Because of Lingayen Gulf landing in San Fabian

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

I WAS not surprised at all, in fact, even somewhat touched by the report of my Punchmate Leonardo V. Micua (published last week’s issue) that according to University of the Philippines professor Ricardo T. Jose, General Douglas MacArthur really first landed in San Fabian on January 9, 1945 during the second World War, with photos as evidence, and not Lingayen or Dagupan as many have claimed or speculated. I have to agree because that’s what my Mexican father, the late Jesus Rivera Garcia, clarified to me one day, chronicling his life as a U.S. army soldier when he joined the landing forces of Gen. MacArthur that landed in Leyte and also in Lingayen Gulf. My dad specifically pointed out to me that Gen. MacArthur and majority of the U.S. contingent really landed in the eastern sector of Lingayen Gulf called “White Beach” in Barrio Mabilao, San Fabian, Pangasinan.

I vividly recall that conversation with him just a week after I migrated to my father’s home in Pharr, Texas, south of the U.S. border to the country of Mexico. He said he was so proud and even bragged to our relatives (father side) and to some Texas scribes of “The Monitor,” well-known Texas daily broad sheet in Hidalgo County, that he was the only G.I. in the Philippines during the last world war that produced (then) a national athlete and champion in any kind of sport. I smiled at his sentiment because it’s true. I can’t think of any Amerasian hombre or lass born after the last world war who, too, became a national sports champion. But he was saddened when I explained to him that favoritism by our national cycling leaders was what deprived me to be one of the four members in the Philippine national cycling road team for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games despite my finishing second, to Cornelio Padilla, Jr., in the grueling two-month long tryouts. The rest was history.

 My dad left this world on April 13, 2000 at the age of 79 and my Mangaldan born mother Adelaida Morales Aquino departed on September 25, 2002 at the age of 84.

But one thing I can never forget was my parents’ revelation that I was conceived after the Lingayen Gulf landing in San Fabian. It was my parents, especially my father, acknowledgement of me as their child, that led to my being petitioned to migrate to America. Unfortunately, this was not the case with many foreigners that bred children here. Their fathers did not acknowledge them, depriving them of the opportunity to migrate to their father’s home land.  I’m fortunate to have been born because of World War II.

Yes, we have our own individual destiny in life and this is my fate, and despite encountering many adversities in life, I have every reason to be very thankful to God because I saw the light of the world because o the Lingayen Gulf landing in San Fabian 75 years ago.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Therefore, thus says the Lord, I will surely create calamity which they cannot escape, although they will cry out to me but I will not listen to them. JEREMIAH 11: 11

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