Ten surviving senior war veterans of World War II were recognized at the 78th Victory Day celebration on the Liberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras islands on Saturday, March 18.
Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) Iloilo officer-in-charge Glen Castañares, in an interview on Friday, March 17, said they are among the 25 living senior war veterans in Panay and Guimaras who fought to liberate the three islands side by side with the American Liberation Forces in 1945.
Those recognized were Paciente Tejada from Aklan; Mauro Loresto, Enrique Mendoza, Leon Requintina, and Pedro Relles, all from Antique; and Santiago Caguimbal, Leoncio Perfuma, Epifanio Denlota, and Dionisio Arabejo, all from Iloilo province; and Patricio Guevara from Iloilo City.
The others were recognized by the PVAO in previous commemoration activities and have already received their United States congressional medal award, he added.
PVAO data showed that there were 23,000 guerrilla forces during WWII who were members of the Free Panay Guerilla Forces.
Of the 25 that were left, aged from 90 to 104 years old, some are still healthy while others are bedridden.
“Sadly, soon enough, their number is slowly declining. So it is important to commemorate this, to immortalize their heroic deeds and they will not be forgotten,” Castañares said.
He added that the commemoration of Victory Day is significant not only for its sentimental value for senior war veterans but also for its historical value.
The official said that Gen. Douglas McArthur MacArthur would have had difficulty liberating the country if not for the successful Panay landing in 1945.
“Part of their strategy to liberate the Philippines was to free Panay and the Visayan waters because from Leyte they had to pass through the Visayas going to Luzon,” Castañares said.
The commemoration is with the conduct of a free medical mission for 350 PVAO pensioners and members of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines from the first district of Iloilo in partnership with the Veterans Memorial Medical Center at Iloilo province’s Tigbauan town.
He explained that it was on the shorelines of Tigbauan’s Barangay Parara that the American Liberation Forces landed 78 years ago today to free the three islands from the Japanese Imperial Forces.
Tigbauan also has the most active PVAO pensioners with 226.
Castañares added that the commemoration does not only honor senior World War veterans or those who fought during WWII, but also the post-war veterans, including retirees from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Constabulary before they were integrated into the Philippine National Police, provided they rendered a minimum of six years in the military.
Saturday’s commemoration started with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Balantang Cemetery National Shrine in Jaro District’s Barangay Quintin Salas.
Proclamation number 430 signed by former President Corazon Aquino on July 21, 1989, declared March 18 of every year as a non-working special day in Panay and Romblon to give way to the commemoration. (PNA)