Albuera's Conrado Daffon

Others were from younger and more vigorous civilians, who were never mobilized for military service, but impelled for a variety of reasons to throw in their lot with the resistance. Emiliano Teves, a retired school teacher, was an 18-year old student at the Baybay National School (now the Leyte State University) when he was recruited by Teofilo Moncada for WLGWF. Two years later, he would be heading a company of soldiers in Barrio Luna as a 3^rd lieutenant.[i]

Arsenio Amo of Maybog, Baybay was only 9 years old when he became an apprentice operator of the generator set for the radio of Kangleon in Mt. Dabaw. Although he would not be classified as a guerilla, he was working as one. At 69, he is probably the youngest surviving member of the veteran’s organization in the island.[ii]

Jose C. Ygaña was a graduating high school student at the defunct Ormoc Institute and barely 19 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. The school director at once ordered the classes stopped so that the students could go home to their respective barrios. There in Barrio Balogo, of Albuera, he learned of the surrender of the USAFFE, which disheartened him but somehow prodded him to do something about the situation.

He wasted no time in contacting a reserved USAFFE officer living in his barrio named Francisco Corres. Soon they were planning to contact other potential fighters in the community, military as well as civilians, who could possibly form a fighting group. In their initial list were more than 20 young men who eventually formed the core of their group, with Corres as their commanding officer. The group would later affiliate itself with the Western Leyte Guerrilla Warfare Forces of Lt. Blas Miranda and would become part of the WLGWF regiment under Albuera’s most famous fighter, Conrado Daffon.[iii]

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[i] Justimbaste and Burgos Interview of Emiliano Teves in Cogon, Ormoc, June 2003

[ii] Justimbaste and Burgos Interview of Arsenio Amo in Maybog, Baybay, June 2003

[iii] Jose C. Ygaña, handwritten account of his own experiences in the guerrilla movement in Leyte. 17 pages. P. 2.  After the war, the author would resume his college studies and graduate to become a public school teacher. He would retire as a district school supervisor.