support the Japanese occupation was that the main resistance group, the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (People's Army against the Japanese), better known as the Huks, was a Communist movement. Besides for opposing the Japanese, the Huks promised land reform, by breaking up the haciendas, which caused the hacendados as a group to support the Japanese. The Manila chapter of the fascist Falange party had a membership of about 10, 000 people, including members of the most prominent hacendado families such as the Ayalas, Zobels, Elizaldes and Sorianos. By 1945, the Huks had over 70, 000 guerrillas in action, making them into easily the largest resistance group in the Philippines. The American historian Russell Buhite wrote: "Roxas was the Philippine equivalent of the fabled French statesman Charles Maurice de Tallyrand who was able to blend with the wind, able to work with authority wherever he found it". The American historian Richard Bernstein stated: "If Japan had won the war...the top man in the Philippines today would probably have been Manuel Roxas". Roxas was captured in April 1942 by Japanese invasion forces. He became chief advisor to the collaborationist government of José P. Laurel. During the Japanese occupation, Roxas was in charge of the rice procurement agency for the collaborationist government from 1943 onward, which helped Japan exploit its the Philippines by gathering up the rice harvests to feed the Japanese forces in Southeast Asia. The ruthless policies of confiscating rice harvests pushed many of the Filipino peasantry to the brink of starvation and made Roxas into one of the most hated men in the Philippines. Roxas served in the Laurel government until April 1945, when he surrendered to American forces at Baguio. After his capture, MacArthur announced that Roxas was really a resistance fighter. It appears that MacArthur was blackmailed by Roxas, who threatened to reveal the guaranty he accepted in 1942. This was especially the case as MacArthur had ambitions to run as the candidate of the Republican Party for the 1944 United States presidential election. MacArthur's political ambitions were an open secret at the time, because in early 1944, letters between MacArthur and Congressman Albert Miller were leaked to the press. In his letters to Miller, MacArthur expressed his loathing for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, and dropped broad hints that he would be willing to accept the Republican nomination for the presidential election to