The name Juan Acenas may not ring a bell but this guy, who went on to become the superintendent of Davao Prison and Penal Farm (Dapecol) after the war, is a key player in what the U.S. War Department described as the ‘greatest story of the war in the Pacific.’
The prison break, staged with the help of a map Acenas provided to a ‘daring dozen,’ a group of ten American prisoners of war POWs,) and two Filipino convicts who, at the time, were serving sentence at the penal colony.
Acenas joined the government in the early 1910s and was initially assigned as ranger of District No. 4 that covered the provinces of Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Tarlac, and Northern Zambales. Years later, he became officer-in-charge of San Quintin, Pangasinan forest station. On June 20-21, 1923, while assigned at the Dagupan Forest Station, he led the planting of the 35-hectare communal forest with ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) seeds in
Labrador town.
Acenas was later transferred to the Division of Forest Lands and Maps in 1925 and from there moved to the Forest Survey Section before he was reassigned to District No. XIII in Davao, which was then headed by district forester Severo S. Ponce.
When the search for a site to host the Davao penal farm was launched, Acenas was picked out to join the 74-man contingent that scoured the inner waterways of Davao del Norte given his familiarity with Davao’s geography as a ranger.
Dapecol, originally comprised of 5,212 hectares of land, was later established on January 21, 1932, under Act No. 3732. Months later on, Governor-General Dwight F. Davis issued Proclamation No. 414 on October 7, 1931, affirming the composition of the penal colony.
During the Commonwealth, Acenas, described as ‘lean, bald, and bespectacled,’ was promoted to assistant superintendent, a position he held until the war was over. When the conflict erupted in 1941, he took over as the colony’s radioman, a position that allowed him to clandestinely intercept foreign development, which he secretly shared with the American POWs.
His moment of fame took place in March 1943 when the planned flight from the colony, now used as a concentration, was proposed. Acenas showed up in the coffee patch with ‘a small package containing surveyor’s tools and a pencil map of the colony area’ that he secretly passed to Maj. Steve Mellnik, a U.S. Army officer who would become of the great escape.
And just before the POWs and their two guides journeyed to the unknown, Candido ‘Pop’ Abrina, the colony’s agricultural adviser, met with Lt. Cmdr. Melvyn McCoy and Maj. Mellnik to hand over ‘some pesos in their hands, [as] a parting gift of Juan Acenas.’
John D. Lukacs, in ‘Escape from Davao’ (2010) described the pencil diagram: “The map, which charted the area around Dapecol for approximately forty miles, revealed two possible avenues of escape: the railroad cut heading north from Anibogan, and an abandoned trail that started at Dapecol’s western boundary and meandered northeast before penetrating the swamp.”
The map was significant in that it saved the escaping party from further getting lost after they discovered they were walking in circles as observed from their footprints and shadows. After the war, Acenas, the colony’s agricultural supervisor and assistant superintendent, the one ‘who literally showed the escapees the way out of Dapecol,’ was promoted. Abrina, in the meantime, was recognized for his ‘guile and guts [that] contributed to the success of the
escape.’
Acenas was married to Francisca Kiocho with whom he had only one child—a daughter. Profusely overwhelmed by his contribution to the success of the getaway, Acenas was posthumously awarded by the U.S. government for his role in saving the ten POWs. His true contribution to the war in Davao, though, is something that has yet to be thoroughly written.
