... be seeking headlines. I have no intention to perform heroics.
I almost did not make this trip were it not for the foresight and
valued assessment of a greying Bataan warrior who, while his
colleagues are enjoying the blissful luxury of retirement and
quiet life, have taken on a second struggle for the freedom
of his country. It was Col. Narciso L. Manzano, a Bataan
war hero whose exploits are documented by Gen. Carlos P .
Romulo in his book,3 who brought my name to the attention
of and insisted on my appearing before the best forum
available as of now for anyone struggling for the peaceful
overthrow of a dictatorship: the United States Congress.
It is a historical irony that one of the few truly effective
fighters in the United States against a dictatorship that has
engulfed the Philippines is this authentic and unassuming
hero of the Battle of Bataan.4
Manzano is a no-nonsense, brutally frank man who used to
coach soccer teams in Manila. Now based in San Francisco
and supposedly enjoying his retirement, Manzano has
proved to possess more energy compared to several men
half his age. Not given to unnecessary delays and red tape,
Manzano instead has waited for no man and depended on no
one in carrying out his one-man battle against despotism in
the Philippines. He staked his very life fighting a despotism
imposed by foreigners during the dark days of the Japanese
occupation of the Philippines, and the man is now waging
another heroic battle against a homegrown tyrant.
3 Carlos P . Romulo, I Saw the Fall of the Philippines (New York: Doubleday,
1942). The first full-length account by a Filipino of the fall of Bataan, the
author was formerly a newspaperman who served with General Douglas
MacArthur. Romulo later served as one of the first presidents of the United
Nations General Assembly (in 1949) and as Foreign Affairs Secretary for three
Philippine presidents, including Ferdinand Marcos. He died in 1985.
4 Manzano is also mentioned in Chris Schaeffer’s Bataan Diary: An American
Family in World War II 1941–1945 (New York: Riverview Publishing, 2004).
His exploits can be further found in the General Douglas MacArthur Memorial
Archives in Norfolk, Virginia. Manzano died in the United States in 1986.
Sort: Trending