter toward him. At PUCIO POINT, you will find one Lt Louis, the caretaker and custodian of PUCIO POINT MILITARY RESERVATION aching to get even with him after this war. For the witnesses to the disposition of all the medicines by Mrs. Garcia, two of her former maids or servants could be contacted very easily. As to the locations of Garcia's "Caches", we can contact one 1st Lt Irineo Donoza and Mr ST Louis, then said custodian and caretaker of PUCIO POINT MILITARY RESERVATION.
Much has been said of Al Capone and his gang in their days but this fellow Garcia can alcopone Al Capone any day of the week on account of his position and connection with the PHILIPPINE ARMY and the Guerrilla establishment. He is an opportunist, shrewed and calculating.
