Noy to lead Araw ng Kagitingan rites today

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – President Aquino will lead today’s 70th Araw ng Kagitingan rites at the Dambana ng Kagitingan in Mt. Samat, Pilar, Bataan – his second as head of state.

The President will put a wreath at the shrine upon arrival and then pause for prayer as a World War II veteran and a high school student toll the bell.

The Philippine Information Agency (PIA) said Aquino will then award trophies to this year’s winners of Araw ng Kagitingan’s oratorical, painting and essay writing contests.

Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe and United States deputy chief of Mission Leslie Bassett will deliver messages before the president’s keynote address, the PIA noted.

The affair commemorates the historic day on April 9, 1942 when some 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers stationed in Corregidor and Bataan formally surrendered to the Japanese army under Lt. General Masaharu Homma.

They became prisoners of war and were forced to participate in the infamous Death March towards a concentration camp in O’Donnel in Capas, Tarlac.

The Dambana ng Kagitingan was built atop Mount Samat in 1966 in memory of those soldiers.

The shrine’s most distinct feature is a 92-meter Memorial Cross that is made of marble, steel, and concrete.

At the base of the cross is a bas-relief sculpture depicting important historical events and battles in the Philippines.