BATO, LEYTE - HE DIED IN A FAR away land, another unsung Leyteño guerrilla hero of World War II.

Quintino G. Kuizon, 82, died in Perth, Australia, his adopted home, last Dec. 23. He died of heart failure while undergoing a knee operation.

Kuizon was a native of Bato, Leyte. While still 18 years old during the war, he was commissioned as second lieutenant by Col. Ruperto Kangleon, the famous guerrilla leader of Leyte.

He earned his rank after he had devised a bullet that helped replenish the dwindling supply of the guerrillas in their struggle against the Japanese invaders.

Tinoy, as Quintino was called, was the practical mechanic in the prominent Kuizon family of Bato.

The Kuizon family occasionally accommodated American and Filipino guerrilla officers in their evacuation house in the town's outskirt and also provided refuge to some prominent families from Cebu, including that of pre-war Senate President Mariano Cuenco.

When the family's rice and corn mill ran out of diesel during the war, the machine was kept running by fueling it with coconut oil. Though it operated at a low speed, Quintino also used it to charge the Willard battery for their hidden radio set with an improvised charger from their idled Buick car.

Quintino was also good at radios, and it was this knowledge and his practical mechanic skills that assured his significant contribution to the Allied war efforts.

In 1943, American and Filipino guerrillas in the Philippines needed to communicate with the Allied Headquarters under Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Australia. Kangleon assigned Quintino to this task under the supervision of American Maj. David Richardson, whose war exploits in Leyte was made into a movie.

The movie was based on Ira Wolfert's book, An American Guerrilla in the Philippines. Quintino's feat was mentioned in this book, but under a different first name.

Quintino was tasked with installing a transmitter that arrived in Leyte by submarine. But the transmitter was not accompanied by a generator.

Quintino and two helpers spent nearly two months to repair an old defective generator that was secured locally. They fabricated its piston rings without the proper materials and tools.

The transmitter, with its generator, was eventually installed in a remote and heavily forested mountaintop in Barrio Nahulid of Libagon town, which served as Richardson's base. Through this communication facility that Quintino operated and maintained, Kangleon was able to establish regular communications with MacArthur's headquarters in Australia.

Life in Bato and in other parts of southern Leyte during the war was described by engineer Porfirio G. Kuizon, Quintino's brother, in his wartime memoirs titled "The Good War in Leyte," which was published in the Bulletin of the American Historical Collection in 2004.

In 1945, after the liberation of Leyte, Quintino joined the Merchant Marines on the recommendation of Major Chick Parsons, another American guerrilla leader. The job enabled him to travel around the world several times. His first trip was to Australia, where he eventually migrated and settled.

Quintino married his girlfriend, Rosa, an evacuee from Davao, during the war. The union produced 12 children and 34 grandchildren.

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