Today, the 7th of April, the Philippines is celebrating “Araw ng Kagitingan”, meaning “Day of Bravery”.  Erstwhile called “Bataan Day”, this was then always commemorated on the 9th of April, the day Bataan surrendered and the Philippines fell to the Japanese in the Second World War.  100,000 Filipinos and Americans endured hell on earth on the Bataan Death March - the greatest atrocity in the Pacific War headed by the Japanese in their crusade for regional domination. 

The soldiers were barely out of their teens and already they were being thrust into the bowels of hell.  Poorly trained in combat, they were pushed back into unfamiliar terrain, deep into the jungle, with weapons that proved ultimately useless as supplies went dry and resignation to defeat was overwhelming that morale was on its way to becoming moribund.  These Filipino and American prisoners of war were commandeered to march from Bataan to Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac – a grueling distance of 112 kilometers.  With their condition deprived of hope and sustenance, an indubitably endless line of sick and starving men still had to endure the brutal actions of their Japanese captors.  Physical abuse was the order of every day, with gruesome disembowelment and bayoneting done indiscriminately to captured soldiers.  Those who survived the first day were spared only to experience a more agonizing death on the second week; those whose comrades lost their lives midway through the march couldn’t figure out who were more fortunate: those alive or those who have been given freedom by the Japanese through death.

How many actually died during the march, nobody knows.  The exact death toll has been impossible to determine.  According to reports, only an estimated 54,000 of the 72,000 prisoners made it to Camp O’Donnell; whereas some historians say that about 10,000 Filipinos and 700 Americans lost their lives during the march.  The suffering and brutality did not end when camp was reached, however.  Tens of thousands of Filipinos and Americans were to die in Camp O’Donnell and other camps due to dysentery, malaria, beriberi, a meager diet and water supply, poor sanitation and other causes.

Have we as a people learned from those men’s sacrifices?  Sadly, no.  Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it, Santayana says, and I fear that we are in a Nietszchean loop of eternal recurrence.  There is no love for country – only love for self, money, power and glory.  Our forefathers who valiantly fought for this country against foreign invaders will surely turn in their graves if they could only see how Filipinos in leadership positions ransack their own country for their own greed, power and glory to the extent of compromising Philippine sovereignty – seizing opportunities to commit graft and corruption on a gigantic scale without batting an eyelash, shocking Filipinos and doing so at the expense of taxpayer money.  The tragedy is that it is now Filipinos do it against their own compatriots, a majority of whom scrape a living below the poverty line, all in the name of greed.

It is the same story in other parts of the world.  It is like being back in the Middle Ages when crusades were fought and again, for the same reasons – greed, power and glory.  When will we ever learn?

To my father, Isabelo Ponce de Leon del Rosario, and all the men and women who sacrificed, fought and gave up their lives in the name of freedom, I salute you.

To my Dad, thank you for the heritage – of honor, pride and courage.