Iligan celebrates 76th "Araw ng Kagitingan" and Veterans week

Iligan City - This day, April 9, way back 31 years ago today, Iligan City Vice Mayor Jemar Vera Cruz was ordained to become a priest coincided the "Araw ng Kagitingan." He defined bravery or "kagitingan" to face the challenges in life and he accepted the challenge to priesthood. He appealed the coming Barangay elections especially those individuals who wanted to be elected to forget their personal interest and avoid vote buying and serve for the best interest of the people, especially the Iliganons.

Veteran Reynaldo Pardillo

The veterans group

Veteran Reynaldo Pardillo, President of the Iligan City Veterans District, Iligan City, said the celebration of "Araw ng Kagitingan" is not a celebration of the fall of Bataan but celebrating the Heroism of the Filipino soldiers in defending Bataan and the Filipino people. World war II was the most darkest war of mankind. There were three significant events of the celebration, the death march, the heroism in Bataan and the Battle of Corrigidor. The Military commander in Bataan decided to surrender to the Japanese imperial army because they can no longer capable to hold the ground. It was followed by the death march. There were 76,000 soldiers involved in the death march. There were 25 Filipino soldiers and 6,000 American soldiers died along the way walked as much as 140 kilometers from Bataan on its way to San Fernando, Pampanga up to Kapas, Tarlac. A total of 31,000 Filipino soldiers died after the march. . Prof. Geoffrey G. Salgado, a historian who was the invited guest speaker in his message said there were 16 million people killed during the world war I ranging from 1914 to 1918 and world war II occured from 1939 to 1945. World war II was the most devastating war in the human history. World war II was represented by the totalitarian allied powers of Hitler's Nazi of Germany, the fascist Mussolini of Italy and the empire of Japan, killing 15 million people in just 6 - year period. The bombing of Pearl harbor in Hawaii, USA was to open the gateway to global war and made the major cities of the world into rubble including Manila. As promise by President Roosevelt in 1941 promise to redeem the Filipino people from the empire of Japan but was not happen for four years. Gen. MacArthur only arrived in the Philippines in 1944 to fight against the Japanese imperial forces. The Filipino soldiers fought on guerrilla warfare from 1941 to 1944 because the US forces gave priority for the European first policy to sanitize Europe against the Nazis of Germany.

Iligan City Mayor Celso G. Regencia

Iligan City Mayor Celso Regencia in his message said define bravery in a negative attitude perception, brave to be dorrupt, drug dependent, laziness at work, among others. Reports reaching Malacanang that he raided the Maranao people in Bayanihan village in Barangay Sta. Elena during prayers which he vehemently denied. He said the police personnel only served warrant to drug suspects at Bayanihan village. The local government of Iligan will purchase machine guns caliber 7.62 for 6 units at 1.2 million pesos per unit to be used by the police forces of Iligan City. (By Jun Enriquez and Joana Eslit)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lEO1OySkcQ