The Senate approved on third and final reading a bill which would declare September 2 as a special non-working holiday in the province of Ifugao in commemoration of the surrender at the province of World War II Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
House Bill No. 5553 was sponsored by Senator Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government, and was approved with 19 affirmative votes, zero negative vote and no abstention.
Angara said the special non-working holiday in Ifugao aims to mark the surrender of Yamashita, then commander of the Japanese Imperial Army in the Philippines, on September 2, 1945 at Kiangan, Ifugao.
“The special non-working holiday in Ifugao aims to mark the surrender of Yamashita, then commander of the Japanese Imperial Army in the Philippines, on September 2, 1945 at Kiangan, Ifugao.”
The seasoned legislator noted that after Yamashita’s surrender in Ifugao, the general turned over Camp John Hay in Baguio City to the combined forces of Filipinos and Americans liberating the country.
“For communities to progress, we must also consider honoring and learning from our history and the people who were part of it,” the veteran lawmaker said.
Under the bill, the provincial government of Ifugao, the municipal government of Kiangan, along with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) and the Military Shrines Service (MSS) are tasked to “lead appropriate and meaningful commemorative programs and activities” in relation the event.
Such activities, according to the bill, would “give significance and honor the heroes and heroines who contributed to the Philippines’ liberation from the Japanese forces.”
“Such activities would give significance and honor the heroes and heroines who contributed to the Philippines’ liberation from the Japanese forces.”
Yamashita, who surrendered his forces several weeks after the announcement of Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, was later found guilty of war crimes and was sentenced to death in 1946.
