My Autobiography: David Balleza K(C)atague: My Boys Scout Uniform and Picture Featured in the Mindanao Daily News-Re Event during the Japanese-American War in the Philippines

Saturday, November 11, 2017

My Boys Scout Uniform and Picture Featured in the Mindanao Daily News-Re Event during the Japanese-American War in the Philippines

Dr. David B.Katague of Iloilo wears the BSP uniform circa 1943-1945, similar to the one worn by Scout Loloy Queppet when he met MacArthur in 1942.

While surfing on the Internet the other day, I was surprise to see the following article with my boys scout uniform picture. I did not have a copyright to my photograph so I was not aware that the Mindanao Daily News had used my picture in the following article of historical significance- regarding the reenactment of General McArthur's arrival in Macabalan Pier, Cagayan De Oro in 1942 from Corregidor on his way to Australia.

The departure of General McArthur from Corregidor to Australia was not well publicized in comparison to his return to Leyte from Australia in October, 1944 almost at the end of the war. ( see footnotes on bottom of this page),

Here's a reprint of the whole article as published in the Mindanao Daily News dated March 15, 2017.
General Douglas MacArthur Week: BSP Council to honor scout who met MacArthur in Macabalan
Mar 15, 2017 Clifford Santillan , Mindanao Daily News.

The Boy Scouts of the Philippines Cagayan de Oro Council will honor one of its scouters for the role he played in a footnote in history on March 13, 1942.

As recounted by Ann Gorra in her anthology “City of Gold: People Who Made Their Home and History in Cagayan de Oro”, Abelardo Neri Queppet was one of the scouts of Baden-Powell Troop (named after the founder of the Scouting movement Lord Baden-Powell) in charge of enforcing the mandatory blackout.

His Dad encouraged him to join the Boy Scouts and he was a member of Troop 1 at the City Central School. There were at least 20 scouts in the troop among them Jaime Tiano, Victor Roa, Terencio Gadrinab, Hugo Balase, Antonio Zacharies, Vic Itchon, Jose Apolinario and Cristobal Nagac.

These were dark days in Philippine history when the country was tottering on the brink of defeat with US and Filipino forces boxed in Bataan and Corregidor by the all-conquering Japanese Imperial Army. So it was strictly lights out after 5PM for everyone lest they be subjected to Japanese attack.

Cagayan de Oro’s Macabalan Pier during the Japanese Occupation

“As soon as dusk gave way to night, I rode my bike (bought from a Japanese Bazaar) and rode around Del Mar, Mindanao and to the pier, blowing my whistle to warn residents that it was time to shut their lights off.” Loloy was assigned to do the task by his Scout Master Epifanio Balase since he was a native-born Kagay-anon and knew his way around. Even if he was just 14 years old at the time, Loloy went about his routine like a professional: waking up at 6AM, clean the house, eat breakfast, and report to HQ in his Boy Scout Uniform: shorts, knee socks, red and blue neckerchief, brown shirt and Boy Scout cap.

Another of Loloy’s responsibilities was to direct traffic at Plaza Divisoria to expedite the passage of US military convoys to avoid strafings by Japanese planes.

His friend, one Sergeant Hunter, charged with the security of Macabalan port in those days, often kidded him about making sure he stops the tartanillas since they had no brakes.

On the evening of Thursday, March 12, 1942, Sgt. Hunter asked Loloy to be at the parola (lighthouse) in Macabalan at 7PM. Upon his arrival, Sgt. Hunter told him they were expecting General Douglas MacArthur to arrive between midnight and dawn. Sure enough, at 7AM of Friday, March 13, 1942, MacArthur and his party disembarked from two PT Boats at Macabalan Pier and rode a convoy of military vehicles to the Del Monte airfield in nearby Tankulan, Bukidnon.

But not before the General noticed the Boy Scout and his bike (who saluted him with the three fingered Boy Scout salute), standing by the gangplank where they were disembarking (now the site of the flagpole for the Cagayan de Oro Port Management Office of the Philippine Ports Authority).

Asked what the Boy Scout was doing there, one of the soldiers replied he was a community volunteer.

“Send him home,” MacArthur said. “The war is inevitable.” (Gorra, 2010)

On Monday, March 13, 2017, the City of Cagayan de Oro through the City Historical and Cultural Commission (Hiscom) leads the 75th Diamond Jubilee of General MacArthur’s Breakout from Corregidor to Australia, via Cagayan, Misamis and Dicklum, Tankulan (Manolo Fortich).

Among the salient moments of the week –long celebration from March 13-17, 2017, is the reenactment of MacArthur’s arrival at Macabalan.

To be included among the cast of reenactors, (and unknown to world history save for the local yarn as told by Loloy to Ms. Gorra), is Boy Scout Abelardo “Loloy” Neri Queppet, who will be played by his 9-year old grand nephew Clark Dexter M. Prudente of the Baden-Powell Troop of Xavier University High School, the same troop of by his late grand uncle when he met MacArthur.

According to Boys Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) Cagayan de Oro Council Chair Roy Hilario P. Raagas, they will be awarding the late Scout Queppet a posthumous award for his valiant deeds as a Boy Scout in enforcing the blackout and directing traffic under dangerous circumstances in Plaza Divisoria in 1942.

BSP Cagayan de Oro Council Scout Executive Rudy Guligado added the local council will also present the family of Genevieve Josefa Queppet Ramonal, his only child, with a BSP Centennial Medallion and plaque during the 75th Commemorative Dinner and Program on March 17 which closes the curtains on General Douglas MacArthur Week.

Scout Loloy Queppet passed on in September 2008. But his date with one of the titans of the 20th Century will now forever stay entwined with the saga of General Douglas MacArthur, “The Liberator of the Philippines.”

Footnotes: From McArthur's Biography in Wikipedia:

"In February 1942, as Japanese forces tightened their grip on the Philippines, MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to relocate to Australia. MacArthur discussed the idea with his staff that he resign his commission and fight on as a private soldier in the Philippine resistance but Sutherland talked him out of it.

On the night of March 12, 1942, MacArthur and a select group (that included his wife Jean and son Arthur, as well as Sutherland, Akin, Casey, Marshall, Willoughby, Diller, and George) left Corregidor in four PT boats. MacArthur, his family and Sutherland traveled in PT 41, commanded by Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley. The others followed in PT 34, PT 35 and PT 32.( The PT's disembarked in Macabalan Pier in Cagayan de Oro, then proceeded via military vehicles to the Airfield in Bukidnon).

MacArthur and his party reached Del Monte Airfield in Bukidnon province on the island of Mindanao two days later. General George Marshall sent three U.S. Navy B-17s to pick them up. Two of them arrived, and brought the entire group to Australia".

Source: http://www.mindanaodailynews.com/general-douglas-macarthur-week-bsp-council-to-honor-scout-who-met-macarthur-in-macabalan/

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Highlights of My Professional Career

In my more than 40 years of professional career, I have experienced both working rank and file, as well as supervising the work of subordinates. I have worked in four private firms and the Federal Government, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where I retired. I enjoyed the challenges and difficulties of both types of job situations. This is the highlights of my work experience story.

My first job after completing my doctorate degree was a Chemist for Chemagro Corporation in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a subsidiary of Bayer Corporation, a German conglomerate. I worked for the analytical chemistry department comprised of about fifty people; half that number was either chemists or biologists. My specific task was to develop analytical methods for the detection of pesticide residues in plant and animal tissues. I worked on my own, similar to six other bench chemists, and we all reported to the same supervisor.

The firm sponsored my visa conversion from a student to a permanent resident, and I was able to legally work and reside in the United States with my family. The company generously took care of its employees. At the end of each successful year, everyone received a 13th month salary bonus. The employees and their families celebrated wonderful annual Christmas parties in a downtown Kansas City hotel, with dancing and free drinks for the whole night.

Inasmuch as I enjoyed and loved working for Chemagro for five years, I found a new job which offered a substantially higher pay. Due to my exemplary work performance, my supervisor preferred and lobbied for me to stay with the company. I had to turn him down because they could not match the package presented by my new employer. It was also a chance for me and my family to move and live in the US west coast, where the mild winter climate is bearable compared to the Midwest.

My next job was at the agricultural research division of Shell Development Company in Modesto, California. I was a Research Chemist, and again I worked individually, same as five other chemists who all reported to a supervisor. My specific duty was similar to my previous job. I worked for them for five years, until the company decided to get out of the pesticide business. They closed their research facility affecting the jobs of more than 200 employees.

My third industrial job was with the agricultural research division of Stauffer chemical company, located in Richmond, California. I was a Senior Research Chemist doing the same project as my two previous jobs. I worked for twelve continuous years for the company, with outstanding annual job performance. I became a Principal Research Chemist, the highest attainable non-supervisory position.

One day in 1986, my supervisor informed me that my job had been eliminated, and I had one day to vacate the facility. It was the most dreadful lay off experience in my life. I felt anger, sadness and humiliation to be dismissed from work with one day notice, after all the years of hard work invested for the company. This was an unforgettable incident and was the gloomiest point in my professional career.
The company terminated sixty research employees, who were upset of the bad news.

One of the chemists was distressed and expressed his outrageous anger by threatening the company and its workers. He told his supervisor of his intention to bomb and burn down the laboratory. He was immediately escorted by the security staff out of the building and into his car. He was informed to leave behind his personal belongings; they will be mailed to his residence. He was warned never to show up again near the company premises or risk getting arrested.

My supervisor was kind and allowed me to take my time to pack up my belongings. It took me two days to clear up my workplace, after toiling for a long period in the same jobsite. We were provided clerical help and office space, in preparation to look for another job, such as updating our resumes, and using the computer and copy machine. We were given six weeks of separation pay plus benefits.

Fortunately, with the help of a friend who is a Church parishioner, I found another job thirty days after leaving Stauffer chemical company. He hired me as a senior research chemist and as a group leader with two technicians to supervise. It was in the same field as my expertise in my previous three jobs spanning the last twenty one years. My new employer was Chevron Chemical Company, and which was located in the same area as my former employer.

This job gave me the introduction and basic knowledge of managing the work of subordinates. I worked for Chevron Company for four and a half years. The company decided to consolidate their research facilities in Texas, and lay off all its research employees. This time I had enough distress and agony from working, and eventually getting laid off from several private companies. To avoid going through any more miserable layoffs, I made a vow that I would never again work for a private company.

In my work experiences, there were noticeable and unavoidable jobsite occurrences. One can never miss the office romantic relationships between co-workers, both illicit and permitted. Though it was frowned upon, there was a boss and staff relationship, which was used as a ploy to get ahead in the company. Some relationships had chemistry, no pun intended, but some never worked out. Oftentimes, there was a sense of distrust among bench chemists for some workers who unjustly obtained preferred work assignments.

Some employees resorted to bribing superiors to get special privileges, such as being able to attend choice conferences and meetings in exciting venues or locations. Likewise, politics was always present at the worksites. It was during an era when various forms of harassment, equal opportunity and discrimination laws were not yet enforced in the workplace. Occasionally, an unexpected chemical explosion happens in a laboratory setting, where luckily no one got seriously hurt.

In the three private companies I worked for, I was able to publish scientific journals for some of the research studies and analytical methods which I developed for the respective companies of Chemagro, Shell Development and Stauffer.

After deciding and making a vow to avoid working in the private sector, I made my new goal which was either to work for the state of California, or the Federal government in Washington, D.C. Four months after I lost my job in Chevron, I was lucky and joyful to be hired by the Food and Drug Administration as a review chemist in the fall of 1990.

In 1994 I was promoted as an Expert Research Chemist with a GS-14 rating. My expertise was on Anti-malarial and Anti-parasitic drug products. In 1997, I was again deservingly promoted to Chemistry team leader, supervising the work of six Chemistry reviewers including five with doctorate degrees.

As team leader, I was responsible for prioritizing, assigning, and assuring the technical accuracy of all chemistry, manufacturing and control issues for all new drug applications submitted to the Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products, Center of New Drugs.

It was part of my responsibility to give advice, instruct and promote high morale and teamwork in my group. My work in the FDA is confidential, until the drug patent on the products I worked on has expired. There are manufacturing supplements that I have approved that are now open for the public in the Internet.

In 1998, I won the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Award. The citation reads, “For outstanding accomplishments in fostering the objectives of the EEO Program by hiring minorities and encouraging their professional growth while providing excellent leadership.” I have received numerous certificates of appreciation, awards in leadership and communications, commendation for teamwork and excellence in the accomplishment of the FDA mission. I have also received several letters of appreciation from private industry for my review work.

There are many good things working as rank and file while enjoying doing one’s job individually. It is a humbling, satisfying and productive experience, if one can work in harmony with one’s immediate supervisor. Working individually develops one’s skills in goal setting and scheduling. But in general, the financial rewards are less than a person who has supervisory responsibilities.

Managing the work of others has its challenges. Moreover, it develops one’s skill in handling and developing people, and the compensation rewards and benefits are better. Due to additional duties, responsibilities and leadership, supervisory work can be more stressful than working as a subordinate. However, supervisory jobs give one more personal growth and satisfaction, based on my personal experience. My work in FDA as a team leader managing the work of six scientists had been the happiest and rewarding work experience in my career in Chemistry. You might also like:

Saturday, November 11, 2017

My Boys Scout Uniform and Picture Featured in the Mindanao Daily News-Re Event during the Japanese-American War in the Philippines

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