After the appearance of U.S. planes on Rizal Day, there were tense feelings in town, with rumors that the Americans were very near.
Then one early morning a group of men led by a Jap soldier and Constabulary soldiers stopped in front of our house. The Japanese motioned me to join them and one B.C. soldier told me to come down.
I was carrying Betty in my arms and I showed them the baby and wouldn’t go down.
The Jap came and searched the house. He saw Rudy and Tony asleep inside the room. He came to me and said: “Okay, okay,” as he stroked Betty’s hair, and then went downstairs to lead the group toward the main road.
As I looked outside the window, I saw Pat hurriedly walking towards our house. I motioned her to turn back. She entered a store and waited for the men to pass by and turn to the main road before she came running home.
Breathlessly, she told me that upon her arrival there the people in the market were talking about all men in town being rounded up.
Without buying anything, she came back, thinking that our kids were left alone if they took me away.
Immediately we went inside our dugout and stayed there the whole day.
The Bayabos family had left for Paitan very much earlier and so we were the only occupants of their big bungalow.
Days later we found out that the men were paraded before a “MAGIC EYE” and everyone pointed to by him was killed by beheading in the cemetery.
One of them, Alejandro Balordad, Godfather of Betty, escaped with a half-severed head to tell us the whole story. I saw about fifty men in the group.
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