Where Indeed MacArthur Landed in Pangasinan?

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

After the new year dawned on January 1, 2023. What’s next? In my province it’s the January 9 historical landing of United States Supreme Commander for the Pacific’s General Douglas “Dugout Doug” MacArthur in Pangasinan.

This landing however is still being disputed by historical buffs in Dagupan City and Lingayen who want to claim the glory in hosting the “first step” on their beach of the gung-ho man in a khaki's Pershing cap.

DUGOUT DOUG RETURNED. United States Supreme Commander for the Pacific’s General Douglas MacArthur (center, leading the group) and his entourage wade the shore of Pangasinan in January 9, 1945 after disembarking from the U.SS Boise, his command ship, during the invasion of Luzon. Photo credit: National Museum of American History.

His presence liberated a subjugated country from the brutality of its invaders’ the Japanese Imperial Army.

Let’s go back to what happened before and in January 1, 1945:

 After the military alliances of Great Britain, Soviet Union, and the United States bludgeoned and defeated the Axis power led by Germany and the butcher Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, the Japanese - another Axis power in the Asia Pacific - knew that it lived on a borrowed time as the military juggernaut of the huge naval armada of the richest country of the world’s U.S.A invaded with vengeance the islands of the Philippines like Leyte.

Remember, the Yanks were defeated by the Japs in April 9, 1942 at Bataan and yielded Corregidor to them on May 6, 1942 where the “Dugout Doug” moniker of MacArthur was given after President Delano Roosevelt ordered him, his family, and staff in March 11, 1942 to abscond to Australia with a phrase in mind probably: A person who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. Another source said the moniker started when he visited only once the besieged troops in Bataan where they derisively called it an act of cowardice.

MacArthur declared in the Aussie Land to all and sundry his iconic promise to the Filipinos: I shall return.

He returned indeed!

After defeating the Japanese Navy, the Americans sailed to Pangasinan as a prelude to the liberation of Manila where 17, 000 evil Japanese Naval soldiers under their barbaric commanding officer’s Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, tortured, raped and slaughtered 100,000 Filipinos in the second worst damaged city after Stalingrad (presently Volgograd, Russia).

General Douglas MacArthur in an LCVP (landing craft vehicle, personnel) getting ready to go ashore in Lingayen Gulf Blue 1 landing beach (color tagging of Dagupan? -MCO), Luzon, Philippines, January 9, 1945. Note Chief of Staff Lt. General R.K. Sutherland besides him. Photo credit: U.S Navy 

 In the early morning of January 6, 1945, a large Allied force commanded by Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf began approaching the shores of Lingayen Gulf where the U.S and Australian Navies pounded with their ships’ big guns those Japanese positions in the coast of the area. On "S-Day" January 9, the U.S 6^th Army landed on the beachhead at the base of the Lingayen Gulf between the towns of Lingayen and San Fabian.

On the silent film produced by the British Pathe, a ramrod straight, tall, and strong Douglas MacArthur helped with his both hands Philippines Commonwealth President Sergio Osmena disembarked from his ship to the landing craft vehicle, personnel (LCVP)  that would bring them to the place being disputed by history conscious residents of Dagupan City and Lingayen in Pangasinan.

As MacArthur and his entourage trotted the knee deep water of the Gulf, he proceeded to the West Central Elementary School’s two-storey Economics building in Dagupan he used as a command post for three months.

In this headquarter, the General – book author William Manchester called the “American Caesar” - was seen to meet American and Filipino military officers and local luminaries.

Conflicting Versions

Incumbent Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil cited that Agriculture Minister Condring Estrella said that Life Magazine’s photographer Carl Mydans who took the iconic photo told the Cabinet Minister from Rosales, Pangasinan where the iconic and photo-op landing ensued: “it was near the American inspired provincial capitol”.

Estrella met Mydan when he joined MacArthur in his 1961 sentimental journey in the Philippines.

“Initially, I relied on the statement of the late Minister Conrado Estrella which he revealed in his talk with Gen. Douglas MacArthur during his return to Lingayen. When asked where exactly did he land. Minister Estrella said, McArthur asked where was the Capitol, and then pointed towards an area at vicinity of Urduja (the residence of the Governor of Pangasinan a spit distance to the Capitol Building – MCO),” Bataoil – a former general - said. 

Retired Police General Sonny Verzosa, the PMYer (military college’s alumnus) scion of the capital town’s former Hizzoner Mariano C. Versoza, Sr. joined the passionate discussion on my Facebook's board.

 “Sir when my dad was the Mayor he invited to Lingayen the American photographer (Life Magazine’s photographer Mydans - MCO) who took the monumental picture of the Lingayen Gulf Landing. This was during the time when my dad and mayor Manaois of Dagupan City was hotly contesting the exact landing site of McArthur. He presented to my dad the picture where McArthur and his staff were wading through the shore and enfaced on it his dedication ‘To Mayor Verzosa, photo I took right at the back of the capitol’. I gave the original copy to the secretariat of the Gulf Landing Celebration then chaired by Sir Espines (moniker of former nine years’ Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr – another PMYer - MCO) and I think it is one of those photos on display at the Veterans Park”.

World War II veteran Alejandro Balolong, who was 91 years old in 2018, narrated however his personal account of the arrival of MacArthur in Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan.

“Nen January 9, 1945… ed oras ya manaalas-dose ed kaagewan…imuna ak ya nanalagey ed gilid na kalsada diman ed Catacdang, nen unlabas si General Douglas MacArthur ya akalugan ed military jeep. Et binabayabayan mi. Kasumpal to man, four months later, labin lima kami ya … taga diya ed Bonuan Gueset ya inrecruit ed US Navy,” Balolong said in the dialect how he saw at noon of January 9, 1945 the five-star General riding in a military jeep.

U.S. warships faced an onslaught of suicide Japanese Kamikaze pilots and their planes with bombs and gasoline off Luzon during the second great American amphibious landing at Lingayen Gulf, Pangasinan in the Philippines during World War - II. (Photo Credit: USNI.ORG)

Advocates of MacArthur landing in Dagupan City like Councilor Jigs Seen cited to me the 2014 exhibits of the Philippine Veterans.

“Gen. MacArthur landed in the Bonuan Blue Beach but upon being informed that the bridge in Bonuan Catacdang leading to the West Central School (that became his headquarter for three months – MCO) was impassable, he went back to his ship and decided to land in Lingayen Beach that leads him and arrived at his destination by land at West Central Gabaldon Building,” Seen – the brother-in-law of the present city mayor, disclosed how Dagupan should own the glory of the “right of first step” my play of words on the law of contract’s principle the “right of first refusal”, hahaha!

Asst. Prosecutor Ferdinand Parayno commented on my earlier blog: “If Gen. MacArthur first landed in Lingayen as claimed by residents of that capital town, then why did he choose to use a building inside the West Central School in Dagupan as his official residence/office during his stay? I don't think that would be a sound tactical decision on his part. And then there are pictures of the General personally inspecting downtown Dagupan. Why would he do that if he first landed in Lingayen town? I think our history books should be re-written and Dagupan should be given the distinction that has wrongly been given to another municipality, for being the City where Mac Arthur had landed”.

So what say you readers, where indeed Dugout Doug landed?

(Please send comment to totomortz@yahoo.com)