Mt Province war heritages revisited

HISTORICAL NARRATIVES

  The Lias Marker at the school ground

Roger Sacyaten

BONTOC, Mountain Province – The memories of war were relived as a team from the Dept. of Tourism visited sites to validate a document the war site in Lias, Barlig and Camp Geronimo Montes here.
    The war of Kussad in Lias was recounted by elders Johnny Bucalan, Vicente Batan, both IPMRs of the two barangays of Lias Kanluran and Lias Silangan, Jimmy Charaychay, Roberto Atenio, the barangay captain, and Lorenzo Lapon.
    They narrated that during the first World War sometime in 1880, Spanish soldiers committed ruthlessness and atrocities that resulted to the retaliation and exhibition of bravery, gallantry, and patriotism of the local Changyasan or iLias in fighting and driving away the Spanish soldiers.
    Also, during World War II, local folks resisted the entry of Japanese soldiers to the community. According to the book of Luis Talastas, a local historian, the natives bravely fought the Japanese occupational; forces that led to the burning of the community.
    Bontoc and Kalinga on June 4, 1946. It was learned that neither the Spaniards or the Japanese occupied Lias unlike in other places in the province that accepted the foreign forces peacefully.
    The team also proceeded to Camp Lt. Geronimo Montes in the capital town to research on the history of the naming of the military barracks to the present name.
    It was gathered that the Provincial Philippine Constabulary Command post became the PC/INP command in 1976. On July 23, 1990, it was renamed as Mountain Province PNP Command.
    On May 15, 2013, RA 10534 resulted from a House Bill 5763 filed by then Congressman Maximo Dalog, Sr. renaming the Mountain Province Provincial Police Office to Camp Lt. Geronimo F. Montes.
    Montes, according to information, was a bemedaled Igorot military officer who died while fighting alongside fellow Filipino soldiers to deny the entry of the Japanese imperial forces towards Tocucan, Bontoc and Kalinga.
    He was a Lieutenant in the 1st Batallion of the 11th Infantry, Philippine Army, USAPIL. Northern Luzon in 1945 and was assigned to Tocucan. Wakalan, just a kilometer away from Tocucan was the depot guns and ammunition of the Japanese Imperial Army. The encounter in Wakalan that lasted for our hours led to the death of Lt. Montes.
    Other soldiers had described Lt. Montes as aa Officer and Soldier. He ad an extra-ordinary valor and gallantry; possessed an unequalled loyalty towards his country and people, according to a book of Florence Kittong Chaokas.
    For his bravery and sacrifice, he was posthumously awarded the “purple Heart”, awarded to any member of the US Army who while serving under a competent authority, has been wounded or killed. 
    The purpose of the visit is to retrace the war heritages especially those with markers in the hope of promoting them as tourism heritage sites.
    The team was composed of Bernard Supetran, the consultant, Bayani Malicdem from the regional of the Department of Tourism, Cordillera, and Roger Sacyaten from the Provincial Tourism Office. -- With reports from Ever Zenra Ayochok.

Marker of Lt. Montes at the Camp Montes grounds