THE PHILIPPINES: A Busy Fourth

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Just two mornings before July 4, the first anniversary of Philippine independence, the citizens of Calapan, capital of Mindoro province, awoke to find their town invaded and occupied by local revolutionists. Led by Nestor Romero, a 31-year-old Bataan veteran, 31 convicts broke out of the provincial stockade, disarmed their guards and a platoon of sleeping military police, and took over the town. They captured the mayor, the governor of the province, and Paul Leuterio, majority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives. After a 15-hour reign of terror, MP reinforcements routed the rebels, killed Romero.

The cause of the revolt was a very personal matter. Romero, a scapegrace distinguished by the possession of eleven fingers (double thumb on the left hand), had been sentenced to a 16-year prison term on a charge of raping a local taxi dancer. He sought vengeance on the judge, the prosecutor, the cabaret owner and the taxi dancer. Three hours before his fatal gun battle with MPs at Calapan's airfield, he said to the parish priest: "Bless me, Father, for I will die."

With the rebels either dead or safely back in the stockade, Calapan joined the rest of the Philippines in a gala round of oratory, parades and holiday cockfights in honor of the first anniversary of Philippine independence. In Manila, President Manuel Roxas discussed his Government's political and economic progress. Said Roxas: "Organized resistance has almost ceased." To give force to his words, a battalion of Hukbalahaps, pro-Communist guerrilla fighters who have waged constant war against the government, marched past the reviewing stand.