PNPA PRESS RELEASE CONTROL NO. 2022-18
AUTHORITY: PBGEN ERIC E NOBLE, Director, PNPA
ACTION OFFICER: PLTCOL LOUIE DC GONZAGA, Chief, Public Information Office
DATE: September 28, 2022
Silang, Cavite— On Friday, September 23, 2022, it was the turn of PGEN Rodolfo S. Azurin, Jr., Chief of the Philippine National Police, to honor the bravery and heroism of the best men in the armed services. This time, together with the Director, PNPA, PBGEN Eric E Noble, he led everyone in honoring his predecessor “The Daring Hero of the First Philippine Republic,” Gen Mariano Numeriano Castañeda, after whom the home of the Philippine National Police Academy is named, with the blessing of the generous land donor, the late Gen Emilio F Aguinaldo.
Gen Castañeda graduated from the Philippine Military Academy on November 15, 1915, and from the Infantry School at Fort Benning in the United States in 1940. In the same year, he became an assistant to President Manuel Quezon and fought in the Battle of Bataan with the US Army Forces in the Far East. He made it through the Bataan Death March in 1942, and soon after, he started putting together groups to fight against the Imperial Japanese occupation, most notably the Fil-American Cavite Guerrilla Forces. In 1944, the Second Philippine Republic, which was run by the Japanese, made him Governor of Cavite. After seven months in office, the Japanese found out that he was part of a guerrilla group and tried to arrest him. He was able to get away from his would-be captors and join his comrades on the battlefield, where he planned the battle to free the province of Cavite with his FACGF officers and in coordination with the US 11th Airborne Division’s General Swing and Col. Jay Vanderpool.
On June 1, 1946, he was given the title of Provost Marshal General of the Philippine Army. After two years, he became Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. In 1947, the night before the plebiscite on Philippine Parity Rights, President Manuel Roxas spoke at a rally in Plaza Miranda. Julio Guillen, an angry barber, tried to kill him by throwing a grenade on the platform where the speaker was standing. The head of the Senate, José Avelino, saw the bomb and kicked it. Gen Castañeda then kicked it down a set of stairs while he put his body over the President. Near the crowd, the grenade went off, killing two people and hurting others. On April 26, 1950, Guillen was caught and put to death in the electric chair. The Medal of Valor was given to Gen Castañeda because of what he did that night.
The citation on his Medal of Valor reads as follow:
MGEN MARIANO N CASTAÑEDA O-1032 AFP
for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in the face of imminent danger at the risk of life to protect His Excellency, Manuel A Roxas, the first President of the Republic of the Philippines.
On the event of the Party Plebiscite on 10 March 1947, after the late President Roxas had delivered his forceful speech for its approval to about 25,000 people assembled in Plaza, Miranda, Quiapo and to the nation over the National Radio Network, an attempt to assassinate him was made by means of a hand grenade thrown at the President. The deadly missile landed on the speaker’s platform and rolled towards the center of the late President Roxas and other ranking government officials. In spite of the inevitable explosion and its lethal results, General Castañeda, then Chief of the Constabulary, in complete disregard of his personal safety, rushed from his seat behind the President’s chair to the lethal weapon which was about to explode, and with extraordinary coolness and presence of mind ordered the people to lie down and then kicked the death-dealing grenade down the steps of the platform where it exploded. His presence of mind and display of exemplary courage and bravery in the timely disposal of the lethal grenade saved the life of the First President of the Philippines and those of his family and other higher ranking officials of the Republic, who at that moment, were all with him on the platform..”
The Chief PNP later urged the PNPA cadets, “let us fully dedicate ourselves in the name of service to God, country, and our people like these heroes did; let us emulate the deeds of our Valors and exhibit the quality from its original Latin context ‘valorem’ which means “strength” and or “moral worth,” and as an afterthought, courage should never be left out.”