Today would have been his 94th birthday. Below are some of the mementos of WWII he gave including his USN training aid for Morse code; (He was a signal man in the US Navy), his dog tags and the medals he got.
Along with my uncle Cenon Aldana-Cosme and Constancio G. Cosme, he walked the second Death March after the Fall of Corregidor, the infamous first Death March was in April after the Fall of Bataan. Ironically the Fall of both Bataan and Corregidor are holidays in the Philippines while they have never held a single Liberation Day Parade of celebration whatsoever.since the end of WWII.
By 1948 when quisling president Manuel A. Roxas died, he had hoped the old U.S. Navy in the Philippines will be reinstated but the sham republic survived. So he went to Guam where he eventually worked as a fireman for the U.S. Air Force throughout the Korean War and beyond.
My mom didn’t want to join him on Guam insisting that the Philippines is U.S. Territory and that the U.S. government should be involved in the post-WWII administration of the islands.
Below: His U.S. Air Force Fireman Badge and button.
On Dec. 12, 1901 Nicolas Aldana and three others were executed by hanging.
A Historical background of the life and times of Nicolas Aldana (RIP 12 Dec. 1901)
American soldiers occupies Las Piñas – June 1899Upon arrival at Manila from Hong Kong, Aguinaldo’s foreign minister Apolinario Mabini advised him not to declare independence and instead first, prove to the Americans that they were ready for self-rule. Mabini favored autonomy or what would be today a Freely Associated state relative to the U.S. But perhaps because of deep personal losses, Aguinaldo went ahead and on June 12, 1898 declared independence. In his long absence Aguinaldo’s first wife remarried and His brother Crispulo was killed when Bonifacio ceded to the Spanish forces territories previously secured by the revolutionaries, after breaking off from the Revolutionary government of which Aguinaldo was elected president.Aguinaldo’s nationalist army was more of an alliance of militias commanded by landowners whose soldiers were from various ethnic regions of Ilokos, Pangasinan, Pampanga, Bicol and of course Tagalog. They spoke different languages. There wasn’t a national army to speak of.After Aguinaldo swore allegiance to the United States, the war went on. Nicolas Aldana never joined Aguinaldo’s army and didn’t join Aguinaldo who went north up to Palanan, Isabela where he was captured. Nicolas Aldana didn’t surrender hence the possibility that it was a trump up charge was high. With voting requirements such as: Must know how to speak, read & write English or Spanish and own property of at least P500 OR have worked in the government before 1898, the U.S. has planted the roots of elitist and undemocratic oligarchy. In 1899, who could afford to own property worth P500 and speak, read write Spanish if not the middle and upper classes?The Americans had no plans of settling in the Philippines as they did in other territories or non-territories like Hawaii.
GENERAL ORDERS NO. 344 dated Nov. 7, 1901 sentencing Nicolas Aldana, et al to die by hanging as confirmed by Maj. Gen. Adna Romanza Chafee, commanding general Department of Southern Luzon. Note that no counsel for the defendants have been named.
“The army used the 1863 General Orders 100 (signed into law by Abraham Lincoln to govern the actions of Union soldiers in wartime) as legal authorization for governing the Philippines. As long as Filipinos did not resist military authority, support the insurgents, or take up arms, they could expect friendly treatment.For those who actively opposed the United States, however, the order prescribed cash fines, confiscation or destruction of property, summary imprisonment, relocation, capture of hostages, and execution of guerrillas who did not observe the laws and customs of war.” –
Folly in the Philippines By Rod Paschall | Published: August 10, 2010
Ironically, after the execution of Nicolas Aldana and three others on Dec. 12, 1901, the Philippine War turned ugly. The hope that the insurrection would end once Aguinaldo took an oath of allegiance to the United States of America did not materialize.
Philippine War 1899-1902, Philippine Genocide: 1,300 Filipino Prisoners Summarily Executed
On 12 DEC. 2013, it snowed in Jerusalem and Cairo.For the first time in 112 years snow fell in Jerusalem, Cairo and Beirut.
Nicolas Aldana’s son Elias became a four-term mayor of Las Pinas while his grandson, lawyer Bernardo Q. Aldana was the mayor when World War II broke out. Another grandson, Cenon Aldana-Cosme served with the Insular U.S. Navy and was captured when Corregidor fell on May 6, 1942. He was later arrested as a suspected American Agent in saturation drive on Dec. 1944. Believed to have been taken to the notorious dungeons of Fort Santiago, Cenon A. Cosme was presumed to have been tortured then killed. His body was never found.After the war, Bernardo Q. Aldana resumed his law practice and represented Americans whose properties were systematically being taken by relatives and friends of oligarch-traitors. Below is a successful appeal for plaintiff George McEntee.
Below are medals my father and most likely Constancio Cosme & Nicolas Aldana’s grandson Cenon A. Cosme earned serving in the U.S. Insular Navy in WWII. All three of them were captured when Corregidor fell on 6 May 1942; were forced into the second Death March and interned at Camp O’Donnell before being released in Oct. 1943.
For more than twenty (20) years, I couldn’t understand why my wife and I have been struggling with our respective careers and why the Philippines would not give me my official college transcript of records that I may formally take up law or an MBA to further my career and improve my earning capacity.
My late wife earned her Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University. She discovered and explored all the known geothermal areas in the Philippines. At one time we both worked in geothermal companies in California, one of which we significantly helped secure build-operate-transfer geothermal power plant contracts in the Philippines in the 1990’s. Still the oligarchic families ended up owning the entire energy industry and the economy.
Today, ethnic Chinese and ethnic Spaniards own and control the entire geothermal industry and the rest of the Philippine economy.
Then it occurred to me that no matter how smart you are, where you earned your degree, how hard you work and how pious you pray and regardless of your sex, in the Philippines, then as now, even before the Americans came, it will be the same oligarchic families who will be on top of the economy and food chain. We have in fact a caste system in the Philippines to this day funded and supported by the U.S. government through the World Bank, IMF and the U.N.
See: Korea -> North Korea; Some Old WAIS Posts (Bienvenido Macario, USA)
I intend to establish a government-in-exile for my ancestral land, the Philippines based in London, UK as a Native American or otherwise. I shall use the proceeds of these claims to finance such ventures, among others. And of course, I will need administrators.These cash, gold and securities are currently in the U.S. and European banks will be used to establish a government-in-exile in London, UK for my ancestral land, the Philippines.WAIS editor John Eipper asked if it was in fact $32 Billion. Part of the money ($16 billion) I suspect the World Bank used in forgiving the debt of the poorest African nations on 14 Dec. 2007. (See: WAIS Post: Financial Crisis & Bailout Sept. 25, 2008 – Bienvenido Macario)Initially thought to divert the people’s attention, Manuel A. Roxas did nothing to help Gen. Yamashita who was tried, convicted and executed for war crimes he did not commit. All along, Roxas knew about the gold and where it was buried. He was keeping an eye on the loot.A damning WWII photo of Manuel A. Roxas who became president of the 1946 post-WWII Philippine Republic. Nothing short of an independent and sovereign Philippines will keep out of prison.
U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippines Paul V. McNutt wanted to postpone giving the Philippines independence. However on 22 Oct. 1946 the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Manila and turned the former U.S. territory over to oligarch-traitors whose grandchildren are still in power to this day.
In the WAIS posting “Massive Typhoon Hits Philippines (Bienvenido Macario, USA)” posted on Sat, Nov 9, 2013 at 12:31 PM
First, a government-in-exile for the Philippines must be established in London, England with dominion status and accepted by HRH Queen Elizabeth II. Then that government in exile will hire UK-ANZAC Emergency crews and US Navy Public Works and the Sea Bees. There is no continuity dealing with Washington DC. Besides, the US never really stays long enough to make a lasting difference. Just look at Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Philippines being a former US territory won’t create a problem for the UN if it becomes freely associated with the UK and/or the US. Other UN members could not follow the Philippines’ example.
A Compact of Free Association is really the fastest way the UK and US should have been able to help the Philippines if it wasn’t for the obstructionism of the World Bank, IMF, the UN Filipino oligarchs & politicians, including the clergy.”
Every 4th of July we have the Twilight Zone Marathon and I used to watch it. But this year I’m celebrating the 4th by writing. This is part of my 4th of July work.
On January 31, 1945 the 188th GIR landed on Nasugbu, while the 511th PIR 11th Airborne Division, commanded by Gen. Swing, was dropped on Tagaytay Ridge on February 3, 1945. They were the ones who liberated my home town, Las Piñas, and on the same day reached the Paranaque River by 9 PM.
Private Elmer Fryar, Medal of Honor (MOH), died in Leyte on December 8, 1944, while another MOH recipient, PFC Manuel Perez Jr., died charging the pillboxes on Ft. McKinley on Feb. 13, 1945.
On the 8th Row, 1st Column, you see Rod Serling, screenwriter, novelist, TV producer, best known as the narrator of the TV series Twilight Zone.
Imagine pro-Japanese traitors ending up as the leaders of that country after WWII. But in the Philippines, it’s the grandchildren of traitor-oligarchs–Aquino III and Roxas II–who are the top dogs of the country!
I am convinced Rod Serling got the Twilight Zone stories from the Philippines. What happened to the Philippines after WWII is straight from the scripts of that series.
Serling’s unit was in the brutal block-by-block Battle for Manila.
It was Serling’s time in Leyte, when he faced death daily, that molded his political views and writing style. He suffered symptoms of what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, such as nightmares and flashbacks.
He was quoted as saying, “I was bitter about everything and at loose ends when I got out of the service. I think I turned to writing to get it off my chest.”
For me the biggest shock is finding out that there never was any Liberation Day Parade in the Philippines since the war ended, while Guam had its 68th Liberation Day Parade last July 21, 2012!
