Tender Guadelupe, Scarborough Shoal, Friday, 5 January 1945
Commander Oscar Lopez was truly thankful when the previous day the tug San Salvador and two work barges had hove into view, bringing workmen, equipment and supplies to begin constructing the bases of the pilings upon which a permanent station at Scarborough Shoals could be built. Today the work had begun, with the first low tide. Using curved sheet iron and compressed-air hammers the workmen strove to erect cofferdams around the first of the support points his own crews had mapped out. This might take days, given the short span of hours in which work could be done; but once the cofferdams were in place, and proof against the worst effects of the tide, more time would be available for the next stage.
Lopez had assigned as many of his own men as required to assist the civilian work crews, and others manned launches that ferried fresh water and food to them. The Guadelupe was, he reflected, the right vessel to perform station duties here; he merely hoped that here time on station could be shortened.
Naval Operating Base Cavite, Tuesday, 9 January 1945
Kapitein-luitenant ter Zee Eugène Lacomblé, Royal Netherlands Navy liaison officer, read the latest report of patrol activities from the Southern Sea Frontier. In one respect no news was good news; the campaign against the Abu Sabaya extremists had eliminated the threat of rebellion and piracy in Mindanao and the outer islands, and the continued patrols had salutary effect on ‘normal’ smuggling activities, which had shown a remarkable down-turn. The report was filled with statistics on vessels examined, amounts of contraband confiscated, the numbers of port calls in support of the civil power, and the progress of the Strategic Hamlets program.
The last item bothered him. The resettlement program being carried out by the Philippine Government was an internal matter, except, he thought, when the displaced persons took to their boats and sailed to Dutch territory, where they became refugees. This, in turn, raised the level of tension among the Muslim population in the East Indies. The number of such refugees, he knew, was still small, but growing. He made a mental note to pass his concerns along to the staff at the embassy and to minute his own superiors in Batavia.