Camp Teodulfo Bautista Memorial Shrine, Jolo, Sulu
April 9, 2019

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte led the wreath-laying ceremony for the 77th year of the ‘Araw ng Kagitingan’ at the Camp Teodulfo Bautista Memorial Shrine in Jolo, Sulu.

Carrying the theme, ‘Sakripisyo ng Beterano ay Gunitain, Gawing Tanglaw ng Kabataan Tungo sa Kaunlaran’, the ceremony commemorated the Fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942 wherein Filipino and American armies were forced to surrender to the Japanese forces due to the shortage of military provisions such as food, ammunition and medicine.

The ceremony also served as a tribute to the valor and heroism of Filipino and American soldiers who sacrificed their lives defending Bataan during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II.

The Philippines is the last Southeast Asian country to surrender to the Japanese Empire during its military conquest in the Asia-Pacific.

After the wreath-laying ceremony, the Commander-in-Chief visited the wounded-in-action (WIA) soldiers confined in the camp’s Station Hospital.

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