DON MARCELINO, Davao Occidental (MindaNews/9 April) — Eighty seven-year old Precille “Precing” Delos Reyes Medillo still remembers hiding from the Japanese when the invaders came to within three kilometers from their home in Barangay Lais, Malita when war broke out in 1942.

She and her relatives, mostly teens and children, went up the nearby mountains to find shelter and hide under thick bamboo.

An aunt had brought them in, while her parents stayed in the farm downhill. 

Her relatives had made it so that the bamboo reeds, which she described as a huge branches that were thick enough to protect them from rain, felt like home. It was shade during the day, and did not get them wet during rainfall. They brought with them straw mats and survived the war in between hiding from invading Japanese and coming back home when it was safe. 

To survive the isolation, Precing said she and her cousins played house in the midst of the jungle. 

“Nag balay-balay mi (We played house),” Precing said. She and her cousins made do with life in hiding in the safety of makeshift bamboo reeds they built into what passed for home. 

Her mother Nicolasa, then pregnant with sister Leona, and her father Leocadio would just send them hot food every day.

Precing îs the eldest among 12 brothers and sisters.

When the war broke out, Precing was around four years old, having been born on July 8, 1938.

While initially hesitant to be interviewed, Precing remembers the moments fondly, as she remembers playing around albeit mostly in silence. 

“Dili mi magsaba, dili mi mag sindi og kalayo (We kept quiet, we did not start fires),” Precing told MindaNews at their home in Barrio Kinanga, Poblacion.

She added that the Japanese in the island could not find them, as the Japanese soldiers preferred roads over the thick brush. “Pero hadlok mi uy (But we were afraid),” she said. 

They could not even laugh out loud, and spoke in hushed tones in the mountains while above them flew planes and around the bay were explosions from battling ships. 

Precing said she never saw Japanese soldiers, not even American or Filipino ones, not once. 

The elderly survivor of the war said she remembers hearing airplanes and explosions from the waters off Davao Occidental, but said she had never seen any of the ships and aircraft. 

According to military and historical records, Davao Occidental was indeed a vital albeit underrated strategic area during World War II. 

As Japanese forces landed thousands of troops, Davao Occidental’s waters were considered important where some of the ships from both sides hid away from major theaters of battle such as other portions of the Davao Gulf. 

In 1944, the Allies blockaded portions of the gulf to choke Japanese forces who were trying to escape through various routes. 

In one fateful incident, the American submarine USS Bowfin sank the Japanese Shinkyo Maru II and the Bito Maru which were part of a convoy of Japanese vessels making its way along Davao Occidental.  

The American submarine wasn’t aware that the Shinkyo Maru II was carrying American prisoners of war.

Malita was then also a frequent target for air strikes, with historical references saying Malita was leveled by bombings from the Allies. 

Back then, the Japanese constructed air strips to cover the Davao Gulf. 

Some of the wrecks from the war have become major dive spots in Tubalan Cove in Malita. 

In the mountains, an intelligence network of Mindanao guerrillas provided the Allies with eyes and ears on Japanese troop movements. 

Back in her parents’ farms, Precing said her parents were still able to farm and were not harassed by either side. 

Precing grew up in Malita between trips to Argao, Cebu and back. Their family eventually settled in Malita. 

During the 2026 Araw ng Kagitingan, Precing said she and her family would be celebrating the holiday at a nearby spring resort in Barangay Lapuan, Don Marcelino. 

At 87, Presing said she never lost her hearing and her vision was only blurred within arm’s length. Otherwise, she said she was living healthy, only getting diagnosed with hypertension a few years ago. 

She said her family was not aware of the story of how her family hid from the Japanese during the war. (Yas D. Ocampo/MindaNews)