(NOTE: This item is In connection with this year's commemoration of the heroic stands by the joint US-Philippine forces in Bataan and Corregidor during World War II.)

The fulfillment of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's "I shall return" effectively recouped the gloss of the American image badly tarnished by the easy decimation of its vaunted USAFFE forces at the start of the war in the Philippines that ultimately led to the surrender of allied forces in Bataan and Corregidor. What largely remained as an unanswered question to this day is why the General decided on Leyte as the embarkation point from which to liberate the entire Philippines from the occupying Japanese Imperial Forces.

A monograph by Col. Manuel F. Segura, an aide to guerilla legend Col. James M. Cushing,entitled "The Koga Papers" sheds light on this missing page of our history. The book tells of an enemy plane that crashed off the coast of Cebu in April 1, 1944, which led to the capture of ten Japanese survivors and the recovery of a portfolio of documents in Japanese characters by VGs (Volunteer Guards) of the guerilla Cebu Area Command underthe command ofCushing. Two of the prisoners were later executed and the rest were returned in a swap to spare more civilians from being killed by hordes of elite Japanese forces sent to recover the prisoners and the documents.

The documents made their way to MacArthur's headquarters in Australia and were translated, their informative content exploited. Author Segura wrote:

"Parts of these documents were the result of the inspection of the Japanese defenses in the whole Southwest Pacific Area by Admiral Koga, Commander of the Combined Japanese Imperial Fleet, accompanied by his Chief of Staff. The inspection revealed that in the Philippines, Leyte was the softest underbelly of the Japanese defenses, for it was meagerly defended by only a few troops. This vital information triggered the finest light in the sharply tactical mind of the famous General. The planned liberation of the Philippines to support his promise "I shall return," had been scheduled late in December 1944 with a landing at Sarangani Bay in South Cotabato, southern Mindanao and an airborne drop on northern Mindanao."

And so with the change of plans prompted by the receipt of new intelligence secured from the scene of a plane crash, the liberation of the homeland advanced by months and in the process saving possibly thousands of lives.

Colonels Cushing and Segura and three other American soldiers were among the freedom fighters that figured in this historic episode. They were among those who fought on against the brutal enemy despite orders from higher command to surrender.

Segura was a college senior in civil engineering when called to active duty as a third lieutenant (he earned his reserved commission after completing the ROTC advanced course at UP-Manila). Inducted into the USAFFE, he saw immediate action against the Japanese forces in Cebu and later joined the resistance movement. He rose in rank to become the adjutant general of the Cebu Area Command. After the war, he completed his engineering course, taught for five years at the Philippine Military Academy and then joined the now defunct Philippine Constabulary. He became deputy commander of the Third PC Zone and retired in 1972 with the rank of colonel.He was also theROTC commandantof the University of the Visayas in Cebu City when this writer was a basic cadet.