Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan (Xavier Ateneo) and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) are establishing a Historical Preservation Zone within the Downtown campus with eight school buildings with “exceptional and historical significance” that the NHCP will honor with a historical marker in 2033 when the university marks it centennial.
XU was established by the Jesuits in 1933 and is the first Ateneo school in the country to be granted “university status” (in 1958), making it also the first ever university in Mindanao.
As we celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Cagayan de Oro (then known as Cagayan de Misamis) on May 12, 2025, let’s look back at the history of three of these eight buildings which played a significant role in Cagayan’s history during the Second World War.
The construction of the (now called) Xavier, Campion, and Lucas Hall took place from 1935 to 1938. Each of these buildings plays a crucial role in the university’s operations and reflects the Jesuit values of education, service, and community.
Named in honor of Fr John Lucas, SJ, a Jesuit missionary who was instrumental in the early development of the university, Lucas Hall is one of the oldest buildings which originally contained all the classrooms and offices in the 1940s and the 1950s. The Lucas Hall was a small science building. However, since 1967, Lucas Hall has been used mainly for administration offices.
Named after St Edmund Campion, an English Jesuit martyr, Campion Hall is significant for its role in housing various academic and administrative functions. The hall is used for lectures, seminars, and other educational activities. Its naming pays homage to the Jesuit tradition of education and sacrifice.
Not the least, Xavier Hall typically serves as a central administrative building and is a key location for various university events and gatherings. It is named after St Francis Xavier, one of the co-founders of the Jesuit order and a significant figure in the Catholic missionary movement.
The campus was used as the Northern Mindanao headquarters of the Japanese troops after they entered Cagayan de Oro on May 9, 1942. Lucas Hall, Campion Hall, and Xavier Hall trace their origins before World War II, and following are some vignettes of the people and events which made them significant during the Japanese Invasion and Occupation, and the Liberation by Filipino Guerrillas on May 12, 1945.
Invasion (May 3-9, 1942)
Rev. Fr. James Edward Haggerty, SJ was the Rector of Ateneo de Cagayan in Cagayan de Oro when World War II broke out. He joined the Mindanao Guerillas and later became a key figure in the vast guerrilla movement in Mindanao which earned him the nom de guerre “Guerilla Padre”. He personally met with key figures of the conflict including Gen. Douglas MacArthur at Del Monte, and key leaders of the Mindanao Resistance, which eventually became the largest and best organized in the Philippines during World War II.
The Ateneo de Cagayan closed on December 9, 1941, and on May 1, 1942 Fr Haggarty “deposited all that could be saved (library, laboratory equipment, school records) from the school in the old mission center of Sumilao. (The library, consisting of some 15,00 volumes was transported to Sumilao by Lt. Jose Villanueva, an Ateneo student, and his men). Unfortunately, on October 21, 1944, “the house in Sumilao, where the library had been stored, collapsed due to heavy rains and the collection was destroyed.”
Occupation (May 10, 1942-September 8, 1944)
After the USAFFE Mindanao Force surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Army on May 10, 1942, Dr. Blas C. Velez MD was held as a prisoner-of-war at Camp Casisang, Malaybalay, Bukidnon, and later at the Japanese Imperial Army Headquarters in Ateneo de Cagayan, during which he was recruited as an Intelligence Agent by the 109th Infantry Division to which he furnished valuable information about the enemy’s movements, strength and disposition of troops, their supplies and defenses.
Beyond the Call of Duty
It takes a man with a generous portion of courage to deliberately surrender to the enemy to gain access to intelligence information from his headquarters, but that’s what Velez did when asked by his colleagues in the 109th Division.
“Soon after the surrender of the USAFFE Forces to the Japanese Imperial Army, Dr. Blas C. Velez was under our instructions, directed to surrender at the Japanese Imperial Army Headquarters at the Ateneo de Cagayan, where he became a prisoner of war from August 5, 1942 to September 8, 1944,” attested Maj. Angeles L. Limena in a post-war sworn affidavit.
Capt. Primitivo P. Quiem, the former assistant chief of staff (G-2) of the 109th Division, who was given the task of getting military information and organizing an intelligence network covering the 109th Division area of operations, and in particular, the Japanese Garrison at Cagayan, Misamis Oriental, attested in a post war affidavit he chose Dr. Velez as a member of the intelligence network inside Cagayan “because of his military training, his quality of observation, sharp memory and his reserved demeanor and fortitude in withstanding possible torture should he be caught spying by the enemy.”
“Dr. Blas Velez was able to give out vital information regarding the strength of the Japanese, the Japanese units that were under the command of the Ateneo Garrison; supply situation; patrol activities; types of weapons available; supply dumps; disposition of Japanese troops; morale and others,” Quiem attested.
Although scheduled for execution by the Japanese Kempeitai, he escaped from the Japanese Garrison at Ateneo de Cagayan on Sept. 9, 1944 during the USAAF bombing of Cagayan and volunteered at the Headquarters of the 109th Infantry Division under Col. James Grinstead (AUS) and assigned as Medical Officer of the 111th Regiment, on October 24, 1944, and later promoted to Regimental Surgeon.
Not all spies were so lucky. Before the war Cpl. Jesus “Jake” Ilogon was a part of the Hydraulics basketball team along with teammates Cox Banquerigo, Romeo Velez, and Ben Rosales who were neighbors at the Parque (Gaston Park.) Banquerigo was relaying valuable information to the guerrillas, but was betrayed by Rosaleswho was a member of Japanese sponsored Bureau of Constabulary (BC) and imprisoned at the Ateneo de Cagayan, where he was tortured and beheaded. He was only 16 years old.
Liberation (May 9-12, 1945)
The first recorded bombings of Cagayan by the returning US forces occurred on September 9-10, 1944. In his memoir Guerrilla Padre in Mindanao, Fr Haggerty describes his eyewitness accounts of the day’s events in a chapter titled “The Planes are Ours” (page 218-222)
“It began just as I was finishing Mass-this wonderful day. A roar of planes-many planes-swept over us just before the end of Mass. I turned around and told the congregation to take cover. I unvested and stepped down into a little creek which formed a tunnel. Strangely, I felt no fear this time, although from the number of planes and the nearness of the bombings I though the Japs were beginning a really systematic clean-up of guerrillas.
To my amazement my boys dashed breathlessly happy down the hill to our gully.
“Our planes! Our planes!” they shouted. “The Jap airfields are both on fire! The planes dived at the wharf of Cagayan! The town is on fire! Ships are exploding in the bay!”
He further describes seeing great black columns of smoke at the Lumbia Airfield then explosions at the Patag Airfield to the delight of everyone watching the spectacle.
The carrier based raiders returned two more times, and fourteen hours after the first attack, the sky above Cagayan is aglow and a heavy black pall hangs over the area for miles.
The American Guerrillas of Mindanao (AGOM) in its unpublished manuscript “History of the Mindanao Guerrillas” (a copy of which was provided to us by the late AGOM President Virginia Hansen Holmes), reported witnessing the flights of American planes coming over Col. Fertig’s new headquarters on the Agusan River Valley.
“On 9 Sept 1944, a large formation of planes flew directly over the encampment. Some arguments arose as to whether they were American or Jap planes. Some claimed having caught glimpses of stars on the wings. Others were pessimistic having been schooled for three years in seeing always a red ball on the planes.”
“But a couple of hours later, messages began pouring in from stations all over Mindanao. Friendly planes! One station reported the actual bombing practically play by play, of the town of Cagayan, capital of Misamis Oriental. From then on, American planes were continuously flying in large groups over the camp.”
From October 16, 1944 to May 10, 1944 Cagayan and its immediate areas were again attacked by no less than sixteen bombing missions by various elements of the Far East Air Force, SouthWest Pacific Area (FEAF, SoWesPac)
On October 21, 1944, seven B-24 Liberators from the US Army Air Forces’ 22nd and 43rd Bomb Groups destroyed the Ateneo de Cagayan, the Macabalan Wharf (Cagayan pier), St. Augustine Church and the Bishop’s House and Convent. Fr. Haggerty’s account of this air raid wasn’t as cherry and ebullient as his first one.
“The next day, October 21st, we saw for the first time flights of Liberators. Explosion after explosion came up the wind to us. As we trotted down the road to home other flights were circling overhead. Those Liberators wrecked the town of Cagayan and its wharves. When the day was over the old transit showed our college in ruins, the century-old cathedral gone, and the lovely house of the Bishop a heap of concrete.
I wrote simply in my diary: “One group of seven Liberators destroyed in fifteen minutes our material labor of fifteen years. What is now left to show we gave her the best years of our life, unless we look into the souls of our people.”
A mission report filed by elements of the 22nd Bomb Group to which the B-24s belonged said “On October 21st, the government school at Cagayan [sic], doing double duty on the north coast of Mindanao, was destroyed by a wing strike.”
The following day, October 22nd, another bombing run was conducted by 12 B-24 Liberators of the 43rd Bomb Group on Cagayan.
The mission report succinctly reported how “Due to extensive mechanical problems, only 12 of 18 planes sent by the 43rd made it to Cagayan, but they recorded an excellent bombing run, with seven administrative buildings destroyed in the attack. Among the target buildings was one with a red cross on the roof, which did not deter the bombing crews. One 64th Squadron airman recalled it blew up “like an oil explosion.”
Filipino Guerrillas Liberate Cagayan
In the History of Mindanao Guerrillas compiled by 10th Military District, Capt. Andres D. Bacal, a Kagay-anon from Carmen, and later alumnus of Ateneo de Cagayan, was cited in the battle report for his prominent role in the liberation of Cagayan.
Andres Daba Bacal was born in Cagayan, Misamis Oriental on 17 October 1917. He joined the guerrillas on 1 November 1942 and is registered with the roster of troops of “A” Co., 1st Battalion, 109th Infantry Regiment as of 30 Nov 1942, and was promoted to Captain, Infantry, effective 16 June 1944 by Lt. Col. Robert V. Bowler, “A” Corps commanding officer on 16 June 1944.
He served as battalion commander of the 1st Battalion, 109th Infantry Regiment, 109th Division from 10 November 1942 until the liberation. He led this unit in capturing Patag Airfield on May 9, 1945 and led the advance towards the west side of Cagayan road on 11May 1945 from highway to Patag.
On 12 May, Bacal again led the 1st Battalion in crossing the Cagayan River at the vicinity of the steel bridge (present day Ysalina Bridge at Carmen) which was earlier destroyed by retreating USAFEE forces in 1942. Simultaneously, and the 2nd Battalion also crossed the river at Julao-Julao (present day Consolacion, present day Maharlika Bridge), 3rd Battalion at the Japanese wooden bridge (linking Yacapin street to Lirio Street in Carmen).
By 9:30 AM the whole town was occupied by guerrilla forces and Bacal’s 1st Battalion with the Combat Co attached secured the area from Ateneo de Cagayan to Macasandig to the east bank of Cagayan River from possible Jap counterattacks. Mopping up operations were ordered and after the search, then Cagayan was declared clear from enemy occupants.
Bacal married Portia Abonitalla Chaves on 27 November 1943 in Tignapoloan in the midst of the Second World War, with whom he had five children. He retired from active duty on 17 October 1945, graduated with an AB degree in 1951, and later studied law also at Ateneo de Cagayan but did not pass the bar exam. He worked for the government afterwards in Manila until May 24, 1965 when he passed away at the relatively young age of 47.
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