The Battle of Ising stopped the invading Japanese imperial forces from Agusan to reinforce their beleaguered colleagues in Davao City has two standouts: Col. Claro Laureta, head of the 107th Guerrilla Division, and Lt. Col. Saturnino Silva. It took place in Carmen, Davao del Norte.
Lt. Col. Silva used to work as a school teacher in Tawi-tawi, Sulu, but left for Manila in 1929. In search of greener pasture, from there he took a ship to Vancouver, Canada, before crossing to San Francisco, California, where he worked as a farmhand of a vegetable landholding. For some reason, he resigned from his job and was taken in as secretary-assistant of a professor teaching at San Francisco State College. While working there, he pursued a tertiary course that ultimately earned him a degree in Economics.
Prior to the conflict, Lt. Col. Silva, then 30 years old and still unattached, joined the United States Army as a private in April 1941, seven months before World War II broke out. For Filipinos to be able to enlist, the US Army conducted mass naturalization in 1943. Over 2,000 Filipinos acquired American citizenship, including Silva. As a naturalized American, he was assigned to the newly organized 1st Filipino Battalion.
Later in the war, the Australian headquarters of Gen. Douglas McArthur, head of the Allied Forces in the Pacific, received news of the war from the Philippines. In response, the general ordered the deployment of 400 men to Australia “to undergo rigorous training in radio and jungle warfare for secret submarine missions.” Before they were sent off, Silva and four other Filipinos received special orders to directly proceed to Australia. Recognized as the first Filipino enlisted men to reach Gen MacArthur’s HQ, they were promptly assigned to convert a clandestine site outside Brisbane, Australia, into a military camp, with Silva as the unit’s second in command.
The principal mission of the unit was to train radio operators to be sent on missions, principally the forming of coast watcher stations and monitoring sea lanes in the Philippine archipelago. Enemy ships spotted during reconnaissance were promptly relayed to the US Navy, which sent bombers to sink them.
Amid the difficulties of war, Lt. Col. Silva got involved with a woman named Priscilla with whom he later had two children, both born in Australia. As a condition for marrying while in the military service, he sought the approval of Gen. MacArthur to marry but the permission was not granted until half a year later. Apparently, this led to the calling off of the military union.
Lt. Col. Silva’s ‘marriage’ to Priscilla, for decades, has been a focus of research. Early accounts say they married in Australia but there is no document backing this. Another version says they were married by Fr. Conrad Cote, PME, a Canadian priest assigned in Davao. But the records at San Pedro Cathedral in Davao City and at the Foreign Mission Society of Quebec (PME Fathers) in Quebec, Canada, do not offer clues to confirm the matrimony.
Just days after he got permission from the general, Lt. Col. Silva left Australia on board a submarine bound for the Philippines. Nobody knew about the mission, not even Priscilla whom he would meet again after the war. He later met a Filipina, though, whom he would marry.
Lt. Col. Silva, upon arrival in Mindanao, surfaced in the Battle of Ising as commander of the 1,500-strong 130th Infantry Regiment in northern Davao. The unit, comprised chiefly of Filipino guerrillas, defeated the enemy troops even without US ground support. In combat, he was hit by a sniper’s bullet that shattered his left leg. For his war exploits, Lt. Col. Silva received the Purple Heart Medal for wounded soldiers and the Bronze Star Medal from the Philippine government.
(Sources: Carolyn Gibson. “An Australian Connection: A Father and Daughter’s Journey.” Manila Women’s Forum (MWF) Newsletter, 2016; and Marie S. Vallejo, the hero’s daughter.)
