Story & photos by Benjamin Layug
It’s been six years since my last visit to the tadpole-shaped, 9-square-kilometer Corregidor (nicknamed the “Rock”), and I jumped at the invitation, coming from Cynthia Carreon, president and chief executive of the Corregidor Foundation Inc., to join the 12 out of 40 Miss Millennial candidates (of the noontime TV show Eat Bulaga) who were to tour the island.
During my last visit, we departed for the island at Sun Cruises terminal at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex but, this time around, our embarkation point was the Esplanade Seaside Terminal at the Mall of Asia Complex. We left the terminal, on board the 150-pax MV Sun Cruiser by 7:30 a.m. and, after a two-hour/26-km trip, we arrived at the island’s North Dock.
At the dock, “tranvias” (replicas of prewar-styled street cars) awaited to tour us around the islands. South Dock, at Bottomside, was where the gallant allied garrison surrendered. Lorcha Dock, on the other hand, was where MacArthur departed via PT boat for Australia. It contains a life-size bronze statue of the general and a plaque with the immortal MacArthur words “I Shall Return.”
We then proceeded to Battery Way and Hearns at Topside which contained all the major caliber seacoast guns around it, as well as the prewar Army headquarters (Harbor Defense and Senior Officers Quarters), American High School, parade ground, golf course, theater (Cine Corregidor), old Spanish lighthouse, the “Mile Long” barracks, the Pacific War Memorial, and the famous flagpole where the American flag was lowered during the surrender and raised again during the liberation. En route to Battery Way, we passed by the ruins of two three-story buildings of Middleside which housed the 60th Coast Artillery Regiment and the 91st Philippine Scout Coast Artillery Regiment, and the post hospital.
Battery Way, completed in 1913, was armed with four 12-inch mortars capable of firing in any direction with a maximum range of 14,610 yards at the rate of one round per minute per mortar. Considered as the most effective antipersonnel weapon in Corregidor, the vertical plunging trajectories of the mortars of Battery Way, as well as Battery Geary, made them ideal for use against enemy entrenched on higher grounds in Bataan. Battery Hearn, a 12-inch seacoast gun with a maximum range of 29,500 yards, was capable of firing in all directions. It was captured nearly intact by the Japanese and used for propaganda purposes after the island’s surrender.
The US government-built Pacific War Memorial, standing on the highest part of Corregidor on the island’s west, completed in 1948 at the cost of $1,230,000, and is dedicated to the Filipino and American soldiers who shed their blood on Corregidor. The memorial’s dome has an opening at the top through which sunlight shines through to exactly fill a circular altar on the week of May 6, the Fall of Corregidor.
Left of the acacia tree-shaded entrance is the Cine Corregidor Ruins and behind it is a small, modest marble museum. To the right of the museum are the remains of the Bachelors Officers Quarters and the Post Headquarters. Within the complex is the steel wing-shaped sculpture Eternal Flame designed by Greek-American sculptor Archimedes Demetrius. The 880-meter long, three-story high and hurricane-proof “Mile Long” Barracks, reputedly the world’s longest military barracks, housed 8,000 men and the headquarters of General MacArthur.
The highlight of our visit to the island is Malinta Tunnel, an 836-foot long, fish bone-shaped system of bombproof tunnels built between 1922 and 1932 which, besides being the headquarters, also housed a 1,000-bed hospital, a US Navy command unit and storage areas. MacArthur stayed here from December 29, 1941, to March 12, 1942, and occupied the third lateral (north side) from the entrance. Here, a 30-minute light and sound show, scripted by the late National Artist Lamberto Avellana, reenacts dramatic events during World War II, like the Japanese invasion, the surrender and the liberation of Corregidor.
Other places we visited include the 2.2-hectare Japanese Garden of Peace Park (a Shinto shrine and garden built as a memorial to the Japanese soldiers who served and died on the island during World War II), the 6,000-sq-m Filipino Heroes Memorial (consists of 14 murals, chronologically encircling the park, done by sculptor Manuel Casal) and the Spanish Lighthouse (at 628-feet above sea level, it has a breathtaking view of Manila Bay and the West Philippine Sea).
After our tranvia tour, we had a filling lunch at the La Playa Restaurant at the Corregidor Inn, strategically located on top of Signal Hill, at the center of the island (Middleside), between the North and South Dock. After lunch, we again boarded our respective tranvias for the short drive to North Dock where we again boarded MV Sun Cruiser for the scheduled 2:30 p.m. departure for Manila.
Image credits: Benjamin Layug