After I got my first pay as Chief, PCAU for the Province of Nueva Vizcaya, at the end of June, 1945, Pat and I decided to return to Manila.
We rode a 6×6 Army truck bound for Manila with one bicycle and few belongings. It was a convoy of two trucks scheduled to go to Manila without any cargo except some civilians like us, but when it reached San Jose, Nueva Ecija, it was ordered back, and we were dumped, without any ride.
A civilian passenger bus was about to leave for Manila, but our money was not enough for our fare. I sold one bicycle for just enough money to pay the bus fare to Manila.
It was nighttime when we arrived in the apartment we left on Avenida Rizal, where we thought Aning and Ruth Ann would be found.
The apartment was empty. Our neighbor and compadre Dr. Procuro Arenas and his wife Cholong invited us to sleep in their apartment until the following day, when Aning and her American boyfriend arrived in a jeep.
We had a tearful reunion! Aning did not know that her mother died and was buried on New Year’s Day, for lack of communications during the Jap occupation and liberation days.
I was given to drive Aning’s boyfriend’s Army jeep, which I took around Manila up to Kamuning, Q.C. Pat was surprised I knew how to drive, and we enjoyed our ride. We got our BAOL or wooden trunk and other belongings Pat left there and brought them to An’s apartment.
Manila north of Pasig River was not damaged, but Manila south of Pasig River was in RUINS!
No more Walled City, post office, city hall, legislative building, normal school building, Hq. PA, YMCA, Philippine General Hospital, La Salle, Ateneo, Manila Hotel (Hilton Hotel was not yet there), or any building there!
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