Taps

Honor guards stand at attention as pallbearers remove a fallen warrior’s casket from its hearse. On many a calm, quiet morning at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines pay their last respects to a fallen comrade through a traditional hero’s burial with military honors.

This solemn ritual, characterized by its execution in the crisp, orderly fashion of martial ceremonies, is reserved only for the distinguished few whose lives have been lived–and lost–in the service of country.

Last rites are held in the stillness of a sorrow-tinged morning. Twenty-one gunshots ring out, and the haunting sound of "Taps" is played, amidst the batallion’s tanghalta (final salute)–and the anguished cries of the soldier’s family.

"...Then good night, peaceful night,

’till the light of the day shineth bright.

God is near, do not fear–Friend, good night."

Another soldier has passed.