Geurilla days in the Philippine South : 1942-1945 / Cesar P. Pobre, Ricardo T. Jose.

BEFORE this book there was never a complete and integrated historical narrative on the invasion of and the resistance movement in Mindanao and Sulu, or the Philippine South. Only brief, dis- jointed and piecemeal accounts had been made.

Guerrilla Days in the Philippine South 1942-1945 is the first comprehensive and thoroughly researched historical account with a Filipino perspective on the subject.

It relates how the ill-armed and ill-trained, small and motley military force that was constituted to oppose the Japanese invasion stubbornly held on until directed to surrender on orders from the then commander of all Fil-American Forces in the Philippines, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright in Corregidor.

It tells about the numerous guerrilla groups - their rise, growth and encounters with the enemy; heroic deeds and patriotic sacrifices; assistance in the conduct of civil affairs and livelihood concerns; and eventual consolidation in the 10th Military District, the one and only guerrilla organization in the whole region commanded by Col. Wendell Fertig.

It recounts why people of the Philippine South the Indigenous (Lumad), Islamized, and Christianized Filipinos from all walks of life, and of different ages ran to the hills as it were, and stood to be counted, come what may.

But more than all these, the book is a story of our past, our history, which we ought to know for the lessons it teaches and the uses it provides.

Lest we forget: ""knowledge of the past makes the present easier to appreciate and the future less difficult to visualize."