THE SACRIFICE OF LOVE
(A Poem Honoring Filipino US CGM Awardees)
by: RAFAEL E. EVANGELISTA
December 9, 2019
We salute our vets,
We salute our flag,
As we now remember ...
For love, some sacrificed some...
And others sacrificed all!
Prayers from our hearts,
Blossoms on the ground,
White crosses that remind ...
Many sacrificed some...
And many sacrificed all!
Our country ‘tis to thee,
Our land of liberty,
That to our fathers gave ...
Some sacrificing some...
Some sacrificing all!
We now stand proud and tall
By warmth of freedom blessed,
Because they marched before...
In pitched battle risking some...
In throes of death giving all!
If today, the air around is free
And the skies above are clear,
Remember there were those...
Who for love gave some...
While others gave their all!
Straighten wayward crosses,
Plant flowers on their graves,
Say a prayer for them who were
Wounded, died... or forgotten...
Who gave some... or maybe all!
Do not let their pictures fade,
In our hearts, or minds, or homes.
Tell the children of the heroes...
Who risked their lives for them...
Sacrificing blood... or life for all!
Sama-sama nating alalahanin ang kagitingan at kabayanihan ng ating mga beterano sa ika-79 na Araw ng Kagitingan at 2021 Philippine Veterans Week mula ika-5 hanggang 11 ng Abril 2021.
Ang isang linggong paggunita, na may temang "Kagitingan ay Gawing Gabay, Pandemya ay Mapagtatagumpayan", ay nagpapaalala sa ating na gaya ng ating mga beterano na lumaban ng buong puso at tapang noong panahon ng gyera, tayo rin ay magtatagumpay laban sa kinakaharap nating pandemya.
Ang iba't ibang programang inihanda ay gaganaping birtual upang masigurado ang kaligtasan ng lahat mula sa pandemya, lalo na ang ating mga beterano. Ang mga sumusunod na paggunita ay mapapanuod sa opisyal na Facebook account ng Philippine Veterans Affairs Office:
Sunrise Wreath-Laying Ceremony
5 Abril 2021, 8:00 AM
Tribute to Filipino Heroes
7 Abril 2021, 9:00 AM
Araw ng Kagitingan
9 Abril 2021, 8:00 AM
Paggunita sa Capas
10 Abril 2021, 9:00 AM
Sunset Ceremony
11 Abril 2021, 5:00 PM
The program is in PVAO's official Facebook Account:
www.facebook.com/PVAO1/
#Kagitingan2021
REFLECTIONS
My take on the US CGM
by: RAFAEL E. EVANGELISTA
Immediate Past National Commander of the Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor, Inc.
(This article was written on the occasion of the awarding of the US CGM to
Filipino veterans of WW II on 26 November 2019)
On November 26, 2019, a number of Filipino warriors, or their families, received their copies of the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given out by the Government of the United States. My father, Dr Rafael L Evangelista, was one of them.
My father was a member of the United States Armed Forces of the Far East (USAFFE). He, as a doctor, served in the medical corps of the Army. He served with the USAFFE in Bataan and Corregidor during the early part of the War. After the Fall of Bataan, my father was imprisoned at the Old Bilibid Prison in Manila. Upon his release, my father joined his family, including me, in Baguio City. Surreptitiously he continued to treat the Resistance of Filipinos and Americans in the surrounding mountain sides. He was captured by the Japanese and tortured within an inch of his life for his guerrilla activities, but survived the War.
My father, like many Filipinos veterans, never received in the past the recognition he deserved as a war hero who fought for the cause of freedom, except for the US Prisoner of War Medal. He has just recently been awarded, along with other USAFFE veterans. the US Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award that can be awarded by US Congress.The first awardee of this medal was President George Washington himself.
The US Congressional Gold Medal is an attempt of America at rectification of history and the injustice committed to the Filipino veteran. The front side of the medal talks of “Filipino Veterans of WW II.” The history of the Philippine Theater of WW II, from the American written perspective, has almost always emphasized the role of Americans in the War, and very seldom that of the Filipinos, despite the fact that the overwhelming numbers of soldiers who fought in that theater were Filipinos, not Americans.
Examples of this mindset are: the account of how the “brave American forces held out for so long in 1941 - 42 against Gen Homma’s superior forces in the Battle of Bataan and Corregidor,” the “American led Great Escape” from the prison camps at Cabanatuan, and of course “the capture by American troops of Gen Yamashita and his soldiers “ at the Battle of Liberation in the North In 1945.
To have an American medal issued to honor Filipinos as a fighting force, who have seldom been included by Americans in the narrative of heroism, is a significant move away from the original US mindset about the Filipino warriors. With notable exceptions of course: Gen Douglas MacArthur and Sir Winston Churchill both talked in glowing terms about the Filipino soldier. That the CGM mentions the “Filipino Veterans of WW II” alone without the usual credits that Americans tend to allocate to their own kind is, to my mind, is a clear attempt on the part of America to rectify a wrong done to the Filipino soldier of WW II.
Take a look at the front side of the Medal. It portrays 3 different Filipino soldiers of the War.
The first soldier on the left portrays soldiers of the USAFFE, many of them young men barely out of their teens, or still students or young professionals, answering a call to arms from their erstwhile colonial master who just a number of years before gone to war against them and/or their fathers. My father was one such young man. The ironic tragedy of all these young Filipinos fighting side by side with their former American foes did not become apparent until after the War in 1946 when the same colonial master passed the infamous Recission Act that effectively withdrew all recognition of the war efforts of all Filipino fighters who had fought under the American flag.
The entitlement to full recognition of this particular group of soldiers, our fathers, should have been apparent to Washington. They fought with unquestionable bravery and heroism, despite the fact that they were not adequately trained and badly equipped by their erstwhile colonial master. Many of them were armed with World War I single shot, bolt action Enfield rifles. Most of them only had pith helmet hats, not the steel helmets that their American counterparts were fitted with. And yet they fought the Battle of Bataan for almost 100 days, without the reinforcements and supplies that they had been told would arrive shortly. The convoy of ships with reinforcements and supplies that had been promised them under Plan Orange never arrived and was sent to Australia instead.
They were in fact, when they adopted the American War as their own, legally American Nationals, the Philippines then being a colony of the United States. And yet despite being conscripted as American Nationals into the United States Armed Forces of the Far East (USAFFE), our fathers were denied after the War full compensation and recognition that the Americans they fought side by side with were accorded. They were simply classified as soldiers of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and left by the United States to fend on their own after the War.
The CGM, I believe, seeks to rectify some of that wrong.
The second soldier, the one depicted in the middle, represents to my mind, the second batch of Filipino soldiers of the USAPI, who fought with and for America and were part of the forces of liberation that finally drove the Japanese from our Islands. They too, like the members of the USAFFE did not get full recognition as American Nationals fighting in the US Army. Although they were given the modern arms and helmets of the Americans who fought by their side, they too fell victim to the infamous Recission Act of 1946 and they too were not given the same rights as the Americans.
The third batch of warriors depicted to the right of the medal were the Guerrillas, various Resistance groups that sprouted all over Archipelago during the Japanese occupation. My father was also a member of this group and was badly tortured by the Japanese for his medical activities with and for the Resistance. Some of the most effective fighting against the Japanese occupiers was done by these guerrilla groups. Many were USAFFE veterans, like my father, who continued fighting in the mountains and the countryside after the fall of Bataan and Corregidor.
But most were ordinary civilians, men and women alike, and in some remarkable instances, even children, who picked up the fight against the occupiers with make shift weapons - captured or discarded arms, bolos, spears, bows and arrows. And even when they had no arms, many served as the eyes and ears and propaganda arm of the Resistance. While some guerrilla troops were eventually given recognition by the US Government after the War, thousands were not despite the fact that they too were technically American Nationals.
The front side of the CGM, in enshrining the “faces” of these three Filipino group of warriors, recognizes once for all their war contributions in the Philippine Theater of World War II. It is an acknowedment that these contributions were important and substantial, and, at least implicitly, contributed to the defeat of Japan, notwithstanding the Recission Act of 1946 that denigrated and effectively denied the existence of those contributions.
The implications of rear side of the CGM are, to my mind, even more startling and revealing. First, there is the American acknowledgment on the bottom of the medal that this medal is an act of Congress of the United States, not the Congress of the Philippines. On the top of the rear side of the medal are the words, “United States Armed Forces of the Far East,” and not “the Philippine Commonwealth Army.” And in the middle are the key words, “Duty to Country.” Within the context of the message of the entire medal, the country referred to is the United States of America. It is an acknowledgement that Filipinos performed “their duty to the United States.”
And in the middle, by way of further affirmation of who is being referred to as having rendered this service to country are the words,” Bataan & Corregidor, Luzon, Leyte, and Southern Philippines,” and the years of the conflict 1941 and 1945.”
Interestingly, another year is added, “1946.”
What is the significance of “1946” and why is this year in the medal at all? 1946 is when the Philippines gained its independence from the United States. It is a tacit admission that all the Filipinos who served in the USAFFE until then were in fact American Nationals and were legitimately a part of the US Armed Forces, and not simply the Philippine Commonwealth Army.
There are still many unresolved issues, primary of which are: If Filipinos who fought in WW II were American Nationals, why were they denied the full rights and privileges of Americans at the end of the War? Can they and their descendants still claim those rights and privileges today? I am hoping that many Filipino war heroes like my father will one day get their rewards by way of other medals and compensation.
It is hard to believe that only one Filipino veteran, Sgt Calugas, who fought in the Philippine theater of the War was entitled to the US Congessional Medal of Honor (not to be confused with the CGM). There were many other Filipino Veterans who were as deserving of that medal as Sgt Calugas ... or Gen Wainright. While the CGM is, in my opinion, intended to correct the historical wrong done to the Filipino Defenders of WW II, there is still so much to be done for them to attain full recognition and compensation. For them, the fight has just begun.
For now, I ask the descendants of the CGM awardees to treasure this CGM that has been awarded to their forebearers, because it is a symbol of the affirmation that their contribution to the War effort and that of their Filipino Comrades in Arms were not all for naught.
(Rafael E Evangelista, 26 March 2021)
(Rafael E Evangelista, Immediate Past National Commander of the Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor, DBC)
US Congressional Gold Medal Awarding Ceremony
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Defender Abaya and Defender Grafil were honored with the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal (CGM)
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The U.S. Congressional Gold Medal (CGM) was awarded to Defender Eduardo C. Abaya (100) and Defender Jaime E. Grafil (99) together with 30 WWII veterans in a ceremony at the Tejeros Hall, AFPCOC, Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon city on 10 June 2019.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana led the awarding ceremony with the U.S. Embassy delegation which was comprised of Dir. Tracey Betts and Deputy Chief of Mission John Law were present during as well. AFP Chief of Staff Benjamin Madrigal, Jr. ` |
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Defender Eduardo Capistrano Abaya's 100th Birthday
May 26, 2019 at Club Filipino, Greenhills San Juan, we celebrated a very special and rare occasion, our very own DBC veteran has reached 100 years.
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY
on Tuesday, December 4, 2018
at 8 o’ clock in the morning
Commissioned Officers Club, Dimalupig A
Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo,
Quezon City
RSVP : Ms. Jewel Ballesteros - 912-1111
Ms. Malu Deglison - 913-2742
Attire : Smart Casual
DBC GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING 2018
Reply Form Click here
If you are a Defender of Bataan and Corregidor or a direct descendant of a Defender,
pls. click on this link to sign up for membership.
VISION
The immortalization of the heroics of young Filipinos who gallantly braved the onslaught of the enemies trampling our sacred shores in Bataan and Corregidor for love of Country, through forums, publications, museums, libraries, memoriam, anniversary celebrations and other such avenues that would inculcate into the minds of the present generations, the legacy of their forebears is the freedom they now so enjoy.
MISSION
- To have a venue for Bataan and Corregidor survivors to meet frequently to constantly keep alive their common concerns as in the past.
- To keep track of living WWII veterans and their families with the end in view of being able to help them in any possible way when presented with problems the Association can alleviate.
- To facilitate claims/benefits with Philippine and/or US governments through their proper agencies.
- To be able to present the collective efforts of the WWII veterans to pursue from the National Government and/or any of its agencies mandated to attend to our member's legitimate needs.
DEFENDER'S PRAYER
Heavenly Father, through Your Son,
Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit
We rise with contrite hearts to praise You,
Thank You and glorify You!
We beseech You to bless us
Your defenders of this blessed country.
Forgive us for our doubts and weaknesses;
Bless us again with the courage to always
do our best for what is right according
to Your divine will.
Bless the souls of our brothers-in-arms
You have already called into Your kingdom;
Inspire us the living to love and serve
our needy and poor comrades;
Teach us, reveal to us and lead us in Your
Holy ways in building our nation with
a people of abiding faith and love for You,
Whom we revere with joy as our Lord and Savior,
Your Son, Jesus Christ!
Finally, we thank You for the peace and prosperity
You give us from Your ever flowing bounty!
Glory to You, our Father, Your Son – our Lord
and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit
We rise with contrite hearts to praise You,
Thank You and glorify You!
We beseech You to bless us
Your defenders of this blessed country.
Forgive us for our doubts and weaknesses;
Bless us again with the courage to always
do our best for what is right according
to Your divine will.
Bless the souls of our brothers-in-arms
You have already called into Your kingdom;
Inspire us the living to love and serve
our needy and poor comrades;
Teach us, reveal to us and lead us in Your
Holy ways in building our nation with
a people of abiding faith and love for You,
Whom we revere with joy as our Lord and Savior,
Your Son, Jesus Christ!
Finally, we thank You for the peace and prosperity
You give us from Your ever flowing bounty!
Glory to You, our Father, Your Son – our Lord
and Holy Spirit. Amen.
DEFENDER'S PLEDGE
Calling on as witnesses, my brothers –in-arms who have paid the supreme sacrifice in Bataan, Corregidor, the Death March, and Capas, do solemnly pledge:
1. To uphold and abide by the Constitution and By-Laws of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Inc (DBC), and to support and sustain the DBC in all its legitimate and legal aspirations, goals and projects specially those in support of the veterans;
2. To extend material and spiritual assistance within my power to the Defenders and other members of DBC who may be in need of it; and
3. To be vigilant in defense and militant in the propagation of the ideals for which the Defenders fought and their comrades died, namely, Justice Liberty and Democracy.
This Pledge I will constantly bear in mind, in heart, and in soul.
_________________________
Signature above printed name
__________________ Date
_____________________________
National Commander
1. To uphold and abide by the Constitution and By-Laws of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Inc (DBC), and to support and sustain the DBC in all its legitimate and legal aspirations, goals and projects specially those in support of the veterans;
2. To extend material and spiritual assistance within my power to the Defenders and other members of DBC who may be in need of it; and
3. To be vigilant in defense and militant in the propagation of the ideals for which the Defenders fought and their comrades died, namely, Justice Liberty and Democracy.
This Pledge I will constantly bear in mind, in heart, and in soul.
_________________________
Signature above printed name
__________________ Date
_____________________________
National Commander