As soon as mail was resumed, I wrote Father in Bangued and invited him to Manila.
Right away he came with my stepmother and their son, Vicente (Enty).
We all lived in the apartment of Aning and I had to double the Army rations I brought home because food was still very scarce in Manila.
They related to me what happened in Bangued during the war. Our house was bombed and burned, together with practically all houses and buildings in Bangued, by U.S. planes, although there were no Japs there.
The ex-POWs, around thirty of them, were recalled, stringed together, brought to a house, and burned alive. (Elix or I could have been one of them had we gone to Bangued after being released as POWs in Capas.)
They went in hiding in the farm house of the family of Mg. Isiang (stepmother) in Barrio Malita, where they lived before they left for Manila.
The two brothers of Mg. Isiang, around my age, joined the guerillas and were killed. We used to work in the Public Works together when I had my summer vacation in 1934. They were Sillo and Simon.
Many persons were killed in Bangued by the Japs, including Maning Colet, Baula, Rina, and other “siga-siga” of Abra. They raped Mg. Isiang’s sister and Violie Meheting, a very beautiful neighbor of ours, and other women.
No more church building, Provincial Building, P.C. barracks, post office, Provincial Jail, house of Don Ciano Barsena, Don Juan Valera, Don Bienvenida Valera, and about all houses!
Father and his wife and son stayed with us for several months until I gave them money to build a new house in Bangued out of a 32,000 cash advance given me in December, 1947.
Pat and our own two children went with them, as life in Manila was still very hard. I visited them on Christmas and went back to Manila on New Year’s.
After a few weeks Father died of tetanus infection. The money for our house was spent for his burial ceremonies.