Honoring our fallen heroes and soldiers

First of all, allow me to greet my faithful readers a very Happy Easter. Today we celebrate Araw ng Kagitingan or National Heroes Day. I remember that April 9 used to be celebrated as the Fall of Bataan, but too many pundits ridiculed the Philippines for celebrating its losses because outside of the victory of Lapu-Lapu (who until now isn’t accepted as a Filipino hero because there was no Philippines at that time) we really have no victories to be proud of. Hence, the Fall of Bataan has now become our National Heroes Day.

The Fall of Bataan always had a special meaning with the Segura family… my mother’s side because my grandpa, Capt. Valeriano Segura (yes, I’m named after him), fought and died fighting in Bataan… and his remains were never recovered or found. Although my uncle, Col. Manuel F. Segura, who was with the Cebu guerrillas during the war, went to Bataan after the war was over and found that many bones and skeletons were gathered and placed inside what is called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, we would never know if my grandpa’s bones were part of that pile of bones.

My grandpa’s claim to fame was that, long before the start of the war, he took the exam for West Point and topped it! Yes, he even bested the score of the first Filipino West Pointer, Gen. Vicente Lim. But my grandpa (who came from Guimaras) had a slight problem… he was only four feet and nine inches tall and thus, he was an inch short of the regulation height.

But since the Philippines was under the Commonwealth in those days, just the same Lolo Valen (as my mother called him) was sent on a ship to the US mainland and was put on the chinning bar every day. From San Francisco, he took the train to New York… also hanging on the chinning bar. Finally when he got into West Point, they checked his height and he was still four feet, nine inches and thus he was ineligible to enter West Point. Hence, the Americans called on the second placer… who later became known as Gen. Vicente Lim, another Filipino hero.

But that wasn’t the end of Valeriano Segura. The Americans didn’t want to waste the talents of this young Filipino and sent him instead to Purdue University in Indiana where he pursued a course in engineering. After he finished college, he returned to the Philippines and joined the Philippine Scouts. He was assigned to Cebu… and constructed many roads and bridges all around the province, including the famous zigzag dubbed "Imme"… which people thought was a road shaped by the letter "M." They did not know that… "Imme" was actually Lolo Valen’s initials, "VS." This road has since been straightened by the DPWH.

My grandpa also built the Cebu Normal College and the Cebu Maternity Clinic, which still stands today. Since I was born during the Korean War, I never met my grandpa… I only know him from the pictures that our family kept. But whenever National Heroes Day is celebrated… I always remember my grandpa from the stories my uncles used to tell me.

Lest we forget, the Fall of Bataan saw Filipino and American blood mingled in a martyr’s death. Perhaps this is why Filipinos always have a special bond with Americans, even though they were our colonizers. It also led to the infamous Death March… one of the most heinous atrocities forced upon war prisoners. These historic events are part of Philippine history and we should never, ever forget that once upon a time, they happened here!

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Finally, allow me to say that today, we should honor the Filipino soldier who continues to die for the sake of peace in this country. If the Filipino soldier continues to die today, it is because of the Muslim separatists and the still-ongoing communist insurgency. Last Wednesday, The Philippine STAR headlined a defiant, albeit triumphant Satur Ocampo who was released by the Supreme Court on a P1-million bail, until the investigation into his alleged link to the mass graves in Inopacan, Leyte can be finalized. Coincidentally, there was another news report about another mass grave found near the site of the first one. Who killed those people?

I just came from a four-day retreat in Banawa Hills and this news about the discovery of another mass grave reminds me of what the evangelist Luke wrote in Luke 12:1-7, "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops."

Satur Ocampo’s defense that he had nothing to do with the killings or the purges by the Communist Party because he was already in jail at that time is the most flimsy excuse or defense I have ever heard. If you’ve read stories about the mafia or the mob, even if the Capo di Tutti Cappi was in prison, he was still able to call the shots within the Cosa Nostra and control and operate the crime syndicates from within the prison walls.

While I’m not saying that Satur Ocampo had a direct hand in the purges, for all we know, this was a direct order from CPP chairman Jose Ma. Sison. However, I’m positive that he knew that these purges had been happening. If Satur wants to clean his hands for those skeletons in the mass graves that are crying for justice, then he must tell the Filipino people what he knows about those purges… even if he has to point a finger at Joma!

The undeniable fact remains that the cadres of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) or its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), did not only kill Filipino civilians who refused to cooperate or pay their revolutionary taxes and soldiers, they also massacred their own who were suspected of being double agents of the military.

Now if you want to know why these mass graves are linked to the CPP/NPA, the answer is simple… if the military or the police killed those people, don’t you think that the CPP/NPA or their allied front organizations would have already gone into mass demonstrations protesting these murders 20 years ago? There were no protests about the disappearances of so many people because the families of the victims were also threatened with death.

Our final question to Mr. Ocampo is… when will all these killings stop? Sure, they keep on blaming the military or the police for the killings, as if they are all blameless. If truly the CPP/NPA want peace in our land, then what is stopping them from laying down their arms like what the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has done?

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.