Cebu’s Little Bataan
(Part 2)
World War II showed Cebuano bravery through numerous battles. One of these happened in a place the locals call “Little Bataan.” This was how it got its name according to Colonel Manuel F. Segura, the Cebuano war hero and adjutant of the legendary Colonel James Cushing of the Cebu Area Command.
In his book, “Tabunan” (copy available at the Casa Gorordo Museum of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., publisher of its 2018 edition), Segura vividly illustrates the event:
“Lieutenant Mabini carefully placed his men in positions where they covered the whole area occupied by the unsuspecting enemy whose backs presented tempting targets to the patriots. Then they opened fire. This luckless Japanese unit, caught between two fires, was wiped out to the last man-some 160 soldiers.
“When the action was over, Lieutenant Mabini, looking over towards Junior Corregidor where his jubilant compatriots were waving their arms and weapons in victory, thought that a proper name should be given to the ridge they were occupying, Thinking of battlegrounds, he thought of Bataan and the brave Filipinos who had made it a name known throughout the world. He then decided to name the ridge Little Bataan. The name stuck and throughout the days of the resistance-even to this day- it has been called Little Bataan.”
Lieutenant Severo Mabini (who married Conchita Tirol), the hero of that battle, is a descendant of Hipolito Mabini, a revolutionary in the Cebuano uprising against Spain in 1898. This is according to Evangeline Lavilles-De Paula (daughter of Gervasio L. Lavilles, the “Brains of the Cebu City Charter”) in her book “Cebu City Barangays in Legend and in History.” The barangay in the Cebu City North District is said to be named after Hipolito Mabini.
Lieutenant Mabini was the catalyst in organizing the resistance movement of Cebu which established it’s headquarters in Tabunan, Cebu City. He was part of the attack on Taptap, Cebu City, on June 6, 1943 and with him were Captain Pedro Mumar and Lieutenant Nable Baguio. The guerillas killed 180 Japanese soldiers out of the 300-strong enemy force. Two Japanese officers were killed while one guerilla was wounded. Mabini was also part of the Battle of Kan-Irag, Cebu City on January 1944 led by Lieutenant Colonel Espiritu aided by Mabini’s fellow lieutenants Borden, Baguio, and Cabajar.
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