FORMER United States Armed Forces in the Philippines, Northern Luzon Chapter (USAFIP NL) WWII Veteran Robert Billasi, 89, was laid peacefully in his final resting place at the Philippine Veterans Cemetery at Buyagan, La Trinidad, Benguet, around noontime yesterday (Friday). He was accorded the traditional military honors with his loving wife Flora and their daughter Remedios Yoneyama who arrived in the country from Nagasaki, Japan, last Monday, at the forefront, together with the family's close relatives, friends and Manong Bert's comrads in arms.
Manong Bert was my adopted brother. He joined the Padilla family during the Japanese occupation. Flora said Manong Bert passed away last Monday morning at their residence in Puguis, La Trinidad, after a lingering illness for almost nine years. Happily, my first A, B and C knowledge about Igorot culture came from him. He taught me how to beat the gong, play the solibao and also dance the Benguet tayao. He taught me how to plant highland vegetables cabbage, Chinese pechay, beans (lubias and onions, among others). It is vivid in my mind, how every weekend, we would climb the mountainside of Benin, Pinsao Proper, to cut firewood from pine tree branches, dry them, roped them together, then finally off to the city public market to sell our goods. With our little earnings, we were able to buy candies and fruits to eat, and most specially buy our tickets to watch a boxing tournament. Both of us loved pro-boxing as a sport.
One day, after trapping birds at the Benin mountains, he told me to go home alone. He was talking with a group of men. He never told us anything about his plans to join the Filipino guerilla forces in the Cordilleras.
We only found this out when the joint Fil-Am military forces liberated the City of Baguio from the Japanese Imperial Forces, one day in April 1945.
He came home to see us in full battle gear with chocolate candies and chewing gum in his pockets. It was one of the happiest family reunion we had after the darkest hours in our life.
Remedios is going back to Japan by the end of this month. Her husband is an engineer by profession. They have at least four children, the eldest is a girl, now 14 years old, while the rest are all boys, ages 12, 10 and 6.
She said Cupid's arrow hit them while working in the working in the same office in Uncle Sam's country years back. "Remy," for short, is a teacher.
Proud to say that Manong Bert was a founding member of the Baguio Elderly Assembly (BEA), the executive program planner and implementer of the various religious, cultural, civic-social, fraternal and ports activities particularly during the annual Filipino Elderly Month celebration in the city held every October. The month-long celebration is more popularly known among Baguio's elderlies as Octoberfest Festival with the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) and the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) and the City Government as co-sponsors. He served in the BEA Executive Board from 2003 to 2009. He was with Executive Committee of the first Filipino-Japanese Friendship Day Celebration in held during the Centennial Year Celebration of Magandang Baguio. He was the recipient of the prestigious BEA Senior Citizens Luninary Award in the Field of Military Service in Year 2006. He was cited as one of the 12 Most Outstanding Senior Citizen awardees that time.
A Holy Mass in honor of Mang Bert will be held at the Shrine of the Brown Madonna along Km. 7, Asin Road, tomorrow, Sunday, set at 10 o'clock in the morning. It will be celebrated by Rev. Fr. Alejandro Bangilan, the holy Shrine's spiritual adviser. A candle lighting ceremony and a floral offering will be held before the mass, also dedicated to the late school Supt. Pedring Cagas, Caesar Lachica, U.B. Professor Mauricio Bajada and Lawyer-Mediaman Rometilio Pineda, a co-staffer at radio station DZWT 540 in the early 70s.