The Early Years

Vicente Podico Lim was born in the town of Calamba, Laguna, and was the third of Jose Ayala Lim-Yaoco and Antonia Podico's four children. His father was a full-blooded Chinese migrant who braided his hair in a queue. His mother, Antonia Podico, was a Chinese mestiza. Jose Lim died when Vicente was just nine years old, leaving his mother to raise him and his three siblings from the earnings of a small business. Vicente and the other Lim children, Joaquin, Olympia and Basilisa, like many offspring of Filipino-Chinese marriages, grew up identifying themselves with the Filipino rather than the Chinese community. Vicente completed grade school in Tanauan, Batangas.

In the period following the Philippine-American War, Vicente continued his studies at Liceo de Manila, and completed the teacher training program at the Philippine Normal School. He went on to become a teacher in a public school in Santa Cruz, Manila for a year. He decided to pursue further studies and returned to Philippine Normal. Vicente was an outstanding student, getting top marks in mathematics, as well as in other subjects. He was as good an athlete as he was a student. Impressed by his athletic skills and intelligence, a supervisory teacher encouraged Vicente to take the entrance examinations for the United States Military Academy. While Vicente only placed second in these exams issued by the Philippine Bureau of Civil Service, his 99% score in Mathematics won him the coveted scholarship. In 1910, Vicente became the first Filipino to the USMA.

U.S. Military Academy (1910-1914)

Vicente Lim's admission to the U.S. Military Academy was not without any hitches. Army records reflect his birth date as 5 April 1888. By the time Lim reported to West Point on 1 March 1910, he had already passed his 22nd birthday, which made him technically ineligible to enter the Academy. While Lim took the qualifying examinations in 1908, which would have made him eligible to report to the Academy in March 1909, it is likely that the process of shipping required documents back and forth across the Pacific simply took too long. It thus became necessary to "indulge in the time-honored practice of adopting a birth date more amenable to Academy regulations."

While Lim was the first Filipino to report to the Academy, he was not the first foreign cadet to attend the Academy. At that time however, foreign cadets were still an uncommon sight. When Lim arrived in the United States, he could hardly speak English. His skin was darker than that of his American classmates, who were largely ignorant about the Philippines and thought that the Philippine Islands were inhabited by savages. These factors (and perhaps the racial prejudices that were still prevalent during that period), earned Vicente the nickname “Cannibal.”

For the first Filipino cadets who entered West Point, there was little incentive to excel academically. Filipino products of the Academy were restricted to entering service with the Philippine Scouts (then exclusively organized as an infantry unit) after graduation, whereas the regular privilege for top-ranking graduates was a choice of career path (engineers, coast artillery, cavalry and infantry, in the order of usual preference). Nonetheless, Lim was eager to prove that he was just as competent as any of his classmates. "Cannibal" Lim strove to overcome his deficiencies (linguistic, or otherwise) -- and did so. He soon earned the respect of his classmates as he survived his military engineering subjects, and excelled in chemistry and mathematics. Vicente was also popular as he helped the class "goats" in their Spanish lessons, since Spanish was his second language. He also excelled in fencing, and earned a spot on the Academy's Broadsword Squad. For his skills on the firing range and proficiency in handling infantry weapons, he earned a badge as a Sharpshooter. The rigorous training at West Point ingrained into Vicente's very being the Academy motto of “Duty, Honor and Country.” This eventually became the dominating motivation in his life.

Vicente Lim was known to his classmates as a person who was very proud of his country and his people. He refused to tolerate any form of derogatory remarks against him and against Filipinos. As a prelude to his struggle for equal treatment of Filipinos in the Army later on in his career, Lim often responded to racial provocations in a personal, or even physical way. These incidents often got him into trouble at the Academy. It was something that continued right up until the days leading up to Lim's graduation. Manuel L. Quezon, then the Philippines' Resident Commissioner to the United States (he would later on become the president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines), visited West Point to attend Lim's graduation ceremonies. Upon Quezon's arrival, he was met by the underclass Filipino cadets there, whom Quezon went on to ask where Lim was. One of the cadets said that Lim was "walking the area" (a traditional form of punishment at West Point) because, "a professor said a derogatory remark concerning Asians and Lim defended us." To this, Quezon replied, "Lim is impetuous, but he certainly did the right thing."

After four years and having survived all the rigors of West Point, Vicente Lim graduated from the Academy on 12 June 1914, ranking 77th in a class of 107. Graduating was in itself an achievement, as the class of 1914 originally started out with 133 cadets. Lim was the only foreign cadet to graduate that year, in a class that originally included one cadet from Cuba and another from Ecuador.

Early Military Career

World War I

Upon graduation from the USMA, Lim was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Philippine Scouts. Prior to returning to the Philippines, the young Lieutenant was sent to Europe to observe and study the set-up of the armies there. At the outbreak of World War I, Lim was marooned in Berlin. To make his way back to the Philippines, Lim had to travel via the Trans-Siberian Railway, and had "quite an adventurous time making his way across Siberia." Lim eventually made it back to the Philippines, and was given his first assignment with a Scout garrison in Fort San Pedro, Iloilo in Western Visayas. Lim was later assigned to the island fortress of Corregidor.

In 1916, Lim began teaching at the Academy for Officers of the Philippine Constabulary in Baguio City (the Academy was later renamed the Philippine Constabulary Academy, and eventually evolved into the present-day Philippine Military Academy). Lim taught courses in Military Art, Military Law and Topography and also handled Equitation and Athletics. It was in Baguio that Vicente would meet and begin courting his future wife, Pilar Hidalgo, who was spending the summer at the Holy Family College. Pilar had gained distinction as one of the country’s first female mathematicians and was the first female Cum Laude graduate of the University of the Philippines. (Pilar would also become known as a prominent civic leader, and one of the staunchest advocates of women's suffrage. Pilar later on became a co-founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. She also became Centro Escolar University's third president after the death of Carmen de Luna and steered the university during the reconstruction and normalization of school operations after World War II.)

Vicente and Pilar met each other for a second time in April 1917, and their courtship continued. On the 6th of the same month, the U.S. ended its neutrality and declared its entry into World War I. The Militia Act (enacted 17 March 1917) called for the formation of 3 brigades for the mobilization of a Filipino division to prepare for combat in Europe. Ultimately, certain political considerations, as well as other numerous delays would push the physical mobilization of these Filipino units to October 1918. WWI ended a month later, without any of these troops being shipped out. However, the uncertainty brought about by the situation then, forced Lim to press for a quick engagement and an early wedding. A military wedding was held in Quiapo Church on 12 August 1917. Soon after the wedding, Lim and his bride departed for Jolo and later on, Zamboanga, where Lim was assigned.

Clashes and Controversies

As he did during his days at West Point, Lim never hesitated to make his displeasure known towards unfair treatment and discrimination against Filipino officers on the basis of race. As early as 1914, Lim complained to Manuel L. Quezon about the "insults and petty harassment he had suffered because of his color." In 1922, as a Captain stationed with the 45th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Scouts at Fort McKinley (now Fort Bonifacio), Lim refused an order to transfer to Corregidor "when it became apparent that the reason for the order was to free living quarters at the Fort for incoming American officers." The Commanding General of the Scout Brigade at McKinley, General Douglas MacArthur, reneged, and allowed Lim to remain at his post. It would not be the last time that Lim would clash with the army brass on similar issues.

The task of ensuring that Filipino officers were accorded equal treatment in terms of compensation, benefits, promotion and respect in the American Army, engaged Lim intellectually and emotionally. So passionate was Lim about this, that there is a story of him punishing a lower-ranking American serviceman who refused to salute him. To get his point across, (then) Major Lim ordered the American to face a hat stand where his Major's cap was hung, and to continuously salute the cap until ordered to stop.

While Lim was mostly vocal on issues related to discrimination in the Army, he was equally vocal on the importance of maintaining a certain standard among its officer corps. He did not shy away from giving critiques of his fellow officers in the Philippine Scouts (Americans included) who were "unfit" to serve. In 1927, Lim wrote Major John Sullivan, Assistant to the Bureau of Insular Affairs Chief, General Frank McIntyre: "I have many friends in the Scouts, but I can frankly state that as a whole they are the greatest handicap for the government... The great majority of them are even disgusted with their own selves." Lim was a staunch believer that the strength of any military organization was a function of the quality of its corps of officers. It was a cause he would continue to champion later on in his career, during the formation of the fledgling Philippine Army.

Additional Military Education

The passage of the National Defense Act of 1920 finally allowed Filipino officers to be assigned to various military schools in the U.S. for further military education. In 1926, Lim was assigned to the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, GA. It was at Fort Benning that Lim became classmates with Akira Nara, who would later command the Japanese 65th Brigade, one of the Japanese Army's invading units during the Battle of Bataan (Lieutenant General Nara became notorious for having ordered the slaughter of over 350 men of the 91st Division, Philippine Army). Upon completion of his training at Fort Benning, Lim was sent for further studies to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (USACGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, KS.

In 1928, Lim extended his stay in the U.S. and was subsequently assigned to the Army War College in Washington, DC. As part of the coursework, then-Major Lim wrote a thesis in April 1929 entitled, "The Philippine Islands - A Military Asset." The paper was praised by the Commandant of the War College, Major General Wm. D. Connor, as a "study of exceptional merit made at The Army War College." General Connor would go on to forward the document to the War Plans Division, War Department General Staff for reference, "being of interest to that Division." As it would turn out, the paper would accurately predict the conduct of the campaign Japan would eventually launch against Filipino and American forces in the Philippines in 1941-1942.

These advanced courses enhanced Lim's knowledge of military science and further honed his keen military mind. At the outbreak of World War II, this same education and training would prove invaluable, as Lim was the only Filipino at that time to have attended the USACGSC and the Army War College. This made him the only Filipino General technically qualified to command a division. In 1929, Lim returned to the Philippines and was appointed as Professor of Military Science and Tactics (PMS&T) at Colegio de San Juan de Letran and raised the standards of the training program there.

Retirement from the U.S. Army

After more than 350 years of foreign rule, and almost 40 years after the first declaration of Philippine independence at Kawit, Cavite, the Philippines took the penultimate step towards self-rule. On 15 November 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established. The first act of the Commonwealth Government, The National Defense Act or Commonwealth Act. No. 1 (enacted on 21 December 1935), laid out the country's National Defense Policy and established The Army of the Philippines, a force completely separate from that of the United States' military.

Lim’s education at the USMA, and his completion of command and general staff programs in the United States, made him a natural nominee to aid in the establishment of a national defense system for the Philippines. However, Lim was faced with a dilemma: stay on with the US Army as a Lieutenant Colonel and complete the required tenure for a full pension, or, join the fledgling Philippine Army, sacrifice his tenure and get less pay. Lim ultimately decided to do the latter, and on 30 June 1936, he retired from the U.S. Army. He joined the Philippine Army and was immediately given the rank of Brigadier General.

Death

In 1944, Lim was imprisoned by the Japanese and disappeared after being transferred to the old Bilibid Prison. In 1994, a former U.S. Army intelligence agent stationed in the Philippines at the outbreak of World War II, told the Lim family that General Lim, together with some 50 or so guerrillas, were brought over to the Chinese Cemetery where a long trench had been dug. They were all made to kneel down, and were subsequently beheaded. Their bodies were then thrown into the trench and covered. His body was never found.