Firstly, to Mrs. Lou Quesada, his daughters and all of Col Quesada's family, may I convey the deepest sympathies and condolences of the entire membership of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association (PMAAA).

Col Francisco Quesada was an associate member of PMA class 1944 and while in residence at the Bay Area, he was a part of the Northern California chapter, which I represent. When he moved to Nevada a couple of years ago, the chapter did not remove his name from the membership roster. He was such a highly respected and very much admired a member to be removed from the list. Indeed, while time and again he expressed pride in being an associate member, the PMAAA is prouder to claim him a member within our ranks. For our organization which touts the values of courage, integrity and loyalty, finds those virtues wonderfully embodied in Col Quesada.

We called him Ka Frank; the prefix 'Ka' is what we use to address each other, short for cavalier, or kasama (comrade) or kapatid (brother). For he was every bit a PMA cavalier, a brother officer, one whose courage was challenged, tested and validated countless of times in the battlefield; one whose integrity was as pure as when he faced certain death, he chose to utter the veritable truth, and one whose loyalty was enduring to the last breath, steadfastly defending the rights of his fellow veterans in the continuing struggle to gain equity.

My first encounter with Ka Frank was some 30 years ago and for the last 15 years I would meet him occasionally at veterans and community events. We communicated by email, and I would seek his advise and guidance concerning the veterans advocacy, his lifelong passion, and he was a wonderful resource of Philippine military history for his almost photographic memory of names and events during the World War.

In turn I received from him the attention of an older brother, almost fatherly, counseling me with such classic declaratives like ... "The truth will always win" “Fame is the perfume of a heroic deed" or "Men of culture are disciples of parity"
Sometimes he was my protector. For instance not too long ago, in an email exchange with another cavalier where I confided that my job with an NFL team might be in jeopardy because of my military position during the Marcos years, Ka Frank emailed "I can't help but butt in.

If there's any such dastardly comments or remarks regarding Irwin's active military service during martial law, they will meet equally forceful retort from me." This is so typical of Ka Frank. There is this strong and vigorous demeanor to defend what is "right over might, with no qualms, standing firm without relenting."

But what he is quite opposite to what you see of his external persona … humble, unpretentious, and often so quiet to a fault, no flash or cockiness in spite of his long accomplishments. Indeed, as a member of the greatest generation of the past century, that fabulous generation of men who fought World War II, Ka Frank was a giant among his peers.

He was an undaunted warrior, a prolific writer, a fearless debater, a non-compromising stickler to the mission at hand. He was as driven in the jungles of the Sierra Madre mountains of the Philippines as a famed member of the legendary Hunters-PMA-ROTC guerillas which swept the foothills of Japanese invaders, as he was energetic in the halls of the Philippine Senate and in the US Congress, formulating, administering and lobbying for benefits for his fellow veterans.

He was as brave as they come. Participating at the head point of the fiercest fighting in the liberation of Manila and in particular in a joint operation of the Hunters PMA-ROTC guerillas and the US 11^th Airborne division to liberate American POWs in Los Banos, Laguna, Ka Frank led the cell-to-cell search resulting in the triumphant release of 2146 American soldiers. This celebrated military victory was described by Gen Colin Powell as "a storybook operation for all ages and nations."

It is said that we are brave because we fear death or humiliation more, but what do we say of those who do not fear death? Ka Frank was held Prisoner of War by the Japanese Kempe Tai (military police) in Paete, Laguna in July 1943. Barely 19 years old, together with 2000 captives were they repeatedly tortured for 8 days and nights, and he was tied to a bench and at times was left hanging upside down from the ceiling. "Several attempts to drown me through the suffocating "water cure" and heavy blows broke my back, albeit, failed to get what the Japanese wanted me to confess." At one point a samurai sword was poised above his bent neck, his head ready to be decapitated, but like a broken record gave the same consistent negative replies to repeated questions seeking the whereabouts of the guerillas. He had vowed to die as a man rather than be a traitor against his comrades, and deny the cause of freedom. "Death would be my best friend rather than surviving as a stool pigeon." Fortunately, from that ordeal he was saved by a magnanimous Japanese Christian officer.

At war's end, Ka Frank took a new weapon, a mighty pen. And how he wrote with a passion! He could be as incisive as a surgeon with his cutting phrases: "Pretenders that beguile constituents and pocket public wealth are worthy only for the gallows." But his fundamentals were always clear "our mission is to tell the truth, and to make our Inang Bayan (motherland) be free, free from evil that stalks the nation."

By reading his article about his family tree, we can understand more of what Ka Frank was all about. He wrote of his ancestors "they simply would not stand to what is inane and obtuse; they strongly uphold what is correct." And in the same vein, he wrote and I suspect he was describing himself: "emphasize humility and simple pleasure in life with family and friends. Bereft of pretenses, very down-to-earth and abhor hypocrisy. Uneasy upon seeing intolerance, injustice and fraud."

With these strong and passionate traits, it was no wonder then that Ka Frank, and luckily it was Ka Frank, who would be at the spearhead of the Filipino veterans cause. He was one of the founders of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines, and at one point became the sole voice and representative of all war veterans and their compulsory heirs. Later, he extended his veterans’ advocacy as a consultant to the Office of Veterans Affairs in Washington D.C. And through all these years, yes very long years, we've known all too familiar now, how much a valiant advocate he was for veterans rights, passionately and resolutely fighting in the gargantuan struggle for fairness, justice and equality.

We mourn today, his loss, wondering whether this staunch voice of the Filipino American veterans has been silenced forever. We grieve because of the uncertainty of who would carry on the torch he held so high. We pray and wish that his warrior soul may live on in another leader's spirit.

But we find solace in the knowledge, despite the battle still raging, that this gallant warrior is finally at rest. He has heard his last reveille, and tonight, his final taps. And we need not ponder long how his life has been, for as he himself had written: "the true measure of a man's success is not on how many men serves him - but how many men he had served." Ka Frank served two countries honorably, and his fellow veterans, he gave them his entire life until his final breath.

Farewell, Ka Frank!
Irwin Ver

Note: Cav. Irwin Ver, PMA Class 1970, Colonel, AFP, (Ret.). By Pete Shane Feliciano