after the fall of bataan, ramsey and captain joseph barker made their way to central luzon and joined lieutenant colonel claude thorp, who had been given the task of organizing guerrilla resistance by macarthur. luzon was divided into four regions, and barker was given responsibility for the east central luzon guerrilla area (eclga), extending from manila to the lingayen gulf. after thorp was captured by the japanese in october 1942, barker took his place, putting ramsey in charge of the eclga. barker himself was eventually caught and executed by the japanese. the guerrilla force under ramsey's command grew to nearly 40,000. they fought using captured and hand-made weapons ("we made arms out of sawed-off pipes that we used as shotguns."), gathered intelligence and distributed propaganda.