Today, we commemorate the sacrifices and ultimate price paid by our Filipino soldiers along with their American counterparts who fought in the Defense of Luzon, Battle of Bataan and the Bataan Death March.
No amount of gratitude can be paid to these Heroes, who endured the most in the bloody battles of Luzon, Bataan and Corregidor, thereafter to suffer further in the Death March and imprisonment at Capas POW Camp (Camp O’Donnell).
We are redeemed by the sacrifices paid by these soldiers of Bataan and Corregidor that the freedom we enjoyed is brought by the Filipino soldiers who fought in the course of the struggles of our Nation.
It is therefore important that we value the sacrifices, character, dignity and courage of these Filipino soldiers of WWII.
Their defeat became our hope and inspiration to fight for victory and freedom.
In my town of Bamban (Tarlac), every day is Veterans Day, a Day of Valor and a “Paggunita” or remembrance for the Filipino Soldiers of WWII. Our WWII Museum is dedicated to the sacrifices if our veterans.
A small town south of Tarlac, Bamban has its share in the struggle of our Nation in WWII, our sons and daughters of this great town became soldiers who fought in Bataan and Corregidor, endured the Death March, incarcerated at Capas Camp, and became guerrillas who fought in the resistance against enemy occupation and fought again in the final days of Liberation!
Our Bambanense soldiers who fought in Bataan and Corregidor became members of the following units:
21st Division, Philippine Army
31st Division, Philippine Army
301st Field Artillery Regimen, Philippine Army
24th Field Artillery, Philippine Scouts
26th Cavalry, Philippine Scouts
91st Coast Artillery Corps
HQ, Philippine Army
88th Field Artillery, Philippine Scouts
Veterinary Det. Co., 12th Medical Regiment, Philippine Scouts
There were civilians from Bamban who worked as truck drivers, taken into Bataan battlefields and became Prisoners of War at Camp O’Donnell, their names were not yet written at the Capas National Shrine wall, where 30,000 Filipino Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor were incarcerated:
-Laureano Garcia
-Amado Miclat
These photographs taken at our War Museum shows how we value the sacrifices of the Filipino soldiers in WWII, to give inspiration to the Filipino youth, of patriotic values and legacy of our veterans.
Visit our Bamban WWII Museum and relive the memories and legacy of our WWII Filipino soldiers.
