Freedom Trail starts to trace 160-km Death March route

ORION, Bataan -- The celebration of the 76th Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) kicked off with the launching of Freedom Trail on Saturday that traces the 160-kilometer Death March route from Bataan to Capas, Tarlac.

Retired Gen. Resty Aguilar, the chief of the Veterans Memorial and Historical Division of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO), said 300 volunteers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and reservists from the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) participated in the event.

ROTC reservists were in the lead pack and will continue to do so for the succeeding conduct of the Freedom Trail sponsored by the Veterans Bank, he said.

“This is the same route (taken by) the prisoners of war (who) marched some 76 years ago. We are doing this to remember the hardships they experienced. I hope others will join to commemorate this historic event. This is the first time we did,” Aguilar said.

War records showed that 70,000 Filipino and American soldiers were forced to march from Mariveles, Bataan starting on April 10, 1942 and from Bagac, Bataan on April 11, 1942 to Capas, Tarlac after Bataan fell on April 9, 1942.

Aguilar said that in 1945, there were 400,000 Filipino veterans recognized by the United States but an unequal number remains unrecognized.

“Out of the 400,000 recognized, there are only 6,000 remaining. The sad news, 2,000 died yearly. Thus, in three years, only hundreds are expected to remain, which we hope not,” the retired general said.

He said the youngest living World War II veterans are 92 to 93 years old, while the oldest ones are now between 100 to 103 years old. Most of them are already bedridden.

Aguilar said that unlike in the WWII Death March, participants in the Freedom Trail will not hike 140 kilometers but only 10 kilometers for each group.

“This is enough to experience the hardships of our forefathers,” he said.

“We want to experience what the WW II soldiers experienced so that we can feel the sacrifices they made for our nation,” Private First Class (PFC) Pablito Hericio of the Bataan Ready Reserve Battalion said when asked why they joined the march.

Marchers who started at Zero Kilometer Death march marker in Mariveles, Bataan at past 6 a.m. arrived at the 30 KM Death March marker at the Puting Buhangin Elementary School in Orion, Bataan before 12 noon.

Two WWII veterans from Bataan shook hands and returned the salute of the arriving marchers.

The marchers are expected to arrive in Capas, Tarlac on Sunday.

Filipina Monica de Ocampo, her American husband and their two children from Hawaii joined the march for less than a kilometer. She said that her father and grandfather were among those in the 1942 Death March.

“The Death March markers are in excellent shape and painted in the last three weeks,” Richard Hudson, vice president of Filipino – American Memorial endowment (FAME), said.

FAME takes charge of the maintenance of markers, which replaced the destroyed ones, cost PHP35,000, he said.

He said there are a total of 138 markers – 100 in Bataan, 31 in Pampanga and seven in Tarlac. He said there were lesser known markers in Tarlac because the POWs were loaded in box cars pulled by trains from San Fernando, Pampanga to before Capas.

“They walked under 42 degrees of the heat of April,” Hudson said. (PNA)