Officials of San Pedro City just did a first in Laguna. They organized a commemorative program to give out replicas of the United States Congressional Gold Medals to guerilla survivors of World War 2 and their descendants. This was held at the Pacita Astrodome last July 21.
It was the 47th such event in the Philippines, and honored were 12 surviving WW 2 veterans in Laguna and Batangas provinces, as well as descendants of 38 vets. A proud honoree was Abelardo "Ka Remo" Remoquillo of the ROTC Hunters guerrilla group that liberated prisoners of war in Los Baños in 1945.
San Pedro City Mayor Art Mercado, Vice Mayor Niña Almoro, Councilor Gius Castasus, and Laguna Board Member Bernadeth Olivares presided over the awarding ceremonies, along with VFP Laguna 1st District President Jesus Rey Avilla.
Other guests were PVAO’s Reynaldo Mapagu, US Department of Veterans Affairs’ Keith Sekuterski, and JUSMAG’s Lt. Col. Joshua Ku. Another VIP in attendance was DND Usec Pablo Lorenzo representing Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who could not attend presumably because he was so busy explaining the recent nuances of his office’s misadventures and embarrassing activities in the South China Sea—both to the media and to his boss, BBM.
Good riddance, thus, for Gibo Teodoro for absenting himself from this event.
We note with appreciation the recognition of the heroism of Filipinos during the war, an award established under the Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-265), signed by former President Barack Obama in 2016.
This column has been praising the courageous resistance by Filipino fighters in WW2, especially in the Tagalog provinces of Laguna, Quezon and Batangas. The Sierra Madre mountain and the lakes of Laguna and Batangas served as natural shelters for security, logistics and food in aid of the resistance. Also, the Yamashita Shrine in Los Baños remains a symbol of Japanese defeat and humiliation in the Philippines, and it is proper that such a shrine is located in Laguna.
The Japanese government offered apologies, paid war reparations and compensation. War and violence were renounced in their Constitution, and the victors imposed on Japan a foreign policy of pacifism, allowing only a military force for internal defense.
All is well until Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made a complete turn, revealing her hawkish character and unveiling her government’s complete vassalage to America. Last year, she said Japan would respond militarily if China took control of Taiwan by force. Her government is also having talks with the PHL to sell surface-to-air missile systems.
Kyodo News said a substantive study on exporting Japanese-developed Type-03 Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile is expected to start once the government formally scraps a rule limiting defense equipment exports to five noncombat purposes, such as rescue and surveillance.
Two recent happenings occurred that endangered regional security in the Southeast and East Asian regions.
During Balikatan 2026, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force made history by firing missiles on foreign soil for the first time since WW 2. The troops fired missiles from the Culili Point sand dunes in Ilocos Norte, striking the BRP Quezon some 75 km offshore. Also, the US fired Tomahawk cruise missiles from Tacloban to Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija, a distance of 630 km.
Sanae Takaichi and Bongbong Marcos are also in talks on delimitation of EEZ and continental shelves of Japan and the Philippines, getting the ire of China because the two stupid leaders bypassed both geography and the official world map showing China’s territory of Taiwan which is right in the middle of the two countries.
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