Nieves Fernandez

Fernandez owned a wholesale business of her own until the Japanese conquered the country and seized whatever they wanted. Many men who disagreed with authorities were tortured and faced boiling-hot and ice-cold baths alternately; without any rest, food, and water, except from the soapsuds. This would go on until they give in.[4] Fernandez, who was a teacher, became more worried as her students were threatened to be taken away by the Japanese soldiers.[5] Many women also became vulnerable targets to sexual assaults. One of their biggest fears was to be forcibly used as comfort women by the Imperial Japanese army.[6] Eventually, Fernandez has had enough and decided to revolt against the government.[7]

Fernandez gathered native men and plotted how to fight against the reigning Japanese forces. She trained these men on combat skills, how to use knives, how to make shotguns from gas pipe that were also loaded with gunpowder and old nails, and how to make grenades. Sometimes, they were able to obtain Japanese weapons. She became the first and only female guerilla commander in the Philippines.[2]

Fernandez would wear a black dress and fight barefoot as she committed silent killings with a bolo knife. Under her command, at the South of Tacloban, 110 native men were able to kill more than 200 Japanese men. It took two years and a half of ambushes until the Japanese offered a bounty of 10,000 for her head.[3] She was never captured, but she was wounded once and had a bullet scar on her right forearm.[8]

Remedio Fallas, a former comfort woman, revealed in her book The Hidden Battle of Leyte: The Picture Diary of a Girl taken by the Japanese Military how the guerillas saved many young women that were being raped and about to be raped by the Japanese army. She vividly recounted how the guerillas wiped out Japanese troops on various villages.[9]

Fernadez was reportedly a skilled marksman and bolo fighter. Because it was accessible, she utilized the bolo knife even though it was primarily used for trail blazing and agricultural purpose such as clearing vegetation. Fernandez was the famous silent killer. The trick is to stab the carotid artery and internal jugular, leading to the brain and causing immediate unconsciousness. It is the spot behind/below the ear lobe. Once the blade is stabbed to about two inches, it must be thrusted and twisted upward in ninety degrees. If correctly performed, the victim might try to scream and gasp for air but it will not be possible. The only sound will be the victim's physical struggle, which was already taken care of if the assailant attacked from behind.[5]