20 Facts About Ruperto Kangleon

Ruperto Cadava Kangleon was a Filipino military officer and politician.

Ruperto Kangleon was a native of the municipality of Macrohon in the province now named Southern Leyte.

Ruperto Kangleon was a former Lieutenant Colonel and was the commanding officer of the 81st Infantry Regiment of the 81st Division, USAFFE on 1942 with its headquarters in Cebu.

Ruperto Kangleon relinquished his command of 81st Infantry Regiment to LCol.

Ruperto Kangleon was captured by the Japanese Imperial Army forces and was put to prison in the Japanese Internment Camps in Agusan.

Ruperto Kangleon managed to escape from prison in December 1942, and returned to Leyte, where he formed as a guerrilla movement.

Ruperto Kangleon then moved his headquarters from Maasin to Don Lorenzo's Casa in Malitbog.

On 1 Feb 1944, Ruperto Kangleon's forces went on the offensive, which included attacks on Japanese garrisons at Anahawan and Linoan, forcing the Japanese to not venture away from the coastal towns of southern Leyte.

Ruperto Kangleon led a number of guerrilla organizations, among the fiercest, with the greatest reach and had undertaken numerous operations against the Japanese Imperial Army in Visayas and sometimes in other islands.

Ruperto Kangleon's forces were known as the dreaded Black Army.

The Black Army was the main force of Ruperto Kangleon that led in the liberation of Leyte Island during the last phase of the war.

MacArthur personally pinned on Ruperto Kangleon the Distinguished Service Cross of the United States of America, a decoration awarded for extraordinary heroism in combat witnessed by Philippine President Sergio Osmena as well as commanders of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, at the Leyte provincial capitol building.

Ruperto Kangleon became Leyte's civil governor upon the re-establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth under President Osmena.

On May 28,1946, he was appointed Secretary of National Defense by President Manuel Roxas, the first of the Commonwealth and the Republic of the Philippines, in the same way that Ruperto Kangleon was the Defense Secretary during the closing American colonial rule and held the position upon the declaration of independence on July 4,1946.

Ruperto Kangleon was trying to ask President Quirino to remove the generals whom he considered deadwood to which the President disagreed.

Ruperto Kangleon ran for Senate even without the endorsement of the incumbent President Quirino.

Ruperto Kangleon became senator and was appointed chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans and Military Pensions and vice chairman of the Committee on National Defense and Security.

Ruperto Kangleon championed the cause of the Filipino veterans by filing bills and resolutions for their welfare and advancement.

Ruperto Kangleon succumbed to myocardial infarction on February 27,1958, exactly a month away from his 68th birthday.

Ruperto Kangleon was buried at the Manila South Cemetery on March 4,1958, and was reinterred in his hometown of Macrohon, Leyte on February 27,1994.