My Co-Authored Book on Military History: The Launch

The Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon: An Untold Story
By Cesar P. Pobre with Phillip Kimpo Jr.
Published by the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, Department of National Defense
Copyright 2010, 171 pages, hardbound (glossy cover)

Noong Martes, inilunsad sa AFP Theater sa Camp Aguinaldo ang "The Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon: An Untold Story," ang bunga ng aking unang siyam na buwan bilang historical writer-researcher sa PVAO.

Tungkol sa mga Filipinong gerilya noong WWII ang libro. Historical nonfiction bale. Mula sa Facebook page nito:

"We shall liberate ourselves."

Left alone by their American overlords to fend for themselves in the wake of the imperial Japanese army of invasion, this was the rebounding reaction of Filipino soldiers and civilians. They stood to be counted, choosing to perish fighting for their country than lay down their arms.

For them, there was no retreat and no return—only redoubts behind the enemy lines, redoubts high in the mountains, redoubts deep in the jungles, and redoubts within men’s hearts.

Here is a literary and factual account of how the Filipino warriors of the Ilocos, the Cordilleras, and the Cagayan valley—outnumbered, outgunned, and cut off from the rest of the world—liberated themselves from the clutches of the Japanese in the Second World War, challenging the present misconception that the Americans freed our lands. In their final victory there was likewise the triumph of humility, as shown in the orderly train of the defeated Japanese soldiers so unlike the scenes of the pitiless Death March.

Hitherto untold, this is the rousing and epic story of the Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon.

Di pa ipinagbibili ang unang run ng aklat (1,000 copies) dahil ipapamigay muna sa mga educational institution, library, DND personnel, historian, at iba pang personalidad. Pero may sanlibo ulit na isasalang sa imprenta na siya namang magiging commercially available.

Kami ng boss ko, ang tinitingalang historyador na si Dr. Cesar Pobre (ret. colonel) ang sumulat ng aklat, samantalang ang kapwa ko makata ng LIRA at ka-Dapitdilim na si Jeremiah Faustino ang artist. For more info and the authors & artist profiles, sign naman kayo sa fan page ng libro sa Facebook. Hehe. Salamat.

Heto naman ang ilang piling retrato mula sa book launch (full album coming soon):

Si Ynna sa AFP Library, habang nag-aantay kami ng launch. Pinalipas na lang niya ang gutom sa pamamagitan ng pagbabasa ng aklat.

Pre, hindi ganyan ang wastong paggamit ng kanyon. (Sa AFP Museum.)

Author's profile ko sa likod ng aklat. Walang magawa habang inaantay ang simula ng programa.

Dr. Pobre presents the first copy to the representative of the Secretary of Defense. Guerrilla veterans, the same ones we wrote about in the book, look on.

Me (center) and Jere (leftmost) with members of the Philippine Historical Association: PHA PRO Jonathan Balsamo, former UP Likas president Ayshia Kunting, PHA VP Michael Chua.

With sir Mundo (the first person to personally congratulate me that day -- salamat po!), Dr. Pobre, and Mrs. Pobre.

Book signing. Hindi ako handa kaya na-mental block ako. Ayoko kasi ng di pinag-iisipang dediks.

With the warriors whose legacy is the freedom we enjoy today.

Sa opisina namin sa OSS. Bumalik kami nina Ynna at Jere para kumuha ng compli copies namin. (Stacks of books in the background.)

Simulan na ang inuman. (With my fellow LIRA poets -- miss Beng, Ynna, Carla, Debbie -- at Mother Ignacia Place near ABS-CBN.)

Nang medyo nakainom na. (Impromptu photoshoot namin nina Jere at Ynna.) At para magamit naman ang jacket na di sinuot sa launch dahil mainit, among other reasons.