CHIZ URGES GOV’T TO FOCUS ON LEADING PEOPLE TO OVERCOME CRISIS
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Sen. Chiz Escudero said that today’s celebration of the heroism of oursoldiers who fought in Bataan and
Corregidor should inspire everyone to pull together so the country can overcome the adverse economic
fallout from the current global crisis.
“Today is not business as usual. The times demand that we set aside personal agendas for the urgent task
at hand: that of leading our people in confronting and overcoming the difficult times in the days ahead,”
Escudero said in statement.
“Let us focus on ensuring food security for our people, protecting jobs of our workers, and keeping our
children in school,” the senator said.
Escudero said this year’s commemoration of the gallant defense made by Filipino soldiers fighting under
the American flag in Bataan and Corregidor is made “more meaningful” because their great sacrifice has
been “finally recognized by the United States.”
He pointed out that their heroic stand derailed the invasion timetable of the Japanese Imperial Army and
allowed the Allied forces to regroup and eventually turn the tide against the Japanese forces.
“The heroism of our soldiers is especially inspiring because most of them were in their 20s, inexperienced
in the art of warfare, who answered the call of the motherland with unflinching courage – so very much like
the revolutionaries who won freedom and founded Asia’s First Republic,” Escudero said.
Thousands of Filipino and US soldiers were killed in Bataan and Corregidor and the subsequent “Death
March” from Bataan to the prisoner-of-war camps in Capas, Tarlac.
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A CALL FOR HEROISM
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Araw ng Kagitingan or Day of Valor celebrates the heroism of Filipino soldiers who fought, against
seemingly invincible odds, to defend our people from foreign enslavement in World War Two.
This year’s commemoration becomes even more meaningful because the great sacrifice our soldiers
made, not only in the battlefields of Bataan and Corregidor but in the ensuing resistance campaigns, has
finally been recognized, however late in the day, by the United States.
The heroism of our soldiers is especially inspiring because most of them were in their 20s, inexperienced in
the art of warfare, who answered the call of the motherland with unflinching courage – so very much like the
revolutionaries who won freedom and founded Asia’s First Republic.
While today no foreign invaders threaten our sovereignty, there’s another front that is on the line – our
economy. Like a pandemic plague, worldwide recession now engulfs all nations. If stable, prosperous
democracies are floundering in its wake, what more of developing countries such as ours?
We need then to pull together, like the defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, and take stock of the situation.
For, today is not business as usual. The times demand that we set aside personal agendas for the urgent
task at hand: that of leading our people in overcoming the difficult times in the days ahead.
Let the sacrifices of our heroes serve as an example and inspire us to come together, and teach us that our
personal interests and well-being should always give way to the collective good of the Filipino people and
the betterment of the country we all love.
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