John D. Likacs, in ‘Escape from Davao’ (2010), describes the escape of ten Americans and two Filipino convicts from the Davao Penal Colony (DAPECOL, not Davao Prison and Penal Farm) as “the forgotten story of the most daring prison break of the Pacific War.”
The episode, which took place on April 4, 1943, involved Navy Lt. Cmdr. Melvyn H. McCoy, Army Maj. Stephen M. Mellnik, Army Air Force pilot Capt. William Edwin Dyess, Air Force wingman Lt. Samuel C. Grashio, Army Air Force master mechanic Lt. Leo A. Boelens, Marine Corps officers Capt. Austin C. Shofner, Lt. Jack Hawkins, and Lt. Michiel Dobervich, and Paul Marshall and Robert Spielman, both Army sergeants.
They were guided in the treacherous escape through uncharted thickets and swamplands by two Filipino convicts named Benigno de la Cruz, a camp hospital orderly with first aid training, and his friend Victor Jumarong. It was Maj. Mellnik, then assigned at Pentagon, the US defense headquarters, who mentioned the heroic helps of the murder inmates. Prior to his assignment to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in Brisbane, Australia, he journeyed to Saranac Lake, New York, where President Manuel L. Quezon was treated for pulmonary tuberculosis.
He told the President about their involvement and Quezon, in exile in Washington, D.C., reacted positively to the news, telling the major: “If you’ll give their names to my secretary, she’ll prepare the papers, and I’ll sign them, before you leave.”
In a statement dated January 28, 1944, while in the last month of his life, the President stated:
“The escape of Col. [William E.] Dyess and Comdr. [Melvyn McCoy] McCoy was made possible with the help of two Filipinos who had been sentenced to many years imprisonment and were confined in the penal colony wherein these three officers were kept as prisoners of war. Upon learning of what they did, I granted these prisoners [an] absolute pardon.”
Nothing much is known about the two freed prisoners.
In Lukacs’ book, two passages provide a tickling description of the two who kept the planned escape secret, except for De la Cruz who made a last-minute disclosure to someone he cared for:
“It was a testament to the degree of secrecy with which the escapees had both planned and executed the breakout that almost nobody at Dapecol…could believe it. At the Filipino hospital, a stunned [nurse] Fely Campo remembered an innocuous conversation that she had had a few days earlier with another nurse named Maximina Orejodos [who said] ‘Some things are going to happen.’ Campo knew Orejodos and Ben de la Cruz were romantically involved, but she thought Orejodos would involve in an escape try with American war prisoners.
As for Victor Jumarong, he went on to serve the Mindanao guerrillas until the war ended.
The duo’s contribution to the epic saga was not just about guiding the party to freedom. They also suffered injuries while leading the group across the swath of mangroves:
“Jumarong and de la Cruz, slashing a path at the vanguard of the procession, were soon bleeding profusely despite the burlap wrapped around their forearms…the strongest members of the group shouldered the cutters’ packs so that they could hack unencumbered. Yet no matter how violently the Filipinos swung their bolos, the cogon seemed to grow taller and thicker, an intimidating illusion created by the rising water level.”
The duo also showed creativity. In one instance, Jumarong stopped the fleeing column and motioned them to be silent while he cupped a hand to one ear. The Americans were puzzled but De la Cruz was quick to explain that ‘Wherever there are Filipino people you will hear the crow of the fighting cocks. The sound will travel for a long way.’
