On This Day May 17, 1942, in the morning, a group of Japanese Military officers landed at Tagbilaran, Bohol, they were the emissary of the Japanese Imperial Forces telling they would invade the Province of Bohol.
Prior to this, on May 3, 1942, in the course of the Second World War, the Japanese Imperial Forces bombarded Tagbilaran, the capital of Bohol, using their aircraft and warships. They also bombed the airports of Tagbilaran and Ubay.
The Japanese emissary and Governor Agapito Hontanosas together with Congressmen Margarito Revilles and Isabelo Binamira held a long conference at the (old) provincial capitol. The Japanese emissary persuaded the Bohol Provincial Government and the Bohol Military Commanders to surrender and offer no resistance.
On May 22, 1942, the Imperial Japanese Forces, numbering around two thousand, made a landing in Tagbilaran. No cannon roared, and no gun fired from the Boholano Forces when the Japanese landed at the wharf of Tagbilaran. Occupation Governor Agapito Hontanosas acted as a kind of “military governor” of the province of Bohol by the Imperial Japanese Army under the command of an officer named Colonel T. Mini. Then after a few days, upon order of Colonel Kawakami of the Imperial Japanese Army in Cebu, a “puppet” provincial government was organized. All chiefs of division of the former provincial government were called to organize their respective offices. With the exception of school superintendent D. Williams who fled to the interior mountains of Bohol and provincial treasurer Aquilino Calixto who went to Manila sometime before the Japanese invasion. All chiefs of division, including their employees of the former provincial government were affected, and their offices were abolished. All functions of the provincial government were all under the Japanese Imperial Command. Consequently, many officials of the province did not submit and refused to serve the Japanese administration. Those who would not serve or obey the Japanese administration would be punished and put in the concentration camp in Tagbilaran.
Conversely, Senior Board Member Conrado D. Marapao Sr., received radiographic instructions from Acting President Manuel A. Roxas of the Philippines, directing him to assume the governorship of Bohol, and to continue the function and operation of the Commonwealth Government in the Province of Bohol. On May 22, 1942, Governor Conrado D. Marapao Sr., (Bohol Governor, May 22, 1942–May 31, 1946) assumed the position. Thus, Bohol had two civil governments – the first under Agapito Hontanosas (Bohol Governor, August 30, 1941–Wartime Years) with the Japanese Administration behind it, the second under the Commonwealth Government or Free Local Civil Government of Bohol with Marapao as the head.
The Boholanos organized an underground government to fight and liberate the province of Bohol. In the early part of June 1942, the Boholanos formed the nucleus of a guerrilla force in Maitum, Balilihan. With a handful of United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) soldiers and volunteers, they began operating in the neighboring towns.
On May 25, 1945, the Province of Bohol was formally declared liberated from the Japanese Imperial Forces. On the same day, the civil government of Bohol formally turned over to the authority and jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. Thus, ended the control of the Philippine Civil Affairs Unit of the United States Army in Bohol and began the re-established Commonwealth Government with new appointments extended to all the ranking provincial officials and all the municipal officials by the President of the Philippines. Bohol once more was restored to its life of freedom and contentment.
Sources and References:
1. Pio B. Ferandos, The Bohol Guerrillas in Action, 1981, Our Press Inc., Cebu City, pp. 9–13, 164
2. Exuperio Omila Barrera, Eddie Sarmiento Israel, “The War Exploits of Captain Vicente Cubero,” 1999, p. 39
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