Denny Flores' Letter to VP Elpidio Quirino about the Pandita Area Guerrillas, November 1946

Bauan, Batangas
November 15, 1946

I have the honor to appeal to you, and through you, to the AFWESPAC, respecting the matter herein below stated.

Under [the] date of July 22, 1946, a letter was received by me from Lieutenant-Colonel W. P. Moore, AGD, Assistant Adjutant General, AFWESPAC, APO 707, replying to my letter to him on June 22, 1946, whereby he states that the AFWESPAC Headquarters will reconsider the Pandita Area Guerrilla Regiment when sufficient original documents and evidence have been submitted to justify re-investigation. The letters above mentioned are enclosed for ready reference.

In accordance therewith, I submit the attached file of documents consisting of Original and Official rosters, Duty Rosters, Flash Reports and Leaflets, Circulars and General and Special Orders of the Headquarters, Record of Combat Activities, Records of Intelligence Reports, Receipts for Material Support Received by the Unit, and Miscellaneous Documents (all included in Vol. I); also Histories of the Regimental Unit, Personal History of the Regimental Commander, Col. Denny P. Flores and Certificates by American Officers re Pandita Area Guerrilla Regiment, Certificates re Lobo Unit of the Pandita Area Guerrilla Regiment – Major Tomas Ilagan, C.O., Partial Special Orders and other Miscellaneous Documents, Identification Cards Collected of Pandita Men, Guerrilla Money Retained by the Pandita Area

Guerrilla Regiment, and Intelligence Maps (all included in Vol. II); and Induction Papers and Oaths of the Unit and other Miscellaneous Documents (Vols. III and IV).

It is respectfully requested that these documents be forwarded to the Headquarters of the United States Army Forces Western Pacific for their consideration in connection with the re-investigation of the guerrilla unit in question so that appropriate and prompt recognition thereof could be extended by the United States Army authorities.

I should like to invite, through Your Excellency, the attention of the AFWESPAC to the fact that Company “A” of this regiment, consisting of some 150 men, including the officers and enlisted men, had been extended recognition as of March 8, 1945 through May 31, 1946. This recognized company and the remaining companies are similarly situated, and it is submitted that great injustice would result by a disregard by the AFWESPAC of the achievements of the latter in their efforts to contribute to the ultimate defeat of the common enemy. I should also like to invite attention to the nature of the documents herein transmitted which by their physical appearance show conclusively their originality and which confirm beyond doubt that the unit in question had functioned in the manner which was within its power in the various branches of its resistance activities. I should also like to invite further attention to the enclosed two original documents, one dated 20 March 1944, signed by Lieut.-Col. P. Serran, and other dated May 1944, signed by Lieut.-Col. E. L. Jurado, both of which bear the initials of General Macario Peralta Jr. (M.P.Jr.). Both these documents have been recognized by the said general in his certificate of 6

January 1946, also attached, as authentic and bearing the genuine signatures of Lieut.-Cols. Serran and Jurado who were both intelligence officers of General Peralta, Jr. Also enclosed is an affidavit dated 25 November 1946, by Lieut. Jesus C. Manapsal of the 6^th Military District of Samar concerning his contact with the Commanding Officer of the Pandita Area Guerrilla Regiment.

Inasmuch as the documents herein transmitted are the original documents and the only ones that have been saved from the Headquarters of the Unit after its burning by the enemy, it is earnestly requested that extreme efforts be exerted to avoid the loss of any sheet thereof because these are the only substantive proofs now in the possession of the Unit in question upon which the rights of its members and officers depend.

I would deeply appreciate information on the action taken by the Department of Foreign Affairs on the matter.

Very respectfully,

DENNY P. FLORES
Col., Regimental Commander,
Pandita Area Guerrilla Regiment

accompanying documents
as stated.