Copyright Quisumbing Family 2007. All rights reserved.
In 1938, J. Paez, General Manager of the Manila Railroad Company, employed Emilio to conduct studies on the water pressure in the Agus River and Maria Cristina Falls as sources for hydroelectric power.78 He started his task by following the Agus River from its source, Lake Lanao, on foot and would stop in any designated spot by marking it with the use of a surveyor’s instrument. Then he resumed his work from that marked spot in the morning until he completed it from Maria Cristina Falls to the sea by clinging to the vines growing along the ravine.79
The purpose of these studies was to put up an electric railroad system from Cagayan de Oro (City) to Davao (City) by utilizing hydroelectric power generated from these sources. This railroad system did not materialize due to the objection of A.D. Williams, a Malacanang consultant. It is said that this objection was because this consultant had a brother connected with Caltex whose business would be affected with the establishment of this railway system, thus reducing the sale of its oil products.80
Emilio’s studies of these two sources for hydroelectric power in 1938 would later be instrumental in the construction of a hydroelectric plant in Iligan City. In short, the presence of this plant to generate this kind of power owes its existence to the studies of this Filipino hydraulic engineer.81 This particular fact is not known to the present generation, particularly the residents of this city, as noted by this writer in a published article written by a MSU-IIT faculty member.82
With the creation of the National Power Corporation (NPC) with capital investment of twenty million pesos, Emilio was considered a possible candidate as its first General Manager with a salary of seven thousand two hundred pesos per annum. This opportunity was not attractive to him since the General Manager of the National Shoe Corporation was receiving a higher salary of ten thousand pesos per annum. Eduardo, his younger brother, tried to convince him to accept the position with the assurance of getting President Manuel Quezon adjust his old salary. But he remained steadfast to his decision of rejection because of principle. He was happy to learn later that Marcial Kasilag, his 1903 co-pensionado and friend, accepted the position.83
Emilio and Maria had sent their children to school for their education. Three of them, Carlos, Emilio, Jr. and Manuel, were UP graduates with their respective bachelor degrees: BSCE ’34, BSME ’40 and BSA ’39.84 Pacita held a bachelor degree in Home Economics. Three of them were married: Carlos to Lourdes Reynes of Cebu, Pacita to Aniceto Flores of Cebu and Manuel to Gertrudis Fuentes of Cagayan de Oro. Alberto and Ricardo were young college students when the Second World War broke out.85
During The War Years
With Manila under Japanese control since January 1942, Eduardo, Emilio’s younger brother, convinced him and his wife Maria to leave their home at San Andres, Malate on account of a Japanese garrison near their residence and an anti-aircraft gun located in their yard. The couple then stayed with Eduardo in his house at Taylo Street, Pasay. Aside from Pacita, Carlos, his wife Lourdes and three small children (the author, Visitacion and Carlos, Jr.) later joined them in this house after being persuaded by their Tio Dando to do so.86
This war was both a painful and a tragic experience for Emilio’s family. His three sons (Emilio, Jr., Alberto and Ricardo) and a son-in-law (Aniceto) met their deaths in the hands of Japanese troops during their retreat from Manila. Emilio, Jr. and Ricardo were arrested by the Japanese Kempeitai (Military Police) on the suspicion of their involvement with the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East). Only the former’s dead body, dumped head first, was recovered from a dug-out near the house. Alberto was fatally shot in Bacon, Sorsogon by a Japanese sniper who was in turn killed by his fellow guerrillas. Aniceto and all patients of San Juan de Dios Hospital were massacred by Japanese soldiers at Fort Santiago.87 In another source, he was killed at this hospital which was bombed by the retreating Japanese Imperial Forces during the liberation of Manila.88 Both Ricardo and Aniceto’s corpses were never retrieved.89 Another version stated that Alberto and Aniceto’s remains were never recovered for proper burial.90 Emilio, Jr. and Alberto’s remains are now buried in the Municipal Cemetery at Boloc-Boloc, Mambajao, Camiguin, their mother’s home province.91
His Postwar Years in Camiguin
With peace restored throughout the country in 1945, Emilio worked with the Americans until 1946 (not 1948 as corrected by the author). In the latter year he and his wife left Manila for Camiguin for the settlement of the estates of Carlos and Filomena Corrales, his wife’s parents. There they stayed with Rosario and Soledad, his wife’s younger sisters who were both unmarried, at Casa Corrales in Maslog (now Sitio Lakas), Poblacion, Mambajao.92 The author’s parents and members of this family visited them during summer months. It was here that his grandmother started her shell collection to forget the pain of losing her three sons during the war. The author recalls that he and his siblings helped their grandma collect shells from the seashore near this house.93 His grandfather built an elevated cemented water tank to store water pumped from the deep well (not operational for than thirty years) between the years 1946 and 1947 (not 1948 and 1951 as noted above).94 Emilio and Maria left Mambajao for Cebu.95 The author believes that his grandfather had some lapses of memory when referring to the years when he and his wife left Manila for Camiguin and when they arrived in Cebu from Camiguin. What is definitely accurate was that they were in Cebu before the second semester, 1947-1948 as proven below.
His Final Years in Cebu City
In this city they temporarily stayed with Carlos, their eldest offspring, and family in their house at Mango Avenue (now General Arcadio Maxilom Avenue) for almost five years.96 In addition to his small pension from the U.S. Veterans Administration, his grandfather, a consultant for hydraulics, taught four hydraulic engineering subjects on parttime basis at Cebu Institute of Technology to earn additional income during the second semester, 1947-1948 according to an informant who was his student during that semester. This school was first located along F. Ramos Street and later moved to C. Padilla Street (presently at Natalio Bacalso Avenue). It is highly possible that he continued to teach in the same institution at C. Padilla Street for several semesters.97
This was the second time that he taught on this basis, the first at the University of Santo Tomas before the war. Here he drew the plans of a new house in another site while his son Carlos, a civil engineer, constructed it for him.98
After its completion, his grandparents moved to this new house. This house is best described by this writer as follows: two bedrooms (one each for the two occupants), a toilet-bathroom between the rooms, an attic (now converted to a bedroom with
