Bataan Magazine, April 1945
Bataan Magazine, April 1945Presidential Museum and Library, PH, Photo from Mr. Victor Verano
TOMAS CONFESOR, FILIPINO HERO AND PATRIOT
TOMAS CONFESOR
(Filipino Hero and Patriot)
TOMAS CONFESOR, a distinguished Filipino patriot, gallant hero, prominent statesman, economist, and one of the great parliamentarians of our times, was born in Cabatuan (Iloilo), on March 2, 1891. His father "Maestro" Julian Confesor then Vice President of the town, was executed by the American Military Government on July 5, 1901* because of his revolutionary activities. His mother, Prospera Valenzuela died a few years later, thus making him an orphan to carve a career of his own. This explains in a way why Tomas Confesor grew to be such an indomitable fighter.
His first battle was with proverty as he struggled through high school and college. However, he finished the secondary course among the first graduates of Iloilo High School in 1908, together with his brother Valentin, who was the class valedictorian. Meantime, he taught in Cabatuan Elementary School before he went to the United States to continue his studies. In the "Land of opportunities," he scrubbed floors, washed dishes and dusted window panes. He finished the degree of Bachelor of Science in Commerce, Governor Tomas Confesor (right) with Mrs. Rosita Grecia Confesor, Mr. G. Stevenot, Mr. Valentin Confesor, and Rev. Fr. Ciriaco Serrano. major in Economics from the University of California in 1914, and graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago.
Returning to the Philippine in 1916, he served the government as a public school teacher, supervising teacher and as instructor and associate professor in the University of the Philippines. For some time, he was the Dean of the College of Business Administration of the University of Manila.
Tomas Confesor's more serious public life began when he was elected to the House of Representative in the Philippine Legislature as Representative for the Third District of Iloilo for three consecutive terms, from 1922 to 1931. As a member of the lawmaking body, he earned the name of "Stormy Petrel" who kept his peers in the legislature vigilant to what should be best for the people. He rode on many a storm of debates and piled victory in his crusade against corruption and social injustices.
However, the best accomplishment Tomas Confesor had was the cooperative movement. He gave it the first real boost when he sponsored and secured approval of Act 3425, better known as the Cooperative Marketing Law.
When he was appointed Director of Commerce in 1939, he initiated and stepped up the establishment of credit associations and agricultural cooperatives. He gave this additional impetus when he assumed office as Head of the National Cooperative Administration just before the outbreak of the war and as a climax to the growth of the movement, he filed a bill seeking government control in the importation and distribution of goods of prime necessities.
In 1935 he was elected delegate to the Constitutional Convention which drafted the Constitution of the Philippines. He was elected Governor of Iloilo for two terms. During his second term, Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1942 came. He went underground as head of the civil resistance government in his capacity as Governor of Panay and Romblon. During those darkest hours of Philippines history, he proved to be a veritable pillar of strength telling the people that it was more preferable to suffer in honor than enjoy life in ignominy. In the American list of Filipino guerillas his name appears as the foremost in the Philippines. He received the Award of the Philippine Legion of Honor (Degree of Commander) for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of an outstanding service to his country. The President of the Philippines saw fit to give him the posthumous award of a gold medal, symbolic of the highest honor his country could bestow upon him.
When President Sergio Osmeña reestablished the Commonwealth of the Philippines after the Liberation in 1945, without hesitation he appointed Tomas Confesor Secretary of the Department of Interior. He was subsequently sent to the United States as a member of the Far Eastern Commission. In 1946, he was elected to the Senate for a term of six years, which exalted position he occupied until his death on June 6, 1951.
He was married to Rosalina Grecia of Jaro, Iloilo City.
Source:
Cabatuan, Its History and People
The Cabatuan Historical Society, Cabatuan, Iloilo
*This is erroneously dated as June 5, 1901 in the book. It is corrected here as July 5, 1901.
THE HEROIC RECORD OF TOMAS CONFESOR
Confesor's patriotism was of the kind which defied the nation’s enemy fearlessly and openly.
The days when the Japanese soldiers’ dragnet was closing in on Governor Tomas Confesor and he was about to be captured alive, his separation from his wife and the capture by the enemy forces of his niece, were the darkest in his life. He was like Jesus Christ agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane. The enemy did not only put a price on his head, but when he defied Dr. Fermin Caram, occupation governor of Iloilo, by writing that he would not surrender to the enemy as long as he could stand on his feet, the enemy swore to get him “dead or alive.”
Fortunato Padilla, Iloilo provincial board member whom former President Macapagal had appointed as judge of the court of first instance of Leyte del Sur, said that one who did not draw spiritual sustenance as Confesor did would have succumbed easily to the enemy. Padilla should know. He was with Confesor all the time in the mountain hideout of the civil resistance government of Free Panay and Romblon.
According to Padilla, Confesor was still too weak after having recovered from a severe illness when the Japanese, under Captain Watanabe, known in Panay as “Patyando” or murderer for having plunged the island into a bloodbath in which more than 10,000 civilians, mostly old men, women and helpless children were killed, stepped up the liquidation campaign beginning July of 1943.
Padilla said that he was with Confesor in barrio Igtuble, Tubungan, Iloilo, when the Japanese, in a four-pronged attack, penetrated their mountain hideout. Confesor had retreated and moved his hideout to the barrio from Bucari in Leon, Iloilo, since the Japanese had succeeded in piercing the Bucari hideout. After ten days, the Japanese succeeded in closing in on the five evacuation huts used by Confesor in Igtuble, and the Japanese, mistaking Lt. Blanco, a signal officer of the 63rd battalion, for Confesor, took him alive to the lowlands. Blanco looked like Confesor, and this mistake enabled Confesor to escape.
Upon reaching the lowland and realizing their mistake, the Japanese tortured Blanco to death. Confesor, taking another path from that of his wife and Padilla, succeeded in reaching barrio Santiago in Pandan, Antique, by criss-crossing deep ravines and stiff cliffs. Confesor sustained himself during this time by eating corn. Mrs. Confesor accompanied by Padilla and Vicente Elefan, reached barrio Lag-it in Valderrama, Antique, while Confesor’s niece, Teresa, daughter of former Rep. Patricio V. Confessor and now wife of Cabatuan Mayor Francisco Tobias, was captured by the Japanese along with Leticia Lorin, Mansueta Patrimonio and one Juanita. The Japanese took the women prisoners to San Jose, Antique. Teresa was sick of pneumonia at the time of her capture. It was not until December of 1943 that Confesor was united with his wife in Bato Puti, Ma-asin, Iloilo. Here, Confesor learned for the first time of the fate that had befallen his niece. But Confesor and his wife were to be separated again when the Japanese raided the civil resistance government printing press under Provincial Treasurer Juan Grino in barrio Quipot, Janiuay, Iloilo, in the vicinity of Bato Puti..
Writing about this chapter of his life in “Via Crusis,” Confesor said that while he was not afraid to die, he was tormented by the fact that his niece, Teresa, got captured by the Japanese and he did not know what her fate was. Confesor said that this dispersion of members of his family and of those whom he loved, was more than he could bear.
In another letter smuggled by submarine to President Osmena in Washington D.C., after the death of President Quezon, Confesor said he was in the fight to the bitter end because he believed that the United States was fighting for the righteous cause of democracy and that for him to give himself up to the enemy for a life of ease and comfort, was to betray the Filipino people.
Confesor told President Osmena that the Japanese almost got him alive and that he had been sick all the time. But Confesor said that he wanted President Osmena to return to the Philippines and the Commonwealth government with Osmena.
Confesor said: “Long before the war broke out, I have searched my conscience for the purpose of discovering where my duty lies should this country become involved in the maelstrom of this colossal world chaos. The quest was soon eftded and ever since the storm broke loose with all its fury upon us, the way has all been clear as crystal to me. It lies on the rough and rugged road of the Calvary of resistance but it is the way of honor and victory.”
— By Loreto Angayen, Manila Bulletin.
February 1966
TOMAS CONFESOR
Senator Tomas Confesor was born in Iloilo on March 2, 1891. His parents were Julian Confesor and Prospera Valenzuela.
Poverty was not a hindrance to Confesor’s quest for academic excellence. He studied at the Iloilo High school and in 1908 finished with distinction. He left Iloilo for United States and worked as janitor to support himself in college. He acquired two degrees- Bachelor of Science in Commerce, from the University of California and Bachelor of Philosophy in Economics, from the University of Chicago.
The American authorities appointed him school supervisor of Jaro, Iloilo upon his return to the Philippines. In 1922, he won a seat in the Philippine legislature as representative of the Third District of Iloilo. He earned distinction as the "stormy petrel of the House" because of his determined stands against anomalous acts of administration. Thereafter, in recognition of his crusade for clean government , the people of Iloilo elected him for two more terms. As legislator, he was the sponsor of Act 3425, otherwise known as the Cooperatives Marketing law, which promoted the cooperative movement on the Philippines, particularly the establishment of farmer’s cooperatives.
In 1933, Confesor was appointed as the first Filipino Director of Commerce by Gov. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Later, during the Commonwealth government, he was named by President Manuel L. Quezon as head of the National Cooperatives Administration. Confesor initiated the organization of financing groups, which freed countless small farmers from the grip of rapacious businessmen and usurers.
Confesor was one of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention that drafted the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines.
He was on his second term as a governor of Iloilo when the Pacific War broke. During the Japanese occupation, he was invited to serve the puppet Cabinet, but he declined. This angered the Japanese, who harassed him thereafter.
Conscious of his patriotic duty, Confesor left Manila and secretly returned to his home province, where he organized his own underground movement. Upon learning of his activities in Iloilo, President Quezon immediately named him "wartime governor of Free Panay and Romblon." Throughout the occupation, Confesor chose to lead his guerrillas in fighting the Japanese, for he believed that it was better "to suffer in honor than to enjoy life in ignominy."
President Sergio Osmeña awarded him the Philippine Legion of honor, degree of commander, in 1945, for his exemplary service during the war. Following the restoration of the Commonwealth government, he was inducted into office as Secretary of the Interior on April 8, 1945.
Confesor was elected senator during the national elections of 1946. However, he suffered a fatal heart attack on June 6, 1951, leaving his six-year tenure unfinished. He was married to Rosalina Grecia of Jaro, Iloilo, with whom he had a son.
https://web.senate.gov.ph/senators/former_senators/tomas_confesor.htm
THE PHILIPPINES: THE METAL IN OUR BEING
THE PHILIPPINES: The Metal in Our Being
Monday, Apr. 02, 1945
During the three years of Japanese occupation of the Philippines, stocky, brilliant Tomás Confesor, 54, hid out in the lofty, mist-drenched mountains of Panay. There he calmly continued to conduct the affairs of his office as governor in exile of Iloilo Province and later of all Panay.
Last week, when U.S. troops swarmed on to Panay (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS), Tomás Confesor was gone. He was in Manila, where President Sergio Osmena had appointed him Secretary of Interior in the new Cabinet (see cut). He was also the Mayor of Manila.
In his two new posts Tomás Confesor was both happy and busy. The long hideout had given him time to think of a lot that needed doing. His timetable of reconstruction and reform was a 25-year-plan for the Philippines.
First the Present. Confesor had been realistic enough not to let his dreams for the future interfere with the harsh needs of the present. For the Filipinos he had scheduled first the plain, hard job of rebuilding bridges, highways, railroads, schools, re-establishment of banking and retail trade, restoring the administrative functions of civil government.
For the future, workers were promised a 48-hour week, abolition of child labor, equal pay standards for men & women, medical and health benefits. Youths 18 to 20 would serve on forest and soil conservation projects. There would be Govern ment supervision of schools, and Confesor hoped that within 25 years illiteracy (reduced from approximately 90% to 51% since the U.S. took possession in 1899) could be eliminated. Water and land transportation would be socialized, and large retail cooperatives established.
Flight to Panay. The son of a farmer-schoolteacher in Iloilo, Confesor came to the U.S. as a youngster, worked his way through three years at the University of California. Later he graduated from the University of Chicago, where he majored in municipal government and economics. He was in Manila, as chief of the National Cooperatives Association and also gover nor of Iloilo, when the Japs arrived, got away to Panay in a small sailboat. When he struck out for the hills, he took with him his wife and three children.
When the Japs failed to capture Tomás Confesor, they tried persuasion. The puppet governor of Iloilo begged Confesor to return, to bring "peace and tranquillity to our people." Confesor's reply has become a classic of resistance literature: "This war has placed us in the crucible to assay the metal in our being. . . . You underrate the nobility and grandeur of the character and soul of the Filipino. . . . I will not surrender as long as I stand on my feet." Firmly on his feet last week, Confesor was ready to start clearing up battered Manila, preparing to rebuild the Philippines. His first principle for rebuilding: wide streets, no slums
#Tomas Confesor letter to Dr. Caram
CONFESOR'S LETTER TO ILOILO PUPPET GOVERNOR DR. FERMIN CARAM
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES
Office of the Governor
Panay, February 20, 1943
MY DEAR DOCTOR:
I am happy to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of January 14th last, signed at the same time by former General Quimbo, Senator Veloso and Capt. Tando. I regret very much that your letter reached me more than a month after it had been written despite the fact that the party to whom it was handed was just living across the river from my place on the other side of the hill. Had I received it earlier, I would have been only too glad to meet my good friends — Quimbo, Veloso, and Tando. I would have had no objection to the pleasure of the acquaintance of Colonel Furukawa. He came on a mission of peace, and I would have taken advantage of his presence to present to him my views on the subject. I regret much, therefore, not to have met him. Nevertheless, I hope that he and his companions had good time while they were in our province. I wonder how successful they had been with their mission.
I feel flattered indeed by your statement that should I return to the city I would bring relief, peace and tranquility to our people in Panay. In this regard, I wish to state with all frankness that peace and tranquility in our country, especially in Panay, do not, in the slightest degree, depend upon me nor upon the Filipino people, for as long as America and Japan and their respective Allies are at war with one another, peace and tranquility will never be obtained in our country nor in Panay. This is a total war in which the issues between the warring parties are less concerned with the territorial questions but more with forms of government, ways of life, and those that affect even the very thoughts, feeling, and sentiments of every man. In other words, the questions at stake with respect to the Philippines is not whether Japan or the United States should possess it; but more fundamentally it is: what system of government should stand here and what ways of life, systems of social organizations and code of morals should govern our existence. As long, therefore, as America and Japan remain at war, these fundamental questions will remain unsettled. Consequently, peace and tranquility will not reign in Panay, much less in the whole Philippines.
Despite this fact, however, there is a means to bring about peace, even under the present circumstances if Japan is really sincere in her desire to see peace and tranquility here. To this effect, she should declare the Philippines free and independent proclaiming at the same our neutrality. To further demonstrate her sincerity of purpose to this end, she should evacuate all her forces, military establishments and other governmental organizations from the Islands with the guarantee that she would not land forces therein nor within her territorial waters. I am sure that should Japan declare this proposition and formally present the same to the United States, the latter would be compelled to accept it. Her sense of honor would give her no other alternative but to back up Japan in this regard. You must be already aware that the Allies of America have signed a treaty with China lifting their extra-territorial rights whereby their citizens within Chinese jurisdiction upon committing any offenses or crime will have to be tried before Chinese courts under Chinese laws. Assuming that this proposition is acceptable to both Japan and America, we would then be free to establish and maintain our own system of government. We would be free to follow such ways of life as we may deem convenient to us. In other words, we would enjoy real and true independence in the exercise of governmental powers and not one like that of Nanking under Wang Ching Wei. Please present this to your friend, Colonel Furukawa, with the request that he submit this to superior authorities of the Imperial Government of Japan for consideration to put to a test the sincerity of Japan’s desire to give us independence.
I have carefully read and studied the three conditions for accomplishment by the Filipinos to entitle us to our independence under Japanese promise. Let me tell you frankly that we will never be independent under such conditions because they are impossible to accomplish for at least a century. I entirely disagree with Mr. Vargas when he stated that the Japanese independence proposition is definite and clear while that of America is ambiguous. On the contrary, it is that of the Japanese which is nebulous, vague and indefinite. The terms and conditions in this regard are phrased in such manner that only puppets could understand them clearly, people who have no freedom to use their will and other mental faculties.
The burden of your so called message to me consists of the entreaty that further bloodshed and destruction of property in Panay should stop and that our people be saved from further sufferings and miseries resulting from warfare and hostilities now existing between Japan and ourselves. The responsibility, however, of accomplishing this end does not rest upon us but entirely upon your friends who have sworn allegiance to Japan, for it was Japan that protected and created these conditions. Japan is the sole author of this holocaust in the Far East.
I agree with you when you say that our people are “experiencing unspeakable hardships and sufferings because of these hostilities”, but you should realize that our people are bearing these burdens cheerfully because they know that they are doing it for a good and noble cause. They know why we are resisting Japan. They are aware that Japan is trying to force us to accept her system of government and ways of life which are unacceptable to us to say the least. You may not agree with me but the truth is that the present war is a blessing in disguise to our people and that the burdens it imposes, and the hardships it has brought upon us are a test to our character to determine the sincerity of our convictions and the integrity of our souls. In other words, this war placed us in the crucible to assay the metal in our being. For as a people, we have been living during the last forty years under a regime of justice and liberty regulated only by universally accepted principles of constitutional government. We have come to enjoy personal privileges and civil liberties without much struggle, without undergoing any pain to attain them. They were practically a gift from a generous and magnanimous people – the people of the United States of America. Now, that Japan is attempting to destroy these liberties, should we not exert any effort to defend them? Should we not be willing to suffer for their defense? If our people are undergoing hardship now, and are doing it gladly, it is because we are willing to pay the price for these constitutional liberties and privileges. You cannot become wealthy by honest means without sweating heavily. You very well know that the principles of democracy and democratic institutions were brought to life through bloodshed and fire. If we sincerely believe in these principles and institutions, as we who are resisting Japan do, we should contribute to the utmost of our capacity to the cost of its maintenance to save them from destruction and annihilation, and such contribution should be in terms of painful sacrifices, the same currency that other peoples paid for those principles.
You were a member of the Constitutional Convention that adopted the Constitution of the Philippines Commonwealth. You did not only subscribe to it but you also became a Filipino citizen by virtue thereof. Now that the hour of test has come, how dare you advice the people, as you do now, to forsake that sacred document and accept anything for peace and tranquility which at all events will be only temporary? Should I hearken to you, I would be conspiring with you and the Japanese military authorities to destroy the Constitution, that you and I signed with all solemnity, and everything for which that Constitution stands. Do you realize therefore, that what you are doing now is a repudiation of your Filipino citizenship and all the sacred privileges attendant thereto, things which I am sure you hold dear and precious?
This is not enough. I firmly believe that it is not wise and statesmanly for our leaders, in this their darkest hour, to teach our people to avoid suffering and hardship at the sacrifice of fundamental principles of government and the democratic way of life. On the contrary, it is their bounded duty and responsibility to inspire our people to willingly undergo any kind of difficulties and sacrifices for the sake of noble principles that they nourish deep in their hearts. Instead of depressing their patriotic order, the people should be inspired to be brave and courageous under all kinds of hardship and difficulties in defense of what they consider righteous and just. We shall never win nor deserve the esteem and respect of other nations if we lack principles, and if we do, we do not possess the courage and valor to defend these principles at any cost.
Undoubtedly, if you and your fellow puppets are today receiving a certain degree of consideration from the Japanese Army, such considerations may be attributed exclusively to the heroism of our soldiers in Bataan and the demonstration of the readiness and willingness of our people to suffer, especially of the common man, not the rich, the learned, and ambitious and politicians and office seekers who are hungry for power and influence, nor to your personal qualities of wealth. You, puppets, love ease and comfort so much as to compel you to barter the liberties of our people for anything. You underrate the nobility and grandeur of the character and soul of the Filipinos by such action. Such sentiment is terribly ignominious. You are besmirching to the maximum degree by it the character of our people.
America is at war with Japan not because she wants to keep the Philippines but to uphold and maintain the principles of democracy therein. In the speeches of Japanese military authorities, especially that of General Homma, formerly Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Forces in the Philippines, they condem democracy and the principles of liberty under such system of government. It is, therefore, evidently fallacious and insincere on your part to state that you are not pro-Japanese when you are exerting all efforts to bring about the surrender of the people in Panay. You declared that you are neither a pro-Japanese nor a pro-American but a pro-Filipino. What do you mean by being a pro-Filipino? What are the principles for which you stand as a pro-Filipino? What national objectives have you in mind when you express the thought that you are pro-Filipino and not pro-Japanese nor pro-American? What ideals do you propose to realize as pro-Filipino? If you have any objectives and ideals at all, do you believe in realizing them more effectively under a totalitarian and absolute system of government than under a democracy? Please make concrete specifications of your being pro-Japanese or pro-American. In other words, on what concrete grounds does your pro-Filipino rest?
You were decidedly wrong when you told me that there is no ignominy in surrender. That may be true in the case of soldiers who were corralled by the enemy consisting of superior force with no way of escape whatsoever, for when they gave themselves up, they did not repudiate any principle of good government and the philosophy of life which inspired them to fight heroically and valiantly — to use your own words. Should I surrender, however, and with me the people, by your invitation and assurance of guarantee to my life, my family and those who follow me, I would be surrendering something more precious than life itself; the principles of democracy and justice and the honor and dignity of our people.
I noted that you emphasized in your letter only peace and tranquility of our people. I do not know whether by omission or intentionally, you failed to refer in any way to the honor and dignity of our race. You seem to have forgotten these noble sentiments already, despite the fact that Japan has hardly been a year in our country. It appears clearly evident, therefore, that there is a great difference between the manner you and me are trying to lead our people during these trying days. You and your fellow puppets are trying to give them peace and tranquility by destroying their honor and dignity, without suffering or, if there is any, the least possible. On the other hand, we endeavor to inspire them to face difficulties and undergo any sacrifice to uphold the government thereby holding up high and immaculate their honor and dignity at the same time. In other words, you are trying to drive our people to peace and tranquility on the road of IGNOMINY, to borrow your own language. Peace and tranquility are easy to achieve if you choose the easy way but, in that case, however, you would be living beneath the dignity of human being. You would be reducing our people as a result thereof to the status of a dumb animal like the good carabao which lives in peace and tranquility because it is properly fed by its owner. Is that the peace and tranquility you are talking about — that of a carabao? Would this not be clearly ignominious? You also brought up the point that the Japanese are generous because they freed the Filipino soldiers whom they captured. In this connection, let me ask you this question: Is it not a fact that the former USAFFE men are now working as PCs under the Japanese Army and are compelled to fight and kill their own people who are still resisting by means of inadequate arms and by moral and spiritual resistance? Do you believe it dignified of Juan Quimpo who formerly wore on his shoulder the star of the Philippine Army presenting thereby the valor and courage of our people and the integrity of our system of government, to preach now the acceptance of the totalitarian and autocratic form of government? Do you believe that by so doing he dignifies and honors our people?
It pains me to read your letter saying that you and I one time nursed devotedly identical convictions on democracy and liberty, but that you have to revise your own for the sake of “peace and tranquility.” How can you honestly and truthfully say that you may enjoy peace and tranquility when you are unfaithful to your own convictions? Do you mean to tell me that you revised your convictions because you believed that they were not righteous or because you considered your personal conveniences over and above that of the Filipino people? You may have read, I am sure, the story of Lincoln who held firmly to the conviction secession of the southern states from the Union was WRONG. Consequently, when he became president and the southern states seceded, he did not hesitate to use force to compel them to remain in the Union.
The immediate result was civil war that involved the country into the throes of a terrible conflict that, according to reliable historians, produced proportionately more loss of lives, hardships and miseries than the first World War. The suffering of the people of the south were terrible, but the Union was saved and America has become thereby one of the strongest and respected nations on the surface of the earth.
If Lincoln had revised his convictions and sacrificed them for the sake of peace and tranquility as you did, a fatal catastrophe would have befallen the people of America. With this lesson of history clearly before us, I prefer to follow Lincoln’s example to yours and your fellow puppets. In other worlds, I sternly refuse to revise my own convictions for the sake of temporary and false promises of peace and tranquility.
I wish to thank you for reminding me what General Bell wrote to Mabini that “only the possibility of success is the sole justification of war and as soon as that possibility disappears, civilization demands that for the sake of humanity the vanquished should submit to the victor.” In calling my attention to the above content of the letter of General Bell, you make the affirmation thereby that there is no “possibility of success” on the part of America and the Allies to defeat Japan and her colleagues. Here again you are evidently wrong. You people who have surrendered to the Japanese do not know of any news but those given by them. It shows again that you are ignorant of what is going on. For your information and guidance, let me tell you that Japan is digging her grave deeper and deeper every day in New Guinea. In China and in Burma, she is on the run and is losing extensive territories which she formerly conquered. In Europe, Germany is in flight pursued by the Russians. In Africa, Tripoli and Tunisia have fallen into the hands of the Allies. Every day the cities of Italy are being bombed and smashed to pieces. The Italians will soon demand separate peace. By June, next, the Philippines will be redeemed from Japan, definitely. What are you going to do next, revise your convictions again? Thank you, once more, for reminding me of the words of Genera Bell to Mabini. They serve to fortify my convictions more than ever, for the possibility of success of America and the Allies over the Axis is as clear as the day.
I hope I have made myself clear enough to make you understand my position. I will not surrender as long as I stand on my feet. The people may suffer now and may suffer more during the next six months. To use the words of St. Paul, the Apostle: The suffering of the present are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us.
In the language of a wise and devout priest, “when the hour of deliverance has come, we shall count as nothing the anxiety and sorrows through which we have passed.” According to the same religious writer, “sufferings afford opportunity for the practice of many virtues — virtues which develop greatness and nobility of soul.” He further declares that “the grandest music of the human heart breaks forth in the day of trial; the sweetest songs are sung in sorrows; the best things in character are developed in time of affliction.” Finally, he writes “suffering develops manliness and tries earnestness of purpose.” This in the crying need of the hours — MANLINESS.
With my kindest regards and my hope that God will bless and guide you, I remain.
Sincerely yours,
TOMAS CONFESOR
