Riz A. Oades, Ph.D.

History Professor. San Diego State University

A School Teacher’s Odyssey

                                                                                                  Antonio S. Guiab

 

                                                                              

 

The threat of beatings, torture, and beheadings would be enough to scare the average person into a state of frightened submission, but not Antonio Guieb, for it only

 in­creased his desire to fight beck even more.

He noted the Japanese soldiers for the many atrocities they corn­mited against the Filipinos during World War 11. Now well into his 60s, Antonio was then too

 young to join the local guerilla fighters. Hunters ROTC. But he did what any patriotic teenager might do. He lied about his age and the guerillas took him in and

 trained him to become a messenger. To be caught by the Japanese meant torture and death, but by hiding the messages in the hems of his pants, Antonio was able to carry them past the watchful eyes of the Japanese.

 

                                                                                                 Life Threatening

                                                                                                 Experience in

                                                                                                 Spring of 1944

Antonio’s luck seemed to have run out. He recalled, “I was traveling from Manila and going to our village and was bringing a box of medicines for our guerilla unit

 when I was stopped and searched by a suspicious Japanese guard. He asked me who the medicines were for and if I was with the guerillas. I told him the

 medicines were for the pharmacy at our village, deny­ing any connections with the guerillas. The Japanese, however, didn’t believe me. He tied me up and left me

 along the road so that passers-by could see me. The Japanese hid in the bushes to overhear any conversations which might occur. Luckily I was for­tunate in that a

 friend of mine just happened to be walking by who asked, ‘Antonio! What’s wrong? Why are you tied up like that?’ I mentioned to him that we were be­ing

 overheard while I explained to him that this Japanese soldier believed I was bringing medicine to the guerillas even though I had told him that it was for our village

 phar­macy.

“My friend played along with my story and protested that he’d sent me to get the medicine for our village. I was lucky for the soldier believed our ruse. So I was

 freed. I was damned lucky otherwise I would have been a dead man!”

 

A dead man he was not for An­tonio survived the war. Quick thinking, determination, and a lit­tle bit of luck served him well. These qualities were never to leave

 him, even after he had come to the United States. Another thing which would never leave him were his high principles, as a young man he had fought against the

 oppression of the Japanese and throughout his life he would stand up what he believed was right.

July 9-22. 1992

Roving School Teacher

Born on December S. 1925, An­tonio grew up in Manila. After World War II, he went to Univer­sity of Santo Tomas to continue his interrupted schooling. in the

 summer of 1949 while taking make-up classes for high school, he met his future wife at the boarding house where they both stayed. In fact, she was trying to coach

 him with his math but Antonio had other things on his mind. “She was teaching me and it was good for the first and se­cond nights but by the third night I was

 listening to her while my mind was somewhere else. She noticed and said, ‘You’re not listen. ing Why are you staring at me?’ And I said, ‘No, I am listening!’ To

 make a long story short we even­tually got married.” Finding a priest to perform the ceremony proved a little difficult, but An­tonio had yet another lucky twist of

 fate for the same priest who had performed the wedding ceremony for his parents, Eugenia and Sotero, years before, performed the ceremony for him.

His schooling not yet completed, Antonio returned to college and majored in International Languages with a minor in English at UST where he eventually obtain­ed

 his Masters degree. Once graduated, he then began his teaching career, something he still looks back on with great pride. “When I first began to teach, the first

 grade which I taught was ac­tually mixed, multiple grades two through six. It was hard at first but I really wanted to teach. Teaching was very fulfilling for rue. The

 first school I taught at was out in the province. The only way to get to school was by following tracks though the brush, and by crossing a river. While I didn’t like

 where the school was located, (because it kept me separated from my wife in Manila) nonetheless, I enjoyed working with the students.”

“1 cared very much about my pupils so I asked the administrators if I could visit their families and I was told, ‘yes.’ We had a program of visiting the student’s

 parents once before, but nobody ever used it. And that’s how I took up the practice of visiting homes of my pupils and talking with their parents.

 

This is an excerpts of an article writen by the history profesor in SanDiego.

 

Nestor  Palugod Enriquez, phix7@yahoo.com

 

\\please send me your comments