USPIF:
The United
States Philippine Islands
Forces (USPIF)--Zambales
was first formed by a red-haired, bearded, American mining engineer
named Ralph McGuire.
McGuire,
like many engineers in the Philippines in 1941, had joined the USAFFE
Army when the Japanese attacked. As an explosives
expert
he was invited to join the infiltration party of Lt. Col. Claude Thorp
when
they snuck through Japanese lines in Feb. 1942 to spy on the Japanese.
After the fall of Bataan on 9
April 1942, Thorp directed McGuire and
Filipino Ramon Magsaysay to organize the first band of guerrillas in
the Zambales
Mountains. Thorp appointed McGuire commander and chief guerrilla
organizer of Zambales Province. After the fall of Corregidor on
May 6,
1942, the Japanese "Kempei-tai" (military police) learned about Thorp,
McGuire, Magsaysay, and several other of Thorp's lieutenants, put their
names on a wanted list, and offered rewards for them, dead or alive.
By Feb., 1943, McGuire had the
organization of Zambales almost
complete, and he appointed Capt. Winston Jones C.O. of the area of
Zambales between Olongapo and Cabangan. But in April McGuire was
killed by one of his own men in Castillejos, who cut his head off and
took it to the Japanese for
the reward. The Japanese stuck McGuire's head on a pole and
paraded it
around the villages of Zambales as an example of American
weakness. Most of
McGuire's organization disbanded at this point, and Capt. Jones left to
join
Col. Gyles Merrill at his hideout in the Zambales Mountains. But
one of
Major Anderson's guerilla leaders, Capt. Guilberto Sia who went by the
nom de guerre "Ernest Newman," stepped in and took command of the
men who were willing to stay. Col. Thorp had been
captured by
the Japanese, so Sia continued to report to Major Anderson in Tayabas
Province on the east coast of Luzon.
During 1943,
the guerrilla groups that reported to Anderson
established courier connections among themselves, including Sia, Santos
in Bulacan, and Anderson's command in Tayabas. Sia established
coast-watcher stations along the Zambales coast and gathered
information on Japanese ship movements. His command, now known as
USPIF, covered the area of western Zambales Province from Olongapo up
to Botolan, including the Subic Bay area.
In October 1944, after Captain
Cabangbang joined Anderson at his
headquarters in Tayabas, Guilberto Sia agreed to transport radio
equipment to Col. Gyles Merrill in the Zambales Mountains, and to
switch over to Merrill's command. Merrill was the senior officer
on
Luzon at that point, was located in the Zambales mountains, and wanted
to take charge of all of Luzon. With Sia's USPIF in his command,
he at
least had all of Zambales. A fair amount of information about
Col. Merrill
can be found in Bataan Diary.
In December 1944 it appears
that a band of men from USPIF moved east to
Bulacan Province, probably either looking for food supplies or
attempting to contact Alejo Santos or Capt. Cabangbang to solicit arms
and/or radios. In Bulacan they got into a fire fight with the
Hukbalahap--the Huks were attempting to take over Pampanga and Bulacan
at that time, to establish a communist government. Magsaysay,
meanwhile, had also joined Merrill and was acting as supply
officer and liaison between Merrill and the west coast
guerrillas.
When MacArthur's liberation army landed on Luzon, Merrill ordered
Magsaysay to have the Zambales guerrillas clear the west coast of
Zambales of Japanese, which they did, enabling the U.S. XI Corps to
land there unopposed. (It is not clear who, exactly, was in
charge of USPIF at this point, Sia or Magsaysay.) After the war,
Merrill recommended that Magsaysay be appointed provisional governor of
Zambales, thus launching his political career which would lead to the
presidency.
