‘Araw Ng Kagitingan’ a day of reflections for AFP

MANILA — “Araw Ng Kagitingan”, also known as the Fall of Bataan in the World War II, is a day of reflection for all personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

This was emphasized by Marine Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson, in a message to reporters Tuesday.

“It’s a day of reflection for every soldier, airman, sailor, and marine on how our forebears and Filipino Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor demonstrated to the world its brand of extraordinary heroism, ardent patriotism, uncommon valor, and selfless sacrifice,” Arevalo said.

“With their blood, sweat, and tears, our veterans bequeathed to our generation the air of freedom we breathe, the atmosphere of peace we live, and the democracy we enjoy,” he added.

Seventy-seven years after the infamous ‘Death March’, Arevalo said the Filipino service members continue to ‘wage war valiantly’ against Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and the Daesh-inspired foreign terrorists, armed peace spoilers, and other threats to national security.

“Many a soldier’s wife widowed and a child orphaned. But the fight will continue against modern traitors like the CPP-NPA,” Arevalo stressed.

“This local terrorist group feed and feast on the exploitations they do with the innocence of the indigenous peoples, of helpless and trusting civilians, of unwitting students, and even foreign funding agencies they cheated with their lies, duplicity, and misrepresentations— all in the name of CPP-NPA leaders like Jose Ma. Sison and his ilks’ insatiable appetite for money,” he added.

“This could have long been exposed where if not for the cleansing of their ranks they did with the more than 8,000 comrades of theirs whose lips they sealed forever: Oplans: Zombie, Ajos, Olympia, Kadena de Amor, Missing Link, and other so-called purging activities,” he further said.

Arevalo said the NPA front organizations like Karapatan, Ibon Foundation, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Gabriella, and others have cheated Foreign Funding Agencies like non-government organizations (NGOs) from European Union and Belgium by falsely representing themselves as defenders and rights advocates of marginalized groups by presenting a dark image and abominable state of affairs in the Philippines.

“These malevolent CPP-NPA and cohorts fabricated data and trumped up figures of alleged human rights violations in government’s fight against criminals, drug syndicates, and local communist terrorists masquerading as non-combatant civilians— so they can ask for enormous funds,” he said.

He said the Ibon Foundation actually prints and publishes books that contain lessons and topics that exploits and tend to plant in the young pupils’ minds that government is an enemy and should raise against it.

“Teachers affiliated with ACT teach in Salugpungan, ALCADEV, and other community schools a different brand of literacy and numeracy. A national anthem with altered lyrics and alphabets with new meanings— all meant to foment violence and aggression. Certainly not the heroes they paint themselves to be,” Arevalo said.

“Modern traitors are what they are. Painting a grim image of a country that drives investors and job opportunities away. To the same breed falls nominal leaders like Sison and his cohorts who live comfortably in the behest of a foreign judgment and with the money they amass from their unwitting benefactors and remittances from NPA’s extortion activities— at the expense of their comrades who suffer hunger, fatigue, and death fighting the government that provides new opportunities to those who opted to abandon their lost cause and chose to rejoin their families,” he added.

“For a callous Communist Terrorist Group like it is, the CPP-NPA gives no regard to heroism but opportunism. Not during Araw ng Kagitingan. Not on any day,” he further said.

Underequipped and meagerly supplied American and Filipino forces, fighting in the Bataan frontlines, were forced to surrender in April 9, 1942 after 93 days of gallant resistance against the superior Japanese force.

Some 60,000 Filipino and American troops were made prisoners of war by the Japanese.

They were made to walk some 140 kilometers from Mariveles, Bataan to Capas, Tarlac under the scorching sun with no food and water for days in what is known the world over as the “Death March.”

“From the desolate and isolated islets and features in the crevices of our territorial seas; to the lonely and distant posts in the hinterlands; to the densely populated urban jungles where we perform our mission without fanfare, everyday is ‘Araw ng Kagitingan’. Count on the AFP you can trust,” Arevalo added.