The heroism story of Engr. Eduardo J. Blanco and his companions has been known to a number of Dumagueteños who revisit their history of the Japanese occupation in Dumaguete. It has become one of the most oft-repeated stories of civilian heroism in Dumaguete during the war.
Blanco was the District engineer of Negros Oriental even before the coming of the Japanese occupying forces, and was, like most other local government officials, staying in the “occupied area” for most part of the Japanese period.
He later on played an important role in intelligence gathering by the guerrillas when he made a blueprint map of the Dumaguete airfield, and gave it to Lorenzo Cimafranca, an intelligence operative of the guerrilla movement in Dumaguete.
Cimafranca, as the story goes, then placed the map inside the bar of the saddle of his bike, tightened it with a rubber band, and put back the saddle on top. He then rode his bike the mountains, passing through Japanese checkpoints without a problem.
The maps eventually reached the headquarters of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Australia, and was used effectively in the American air bombing raids on Sept. 12-13, 1944.
On the same day of the first American air raid which destroyed with pinpoint accuracy Japanese war planes, oil storage, the barracks, and the armory, Blanco and his companions – Somoza, Silva, and Chi – were arrested by the Bureau of Constabulary on suspicion of working with the local guerrilla forces.
More specifically, as a result of the American air raid of the Dumaguete airfield, the Japanese arrested Blanco and his companions since he was the primary suspect of making the blueprints.
Blanco and his companions were imprisoned for a month at Channon Hall at the Silliman Institute. Like the other prisoners, they, too, were victims of torture by the Kempeitai.
Jesus Chi was water cured and badly beaten – his right arm broken – by Sergeant Naka of the Kempeitai, to the point that he could not even speak for a long time, and was, according to one witness, “…gasping for breath and couldn’t make a sound.”
Arnaldo Silva suffered the same fate as Chi; he was water cured, and beaten on the back repeatedly by a three-by-three-inch wood.
The Kempeitai then pressured Jovenal Somoza, the assistant District engineer to confess, and link Engineer Blanco as the one who made the map for the Americans. He was also badly-beaten by Sergeant Naka with a piece of wood that measured about a meter long. Four ribs were broken on Somoza’s left side.
To his credit, he did not squeal, and tried to protect Engineer Blanco as much as was possible; this was evinced by his affidavit stating that Engineer Blanco did not make a blueprint of Dumaguete airfield.
He also tried take the fall on himself by confessing that it was only him – not Blanco – who made the map, and sent it to the guerrillas in the mountains.
Even with the testimony of Somoza, the Kempeitai still tortured Engineer Blanco by putting pieces of iron between his fingers, and hammering his fingers with a piece of wood. Like the others, he was badly- beaten.
Mariano Perdices, the Dumaguete mayor then and Blanco’s childhood friend, tried to intercede for him and his companions by the first week of October 1944.
Like Blanco, Perdices also played a significant role in sending the map of the Dumaguete airfield to the Americans by acting as bridge between Cimafranca and Blanco.
Nonetheless, Perdices tried his best to help his friend Blanco. In doing so, he talked to Sergeant Oiese who then asked him whether he knew Blanco, and whether he would vouch for him by signing with his blood.
Perdices, in his own words, then told Sergeant Oiese: “I was willing to guarantee not only with the signature of my blood but that I was willing to guarantee for Engineer Blanco with my head and that of my family.”
Sergeant Oiese then informed Perdices that the only way for Blanco to be released was for Gov. Guillermo Villanueva to vouch that Blanco would not leave the town.
Two days after his meeting with Sergeant Oiese, Perdices met with the Governor who was staying at the house of Raymundo Villanueva. But before Perdices could even start speaking, the Governor asked why he was trying to save his friend Engineer Blanco.
Perdices asked Villanueva why he was aware of the purpose of their meeting. The Governor replied that he had been informed the night before by Sergeant Oiese, who also warned that it would be very dangerous for the Governor to vouch for “people like Blanco” which would most likely lead the Japanese to believe that the Governor also had connections with the guerrilla movement.
It seemed apparent, by his tone, that Governor Villanueva was not keen on guaranteeing Blanco’s release.
Undeterred, Perdices told Villanueva: “I would guarantee for any Filipino if I was given the chance to save them.” Then he left without getting any guarantee.
A few days after the encounter with Governor Villanueva, Sergeant Oiese met with Perdices in the latter’s house; Perdices then asked again whether there would be any other way to guarantee the release of Blanco.
Sergeant Oiese, however, said he could not do anything about it anymore since the case of Blanco was serious.
A few days after that meeting, at around 5 pm on Oct. 12, 1944, members of the Japanese Kempeitai and Keibitani units assembled around Channon Hall – complete with helmets and fixed bayonets. A Kempeitai officer did a roll call of the prisoners whose names were posted on the board outside the selda:Arnaldo Silva, Eduardo Blanco, Jovenal Somoza, Jesus Chi.
The four were forced to board a truck by the Japanese. Fellow prisoners at Channon Hall attested that they “…could see from the street from Channon Hall through a half inch crack in the wall” that Blanco and the rest were being taken towards the direction of the Dumaguete airfield. The Kempeitai officers who took Blanco and the rest were Sgt. Maj. Shinpei Yamashita and Sergeant Naka.
When the Japanese soldiers returned around an hour later at 6:30, the prisoners at Channon said they could only see Major Yamashita and Sergeant Naka get down from the truck. No sight of Blanco, Somoza, Silva, and Chi.
Then Sergeant Naka went to the prison cells, and showed the prisoners the shoes and trousers of Engineer Blanco, telling them, “no more”.
Blanco’s death was later confirmed when his wife went to Channon Hall later that evening bringing food for her husband, but was told by Japanese interpreter Vicente Kanisero not to come back to Channon anymore because she was only bothering them, and that: “Your husband is no more.”
The manner in which Blanco, Somoza, Silva, and Chi were killed by the Japanese remains a mystery to this day.
The most commonly- accepted story is based on Maj. Juan Dominado’s account wherein he claimed that the four were individually placed in sacks which were tied-closed, and thrown some three kilometers off the Dumaguete wharf.
Dominado said this was based on the eyewitness account of a certain Narciso Nalipay from Ayuquitan, machinist of the motor-launch used by the Japanese forces.
After the Liberation, Cesar Blanco, brother of Engineer Blanco, tried to locate the remains of his brother and the rest of his companions.
His lead – based on the accounts of the prisoners at Channon Hall – was that Blanco and the others were executed near the Dumaguete airfield, as most of the other victims were mostly executed.
He found a witness, Marcelo Bato, who claimed to have seen Blanco and the rest near the area of the Dumaguete airfield. Bato later on attested that Blanco and his companions were “…buried in the two holes near Manga.”
With the help of other Dumagueteños – a brother of Somoza, the wife of Chi, the dentist Imbo, and Dr. de Leon – and with the permission of the health officer, Cesar Blanco and his companions dug the two burial holes, and were able to recover six skulls, but could not identify them. The dentist attested that none of the teeth recovered matched those of Blanco and the others’ teeth.
Eventually, they brought Sergeant Oiese (that time held as prisoner) to the scene of the crime, and asked him to identify the skulls. He replied that they belonged to men from Bais Central who were executed on Oct. 23, 1944.
Sergeant Oiese just told Cesar Blanco that Blanco and his companions were “sent to higher command” in Cebu.
In 1974, some Japanese war veterans came to Dumaguete on a “goodwill visit” with the intent to recover the remains of their fallen comrades.
Gov. William “Billy” Villegas told them to meet with Lorenzo Cimafranca who can help them in finding sites where some Japanese soldiers were purportedly buried.
Cimafranca then took the opportunity to ask them about the case of Engr. E.J. Blanco, Engr. Jovenal Somoza, Arnaldo Silva, and Jesus Chi.
Capt. Hideo Harada, leader of the Japanese delegates, replied that he could not anymore get information on the whereabouts of Blanco since Capt. Masatomi Tokunaga, head of the Kempeitai in Dumaguete, was executed by hanging for war crimes.
Suffice it to say, the remains of the four local civilians have yet to be recovered.
If the story of Dominado holds ground – that they were thrown a few kilometers off the Dumaguete port – it would be a herculean task to recover the remains by now.
And even if they were not recovered at all, Dumagueteños would always remember the heroism of Blanco, Somoza, Chi, and Silva.
As a testament to their courage and bravery, two streets in Dumaguete have been named after our local heroes: E.J. Blanco St. (barangay Piapi)-E.J. Blanco Ext. (barangay Daro) that runs through Larena Drive, the national highway, Hibbard Ave., and Flores Ave.
The second is Jovenal Somoza St. (barangay Daro) that connects between E.J. Blanco St. and Aldecoa Drive-Laguna.
It is hoped that their heroism and sacrifice would not be forgotten by Dumagueteños – that their courage would serve as an example for us to emulate.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
