Pascual Perseveranda, Baptized in Ligao in 1923: My Lolo's Brother, Taken in 1945
Pascual Perseveranda, Baptized in Ligao in 1923: My Lolo's Brother, Taken in 1945
A 1923 baptismal record gives Pascual's birth date, and with it his age in 1945, the year my family says Japanese soldiers took him from the house in Santa Cruz.
My dad, Ronaldo, has told me the story of his uncle Pascual a few times. In 1945, with World War II close to its end, Japanese soldiers came to the family's house in Santa Cruz, Manila, and took Pascual away. The family never saw him again. Dad heard it from his lola, Valeriana Presenta, whom the family called Lola Inay.
What Dad never had was Pascual's age. He guessed twenty, or the early twenties. A Ligao baptismal record now answers it. Pascual was born on May 14, 1923, the second-youngest of the brothers of Lolo Marciano Perseveranda. Only Lolo Ricardo came after him. I'm writing this for Dad and for every one of Lolo Marciano and Lola Rosita's children, because Pascual was your uncle. I'm also writing it for the next search, so the dates, the spellings and the open questions sit in one place.
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Siblings, three or more brothers and sisters. Marciano, Emiliano and Pascual were magkakapatid. The word has no room for the years between them, which here run from 1909 to 1923.
What My Dad Remembers
This is the family's account, and I'm giving it the way it came to me. Lola Inay told my dad that Japanese soldiers picked Pascual up from their house in Santa Cruz in 1945, as the war was nearing its close. Dad understood that Pascual had been a guerrilla, or had been fighting alongside the Americans, and that his name must have turned up on a list. After that day, nobody in the family saw him again.
That is the whole story, and it is all family memory. I haven't found a roster, an arrest record or any paper that names Pascual in 1945. Dad's version gives the year but not the month, and it doesn't say who compiled the list. The only document I hold is the one that begins his life.
The Record
The entry is the third and last on the left-hand page, page 220, in the Ligao register for June 1923. Here is the core of it, in the Spanish of the page, as I read it:
"…bauticé solemnemente y puse los Santos Óleos y Crisma a un niño que nació el día 14 de Mayo de 1923, á quien se le ha puesto por nombre Pascual Perseveranda, hijo legítimo y de legítimo matrimonio de Juan y de Valeriana Presenta, del barrio de Bagumbayan, pueblo de Ligao. Fué su padrino Severino Valencia…"
In plain English: the priest baptized a baby boy, born on May 14, 1923, and gave him the name Pascual Perseveranda. He was the legitimate son of Juan and Valeriana Presenta, of Barrio Bagumbayan in the town of Ligao. His godfather was Severino Valencia, and no godmother is listed. The margin carries the date, June 23, and the surname.
| Detail | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Name | Pascual Perseveranda |
| Born | 5/14/1923 |
| Baptized | 6/23/1923, at 40 days old |
| Parents | Juan Perseveranda and Valeriana Presenta, married |
| Barrio | Bagumbayan, town of Ligao, Albay |
| Godfather | Severino Valencia. No godmother is listed. |
| Register | Ligao baptismal register, page 220 |
| Signed by | Enrique Palana, signing as parish priest (the signature is hard to read) |
How Old Was Pascual in 1945?
This is the question Dad could not answer, and the record settles it to within a few months. Born on May 14, 1923, Pascual turned 22 on May 14, 1945.
| If he was taken | His age |
|---|---|
| Before 5/14/1945 | 21 |
| On or after 5/14/1945 | 22 |
Either way, Dad's guess of twenty or the early twenties sits right on top of it. He was a young man, about to turn 22 or just past it, when he was taken.
What the Record Cannot Tell Us
A baptism says nothing about 1945. For that year I can only offer the setting, and I'm separating what the record shows from what history shows from what I believe.
Here is the short history, for the younger generation:
- From 2/3/1945 to 3/3/1945, American and Filipino forces fought Japanese troops for control of Manila.
- At least 100,000 Filipino civilians died in that month, from massacres by Japanese troops and from the fighting itself.
- Even before the battle began, Japanese forces were killing Manila residents they suspected of being guerrillas, and Japanese reports of the period sometimes counted civilians simply as guerrillas.
- Each February, people gather at the Memorare Manila 1945 monument in Intramuros to remember the civilian victims.
Santa Cruz, where Lola Inay's family lived, is a district of Manila. Dad's story doesn't give a month, so I can't say when Pascual was taken. Here is my guess, and it is only a guess: that he was one of the men taken before the battle began, in the weeks when suspected guerrillas were already being seized. If so, he was taken before 2/3/1945, and he was 21.
The pattern of the time matches what the family remembers: Japanese troops treating Filipinos they suspected of backing the guerrillas and the Americans as enemies while those forces closed in. From that pattern, I believe Pascual shared the fate of the other men taken that way. I hold that as my inference, not a finding. No record I have found says so, and none says otherwise.
Lolo Ricardo, the Youngest Brother
The youngest of Lolo Marciano's brothers was Ricardo, and I knew him. I met Lolo Ricardo, his wife and their adopted daughter. He had been to our house in Marikina. In 1974 my family traveled to Ligao for Lola Inay's funeral, and we stayed overnight at his house (in Lucena?) on the way home to Marikina. It was the last time I was in Ligao.
Dad has told me that Ricardo joined the Philippine Scouts, influenced by what happened to his older brother Pascual. The Scouts were Filipino soldiers serving in the U.S. Army, a force that dated to 1901 and was wound down in the late 1940s. I haven't found a record of Lolo Ricardo yet. His baptism and any Scouts service record are next.
Where Pascual Fits in Lolo Marciano's Family
Pascual's parents, Juan and Valeriana Presenta, are the same two people named as parents on Lolo Marciano's 1909 baptismal record. That makes Pascual Lolo Marciano's brother. He was born 14 years after Marciano and 11 years after Emiliano.
| Child of Juan and Valeriana | Born | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Marciano | 1/2/1909 | Ligao, Albay |
| Emiliano | 2/17/1912 | Ligao, Albay |
| Juana Virginia | 2/7/1915 | Ligao, Albay |
| Pascual | 5/14/1923 | Ligao, Albay |
| Ricardo | Not yet found | Not yet found |
The table adds a sister. FamilySearch indexes Juana Virginia Perseveranda, born 2/7/1915 and christened in Ligao that year, to the same two parents, and lists Francisca Perseveranda, Mariano Presenta and Andrea Rolda as her grandparents. That fits the family lines I've been tracing. I'll give Juana her own article. Ricardo came after Pascual, and there may be other children in the gaps, so I'm still looking. In 1923 the family lived in Barrio Bagumbayan, in Ligao. By 1945, as Dad tells it, they were in Santa Cruz, Manila.
One more thing is worth noting. An 1865 Ligao baptism I haven't written up yet names a Pascual Perseveranda as a grandparent, and FamilySearch connects that family to Juan's mother, Francisca. If that connection holds, Pascual was named for an ancestor four generations back. That is a working theory, not a finding, and I'll check it before I rely on it.
How to Find Him Again
The next searches are for Juan Perseveranda's own baptism and death records, Valeriana Presenta's baptism, any other child of Juan and Valeriana, and anything on Pascual after 1923: a school, church or guerrilla roll, or a missing-person or war-claim file. These spellings are for whoever searches his name in 2070.
| The page says | It may be read or indexed as |
|---|---|
| Perseveranda | Pererverana, Pereveranda (slips seen on other records in this family) |
| Presenta | Presuelta (an AI transcription misread it that way; the page reads Presenta) |
| Bagumbayan | The page spelling, in the priest's hand |
| Palana | The priest's signature is hard to read, so treat this surname as provisional |
For Lolo Marciano and Lola Rosita's Children
To my dad, Ronaldo, my Tita Gigi (Diana), the late Tito Ed (Eduardo), my Tito Sonny (Marciano Jr.), Tita Nene (Grace), Tito Maning (Manuel), Tito Nelson and Tita Lila (Luz): Pascual was your uncle, and so was Lolo Ricardo, the youngest of your father's brothers. Juana was your aunt. Tita Gigi, Dad and Tito Ed were small children when the war ended. Tito Sonny, Tita Nene, Tito Maning, Tito Nelson and Tita Lila were all born after it, so for you Pascual has only ever been a story. Now he also has a birth date, a baptism and a barrio.
| Person | To Lolo Marciano | To Lolo Marciano's children |
|---|---|---|
| Pascual Perseveranda | Brother | Uncle |
| Ricardo Perseveranda | Brother | Uncle |
| Juana Virginia Perseveranda | Sister | Aunt |
| Juan Perseveranda and Valeriana Presenta (Lola Inay) | Parents | Grandparents |
To Veronica, JianCarlo and Francesca: Pascual and Ricardo were your great-granduncles, Juana was your great-grandaunt, and Lola Inay, who carried his story, was your great-great-grandmother. When you tell it, tell it as it came to us: a family memory, now with a date.
- FamilySearch: Ligao, Albay, Baptism Records 1922–1924, entry for Pascual Perseveranda, 6/23/1923
- Battle of Manila (1945), overview of the battle and its dates
- Manila massacre, civilian deaths in the Battle of Manila
- Vera Files: Commemorating the Battle for the Liberation of Manila
- FamilySearch: Catholic Church records, Ligao, Albay, christening index entry for Juana Virginia Perseveranda, 1915
- HistoryNet: The U.S. Army's Philippine Scouts, 1901-48
- Army Heritage Center Foundation: the Philippine Scouts
- PinoyBuilt: Lolo Marciano Perseveranda's 1909 baptismal record, Ligao
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J.F.R. Perseveranda
J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.
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