Lt. Blas Miranda succeeded where others of
higher rank did not. The WLWGF was a mixture of unsurrendered soldiers, former
members of the Philippine Constabulary and civilians. Miranda eyed with deep
suspicion soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese and treated them as
traitors, the main reason why he could not submit himself to Kangleon, a
surrenderee in Davao, even if the latter was much higher in rank than him.
He had with him Lt. Conrado Sabelino, former aid of Gen. Sharp in
Mindanao, as his first chief of staff. Major Marcos Soliman, another
unsurrendered officer who came all the way from Mindanao and Capt. Aristoteles
Olayvar – both of whom were his superior officers - subordinated themselves to
his command apparently in respect for his early services.
In a letter to Macario Peralta, Panay’s guerrilla commander, Soliman
explained why he subordinated himself to Miranda, who was of lower rank.
…the
old spirit of once a soldier always a soldier found me hitched to the wagon
again and I joined 1st Lt. Blas E. Miranda, formerly CO of the 2nd Leyte
Company, PC, in Ormoc. I told him frankly that inspite of my former rank, I was
willing to serve under him. He appointed me chief of staff and at the same time
commander of a service school for officers which we organized and have been
operating since January.
According to Soliman, WLGWF’s organizational structure was patterned
after that of the regular divisions with modifications to suit guerrilla purposes.
It had six regiments operating more or less independently, but its general
headquarters had a strong mobile combat team that could be moved from one
locality to another in case a regiment is hard pressed. All of these units were
responsible for their respective areas, with each one required to submit
reports periodically to the GHQ.
It had a complete general staff composed mostly of ex-reserve
officers who had seen action in other fronts, but it had very few regular
officers. Aside from Soliman, the WLGWF had Capt. Olayvar, a 1940 PMA graduate,
who was assigned as a battalion commander in Cebu when war overtook him.
Started right after Cornell’s surrender, by June 1943, it already had 417
officers and some 12,000 men organized into six regiments. By then, Miranda was
already known as by his nom de guerre as Col.
Briguez.
Among the various guerrilla organizations, it had the most complete
setup. It had a munitions ordinance which manufactured ammunitions, grenades
and land mines which was under the direct supervision of Miranda himself who
was an engineer by vocation and an inventor by avocation. The tools of the
trade were dismantled piece by piece and transported from Barrio Ipil’s Ormoc
Sugar Central Company (OSCO), a sugar mill then partly owned by the Aboitiz
family, to the headquarters in the mountain fastness of Barrio Mahilaum called Campo Langit.
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