Philippine Liberty News [PLN]: "Baguio's First Refugees Arrive." Four truckloads reached Manila on Friday at 0600. Baguio is a "mass of ruins"; all ashes except for the Pines Hotel. The article named some families who made it, and some who didn't.

Most of these families were presumed to have evacuated the summer resort, as the Japs, with practically no water supply and [facing] an acute food shortage, were raiding houses for food and war materials. Hardwood was being used as bullets, primed with powder salvaged from shells.

Running into young Pepe Cuyugan and Paco Ossorio at Lepanto, I asked Pepe about his mine at Acoje.

— I'm going up there tomorrow to see what's left.

— "Did the Japs destroy it?" I asked, thinking: silly question — of course they did.

— "No ... but the looters did!" They got his belongings from the Angela Apartments too.

I got there on the 16th and everything was OK, but I needed a pass [to take things out], so before I left, I bolted the door shut. I got the pass on the 17th and went back on the 18th, and what do you know, there was nothing left but a table that was too big to steal.

Ossorio is Treasurer of The Philippine Trust Company, a local bank, and was at the Hospicio de San Jose when the Japanese kicked everyone out. Deciding that the Concordia was too far from work, he went to the north side. Two days after the fires there, he dashed through the still smoking ruins of Carriedo, Plaza Goiti and Echague to check the Bank's vaults. The Americans tried to stop him at Carriedo, but an officer intervened and drove him there. The area had already been partly looted.

"It's too bad," said the officer, "but we've got guards now and we'll take care of it." Indeed, there were 15 to 20 soldiers about.

"That's all right, this is the section I'm worried about. Please watch it," said Paco, pleased that his department was intact.

He returned two days later to find the bank in a bigger mess. Looters had cut the bars leading to the vault but probably had no time to open it. He hunted up an American Captain, noted his name, and secured a promise that there'd be no further looting. In front of Paco, the Captain ordered a soldier to guard the bank and not leave until a replacement was sent.

Two days later, "British-Indians" (Japanese-Indians during the occupation, get it?) informed him they had seen persons IN the bank. Once again Paco dashed over and found looters had moved some of the heavy business machines out from the mezzanine. The vault had been stripped of its nuts, screws and wheels in a vain attempt to open it. No Americans were around.