I got orders transferring me to the PMA before I finished the case versus Major Jose Estrada. It was timed on a summer vacation to enable our children to enroll in Baguio for the next school year in 1955. The prediction in the Ouija Board when played by Betty and Mila came true.
On my way back to Crame from Lucena I heard in my jeep radio about the airplane crash of Pres. Ramon Magsaysay in Cebu. The pilot was Gen. Ebuen [News items about this plane crash identified Gen. Ebuen as a passenger and someone else as the pilot]. I used to play tennis with him in Crame on weekends. While I drank water after each set, he drowned himself with Beer!
They had just left a big party in Cebu when Pres. Magsaysay decided to go back to Manila at midnight. The only survivor was a newspaperman. (Note: He was thrown away from the plane!)
It is rumored that Magsaysay had a date with the wife of Capt. Pargos, P.M., a very cute lady by the name of Betty, that night while her husband was doing inspections in Korea on Magsaysay’s orders.
When I was living in Murphy when Tony was a Cadet, I used to see Betty and Father Padilla meet together at the back of the Chapel after evening mass when Betty was already a “Merry Widow.” Father Padilla died young.
Pat and the kids rode in our 1948 Ford while a 6×6 carried all our belongings to Navy Base, Baguio.
On the way, at sundown we saw a cargo truck loaded with lumber turn upside down near Clark Air Base. I ordered our truck to drive on because I did not like that we could be overtaken by darkness on the zigzag road to Baguio.
Our quarter in the Navy Base was used by Capt. Dicscinio, who took my place in Crame. He was a relative of Col. Ricardo Papia, G-1, HPC. It was without heater, no carpet, and a Quonset hut made of steel. Hence, it was very cold at night, and all our young kids got sick with colds right away. It was an old dilapidated hut abandoned by the American Liberation Forces in 1946.
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