The Rock of Freedom

The Rock of Freedom

By Prospero Pulma Jr.

In early 1942, the rays of the Rising Sun shone as far as Manchuria in the north and New Guinea in the south.  In the middle were Bataan and Corregidor, shining like lanterns in a great darkness.  Then Bataan was subdued, leaving the burden of burning the light of freedom on Corregidor’s bleeding and tired shoulders.

Fate put Corregidor squarely on the path of wars.  During the Spanish colonization, Chinese pirates and Dutch and English forces wrestled Corregidor from Spanish control for weeks or months at a time until Spain built a fortress, penal colony, customs station, a signal station that warned Manila of hostile ships, and a lighthouse on the island.  Spanish batteries on Corregidor and nearby El Fraile Island ineffectively engaged Admiral Dewey’s fleet in the Spanish-American War.

Any invader wishing to conquer Manila by sea must pass Corregidor, Caballo Island, El Fraile, and Carabao Island, so America anchored its coastal defense of Manila on the islets at the mouth of Manila Bay.  America upgraded the defenses of Corregidor and its neighboring islets that they eventually hosted several coastal artillery regiments armed with dozens of 12-inch mortars, 12-inch howitzers, and antiaircraft guns.  Then the long wait for the call of war ensued.  War shook Corregidor from the lethargy of peace when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

Corregidor’s approximately 13,000 USAFFE garrison lost men and materiel to bombings and artillery bombardments that commenced in late December 1941, but the main USAFFE force in Bataan attracted most of the Japanese’ bombs, artillery shells, and bullets.  As long as Bataan fought, Corregidor could meet its designers’ goals of lasting a six-month siege, but Bataan’s defenders were growing thinner in numbers and weaker in body from months of battle.  The end for Corregidor started when Bataan’s defenders yielded on April 9, 1942.

Until President Quezon escaped from Corregidor in February 1942 and General MacArthur a month later, Corregidor served as the nerve center of the Commonwealth Government and the USAFFE.  From April 9, Corregidor’s role as a lantern of freedom grew bigger even in the absence of Quezon and MacArthur.  As long as the Filipinos heard Corregidor’s guns defying the Japanese, they believed that there was still hope for freedom.  Corregidor became more than an island in Manila Bay to many people.  Even when its defenders finally silenced their guns on May 6, 1942, people despairing from fighting a superior and brutal enemy probably only needed to remember Corregidor’s gallant defenders to reinvigorate them.

The size of a battlefield does not earn it an esteemed spot in the annals of warfare, but the courage of the men who fought in it does.  If only Corregidor’s 12-inch guns could speak, they might tell proudly of their crew and their comrades, men as tough as the guns’ metal bodies.