Luis T. centina Jr.
"The advent of the Second World War in the Pacific shatters a young man's dream. As the drums of war grow louder, he finds love within the vortex of horror and deprivation unleashed upon the Philippine archipelago by the invading Japanese Imperial Army. A personal recollection of the Second
World War by a guerrilla leader
fighting under the U.S. flag."
Luis T. Centina Jr. was born on August 21, 1921 in Passi, Iloilo in the Philippines. His memoir, Almost on the Carpet, is based on his experiences as a guerrilla fighter against the Japanese invading forces in the Philippines during World War II.
For thirty-four years, he served with distinction as a school educator for the Department of Education in the Philippines. When war broke out in the Pacific in 1941, he answered the call to defend liberty and was inducted into the United States Army Forces Far East.
After the war ended in 1945, he stayed in the Army as an investigator of the War Crimes Commission that sent collaborators and war criminals to prison. From 1972 up to his retirement in 1982, he worked as Chief Division Statistician in the Division of La Carlota City Schools after toiling as a grade schoolteacher for twenty-four years.
In 1978, he was elected to the board of the Negros Occidental Teachers Federation, where he fought for more benefits for his fellow teachers until 1983.
Before becoming a teacher in 1948, he was employed as assistant deputy provincial assessor of the province of Iloilo. But after enrolling for a teacher's certificate, his career in education was set. He died on July 18, 2015 in Belleville, New Jersey.
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