UP’s ‘century man,’ oldest WWII vet, dies at 107

THE COUNTRY’S oldest living World War II veteran, Fernando Perez Javier, died last Monday in Baguio City. He was 107.

The Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO), which announced Javier’s death, said the veteran will be given full military honors and burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, but his family has not indicated if it will accept the offer.

Javier’s remains were cremated in Baguio yesterday and his ashes were later brought to the Garden of the Divine Word Columbarium in Quezon City for interment.

Born on Dec. 22, 1907, in Ilocos Norte, Javier graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1933, and had the distinction of being UP’s oldest living alumnus. He was UP’s “Century Man” who lit the first of 100 torches during the celebration of the state university’s centennial celebrations in 2008.

Known as “Lolo Panding” to his PVAO family, especially the PVAO staff in Baguio City who would visit him almost every month, Javier used to recall that he was in Grade 1 when World War I ended and that he had not the slightest idea that he would be involved in World War II.

After obtaining his engineering license at 19, Javier worked as an assistant district engineer in Puerto Princesa where he helped build the roads in the Palawan capital.

Death march

When World War II broke out, Javier was conscripted as a third lieutenant of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) and was among those who were forced to surrender in Bataan on April 9, 1942, after three months of fierce fighting.

Along with thousands of his American and Filipino comrades, he was forced to join the infamous Death March in which thousands of suffering prisoners were marched up the Bataan peninsula from Mariveles, Bataan, to Capas, Tarlac.

He survived the ordeal and became a prisoner of war (POW) at Camp O’Donnell, a US Army base in Capas that the Japanese turned into a large concentration camp.

It was not until he reached Tarlac that Javier found out about the fate of his younger brother, Jose, a doctor, who also suffered the ordeal of the Death March and a POWas a young Army officer.

(In 2010, Jose’s family published an autobiographical book about him called “A Century’s Journey.” Jose, or Lolo Peping, turned 105 last February and, with the death of his older brother, now holds the record of being the oldest WWII veteran and oldest Thomasian (alumnus of the University of Sto. Tomas) at 105 years old. Jose lives with his wife in Quezon City. Most of the couple’s children are based abroad.)

After the war, Fernando Javier continued serving the country as a public engineer until his retirement.

He also worked as a project engineer in South Korea, and was later recruited by his sibling to work as a civil engineer for the US Air Force based Okinawa, Japan. He then got a job at the US-AID project in Afghanistan after which he was hired by the US Navy in Japan. Javier also served as an environmental engineer in Guamwhere hewas credited for undertaking a sanitary survey of Merizo, Guam.

Javier’s wife, Lourdes Paz, died in 1968. He is survived by his two biological children, Fernando Jr., a chemist, and Andrew, a former newscaster, both based in the US, and an adopted daughter, Lorna, who was his companion at his residence in Baguio City. Javier had seven grandchildren.

As of June this year, there are 37,533 surviving veterans—11,675 World War II veterans and 25,858 post-war veterans, or Armed Forces of the Philippines retirees.

World War II veterans receive a P5,000 old-age monthly pension and P1,700 total administrative disability pension (for veterans 70 and above) while post-war veterans receive only P5,000.

The PVAO also provides a burial flag and P20,000 burial assistance to a deceased veteran.