All Manila is talking about this morning's assassination of Alejandro Roces Jr. — a brusque and rather shortsighted, middle aged, anti-American captain in the Constabulary. It's said he advised the Japanese against releasing Filipino POWs, had 3 policemen investigated and another 17 ousted from the force.

Roces Jr. leaves his house at 0800 every morning, driving to work with his sister in his little Fiat. If his wife goes out, she usually leaves later by dokar. Today of all days, his sister was visiting a sick uncle, so his wife and adopted child joined him for the ride. At the time, old-man Roces Sr. was pottering away in his well-loved garden, virtually a prisoner in his own home as his doctor advised him — prophetically as it turned out — that the next big shock would be his last.

As the car swung into the street, a man walking with a bicycle took out a pistol and fired into the driver's side, killing Alejandro and injuring his wife. Perhaps to avoid being identified, he finished off the wife too. The child was unscathed though a bullet smashed the toy he was playing with.

Roces Sr. ran out when he heard the shots. Aged and infirm as he was, he pushed the Fiat back into the driveway and called out to a relative: "Andong is dead!" Then he collapsed and never regained consciousness.

Alejandro Roces Sr., for all his beliefs, was a grand old man, a philanthropist and a gentleman. After the robbery of the nearby Perez-Rubio house, he mentioned that he wasn't afraid of robbery or assassination because he had no enemies. He wasn't thinking about his son though, and he had forgotten too that he had turned his entire TVT plant and a million pesos worth of paper over to the Japanese. Told to put his machines out of action early in the war, he refused. He actually jumped into his Cadillac and drove to Pasay to welcome the Japanese when they entered Manila. They obligingly commandeered his car and left him to make his own way back.

Police are actively searching people on every important intersection and road leading out of the city. The Japanese have initiated a campaign to check all guests in hotels and small rest houses. The efforts of the policemen are half-hearted — their task virtually impossible. This afternoon, they stopped the bus I was on with about 70 passengers crammed inside like sardines, and just walked around while some passengers cracked jokes.

Manila knows that prominent collaborators like Aquino, Duran and Guinto are shivering in their boots. According to ex-Judge Cabrera, even Madrigal has ten men guarding his house and is scared stiff. Manila also knows that this is only the beginning; as the Americans get nearer and Japan's defeat becomes more certain, it will get worse.

...ooOoo...

A source said Aquino was really shot in the provinces, as rumored. He said Aquino was shot in the arm while he was cleaning his gun. I'm still looking for confirmation. Today's Tribune mentioned the Tee-Han-Kee murder for the first time: "Tee-Han-Kee Slayers Caught" — one Severino Go and two others.