War hero and son of Bulacan Alejo Santos’ legacy lives on
This year marks the 41st death anniversary of Gen. Alejo Santos, World War II hero, former national defense chief, and former representative and governor of Bulacan.
Born in 1911 in Bonga Menor, Bustos (then part of Baliwag) in Bulacan, Santos was a Bataan Death March escapee and founder of the Philippine Legion group of Bulacan guerrillas in 1942.
He died in Bustos on Feb. 18, 1984, around three years after running unsuccessfully against Ferdinand Marcos in the 1981 presidential election.
During World War II, he became the commander of the Bulacan Military District of the East Central Luzon Guerrilla Area, which that year also became known as the Bulacan Military Area. (BMA)
Composed of more or less 23,000 guerrilla fighters, the BMA was founded on the property of Santos in Bustos.
It was composed of 10 regiments: Batute, Biak na Bato, Buenavista, Del Pilar, Kakarong, Mariano Ponce, Mountain, Natividad, Republic, and Valenzuela.
The BMA did not only successfully fight the Japanese in Bulacan but assisted in the battles in Rizal, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, and Ifugao.
Heritage structures
During World War II, an adobe camalig (storehouse) on Santos’ property where the BMA was founded served as a clinic for wounded members. This camalig still exists today near the postwar two-story house Santos built. The latter replaced an earlier abode structure made of light materials.
For years, the house served as a museum of his collection of ethnographic materials and personal articles, including framed certificates. However, it is in a decrepit but restorable state today.
Outside the house are three World War II artillery and artillery shells, a stage dedicated to the BMA, and long concrete benches.
The benches were used by guests and visitors invited by Santos during social events he would organize.
While the camalig is relatively intact, the postwar house is badly damaged, needing conservation.
If fully restored, the house, together with the camalig and the property where these are located, could be declared by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) a national shrine in his honor.
In 2012, the NHCP installed a marker for BMA at the BMA Park in front of the Bustos Municipal Hall, and in 2022, another marker was installed by the same agency for Santos in the same area.
More than 10 years ago, the Dr. J.P. Rizal Memorial Foundation and Santos’ family built a museum in his honor at the aforementioned Bonga Menor property.
Memorabilia
Called the Gen. Alejo “Manong” Santos Shrine and Museum, it houses memorabilia belonging to the general as well as historic archival images of him attending to his various capacities as a government official. The artifacts inside the museum include his medals, pistols, the motorcycle he used, and 1981 presidential campaign posters.
Meanwhile, the BMA records previously stored at the Bulacan Provincial Library are now in the care of the Bulacan State University in Bustos, together with Santos’ bust donated by a former World War II veteran from Norzagaray town.
This is in preparation for a museum planned for the general inside the campus of the school.
Thus far and aside from this, the province has commemorated, honored, and celebrated Santos in a number of ways, including with sites named after him.
These include Camp Gen. Alejo Santos, the provincial police headquarters of Bulacan in Malolos, and the Alejo Santos Bridge linking Bustos and Baliwag.
In 1989, Republic Act 6808 renamed the Plaridel-Bustos-Angat-Norzagaray-Santa Maria Highway in Bulacan the General Alejo G. Santos Highway.
