Lobo in the Second World War

A guerrilla unit was organised in Lobo from October 1942 and operated through to the end of the war, eventually attached as the Second Battalion of the Pandita Area. Its most consequential work was on the coast: after the American landing on Mindoro in December 1944, thousands of civilians evacuated into the mountains of Lobo, and Malabrigo Point became the nearest crossing to liberated territory.

The account of the Lobo unit survives because its commander wrote it down and swore to it, in a document now held in the United States National Archives among the Pandita Area guerrilla files. It is a first-person narrative running from the fall of Bataan to October 1945.

Recruiting began in Lobo in October 1942. Small groups formed around several leaders and were consolidated into a single unit, then affiliated with a larger outfit in Batangas. A company under a commander from Malabrigo joined, giving the unit three companies and then four. Its early work was defensive and civilian-facing: posting guards in each sector, warning villages when Japanese patrols were approaching, suppressing banditry, and encouraging farmers to plant more, because requisitioning had become a serious burden. The battalion commander was captured in April 1944 and taken to Fort Santiago.

The crossing to Mindoro

The decisive period came at the end of 1944. When the Americans landed at San Jose on Mindoro that December, Japanese activity in Batangas intensified, and civilians evacuated in large numbers into the Lobo mountains. From there, many attempted the crossing to Mindoro, and Malabrigo was the nearest and safest launching point. Japanese patrols worked the coast trying to intercept them, on the reasoning that anyone reaching Mindoro would report their positions to the Americans. Guerrillas escorted evacuees down to the point, guided them onto the safer trails, and signalled boats away from the anchorage when patrols were close. There was a fight escorting one such group in the last week of December.

The end of the war

The war ended slowly here. Two PT boats shelled the coast in March 1945; the Japanese moved into the mountains. American forces reached Batangas town in February but never landed at Lobo. In June an American officer, Second Lieutenant Ralph Ermatinger of Fox Company, came ashore, and Lobo guerrillas carried supplies and water up Mt. Malabnig for a joint mopping-up operation in which an American lieutenant was killed. Patrols continued through Mt. Calo, Mt. Patong, Bignay, Malapad na Parang, Tayuman and Nagtalongtong into October 1945.

The barrios named in the account — Fabrica, Malabrigo, Bignay, Malapad na Parang, Tayuman, Nagtalongtong — and the mountains Calo, Patong and Malabnig are the same places on today's barangay list. That is what makes the record usable: every one of them can carry a line on its own page.

Other wartime material

Still to be worked through: intelligence reports from the President Quezon's Own Guerrillas Composite 2nd Regiment covering Japanese positions in Lobo, Malvar, Rosario, San Jose and San Juan in December 1944, with hand-drawn sketch maps, one entry recording Lobo Harbour and Malabrigo Point as stopping places for vessels; a Hunters/ROTC Home Guard unit formed in Lobo as part of a group of towns fielding around 300 officers and men; a memo calling Lobo Unit officers to a general assembly in May 1943; and correspondence on the non-recognition of the parent organisation by the US Army.

A note on the source

The primary account is a wartime document written by a combatant, and its language about the enemy is of its period. The events, dates, places and names are taken from it; the prose here is written fresh, and the document is not quoted. Additions and corrections are dated on the build log.

Related

The history of Lobo, Lobo before the Spanish, and the most isolated town in Batangas.