Today, Oct. 20, 2012, is the 68th anniversary of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Leyte landing signalling the start of his Philippine campaign, one of MacArthur’s costliest campaigns during World War II. Wikipedia gives a total of 62,514 US Army & Air Forces killed and wounded. This does not include US Navy casualties from the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle Off Leyte Gulf, naval battles attendant to the liberation of the Philippines.
Location Killed Wounded Total
Leyte 3,593 11,991 15,584
Luzon 8,310 29,560 37,870
Central &
Southern Philippines 2,070 6,990 9,060
Total 13,973 48,541 62,514
It’s Oct. 20, 2012 the 68th anniversary of Gen. MacAthur’s Leyte landing.
But the Philippines has never really celebrated or shown appreciation of the enormous sacrifices American soldiers, sailors and airmen did to liberate the Philippines.
Why is that? Because the traitors and quislings who worked for the fascist-imperialist Japanese military like Manuel A. Roxas grandfather of Mar Roxas II ended up in power after WWII and to this day the children and grandchildren of oligarchs, traitors and quislings are in power. Forbes’ 40 richest Filipinos on the average are richer than the British Royal Family!
Perhaps setting the traitors and collaborators free would be fine. But putting them back in power? That’s an insult to those who fought, walked the “Death March” and died defending and liberating the Philippines.
Manuel Roxas, Sr. was related to Ayala, Zobel, Soriano, Elizalde, Araneta all of whom are from Panay Island, represented the group of ethnic Spanish oligarchs that would later include Aboitiz and Villar, among others. It should be noted that after WWII, being from Panay Island or connected to the ethnic Spaniard group of oligarchs from Central Philippines was the number requirement for success in the Philippines.
Roxas would later appoint Lorenzo Tanada chief prosecutor who was ordered to exclude Roxas from the list of suspected collaborators. On Jan. 28, 1948, Roxas signed Proclamation 51 granting full amnesty to all collaborators. It did not include Manuel A. Roxas who died an uncharged suspected collaborator and president of the Philippines on April 15, 1948.
MacArthur openly supported a known collaborator in Manuel Roxas who was named Senate president and chairman of the powerful appointments committee. Perhaps MacArthur was hoping Roxas, out of gratitude from ordering his release from prison where some 5,000 Japanese collaborators were held, would appoint him the post-war administrator of the Philippines. Instead Roxas made Gen. Douglas MacArthur an honorary citizen of the Philippines. Calling MacArthur “the greatest soldier of all time”, Roxas ordered that MacArthur’s name be placed among the roster of the Philippine Army “in perpetuity.”
When MacArthur visited the legislature to accept Roxas’ token of gratitude for putting him back in power, he said: “Selfish ambition, unnecessary misunderstanding and petty jealousy must not be permitted to impede the progress and rend your nation.”
The other group of oligarchs are the ethnic Chinese most if not all came from the same village Danding Cojuangco and Cory Cojuangco-Aquino’s grandfather came from.
“Bienvenido Macario writes: On 3 December, Istvan Simon reminded us of the Santayana maxim: “those who forget the past, are condemned to relive it.”
We’ve been talking about Europe, but what about the Philippines? What happened in that nation is nothing short of bizarre. Manila was the most devastated allied city of WWII next to Warsaw. The Battle for Manila in February and March 1945 was described as “Nanking all over again,” with civilian deaths of over 100,000. It was ironic that the oligarch-traitors like Manuel Roxas and Benigno Aquino Sr. were safe with Gen. Yamashita in Baguio while Manila was agonizing.
From 1946 to 1950 the US gave over $2 billion in aid to the Philippines under Roxas and Quirino to rebuild the country. But President Truman’s fact-finding mission (Bell Commission) reported that the money is gone. And obviously it went to landowners and unscrupulous businessmen oligarchs who are now richer than ever while the majority of the people’s standard of living has not risen to anywhere near the pre-war levels.
Fast forward to October 2011: Despite 67 years of mismanaged economy, the Word Bank provided $3.7 billion funding to the illegitimate oligarch-supported government of Aquino III, the grandson of an oligarch-traitor. The purpose of the loan was for disaster preparedness; search, rescue & relief programs, none of which was there when Typhoon Haiyan came on Nov. 8, 2013. What is wrong with Washington DC?
Who would imagine with all the death and destruction brought by the war (WWII) and a decimated agricultural sector, the oligarch-traitors would take advantage of the situation and enrich themselves instead?
Regarding the WAIS topic “Collective Guilt and Making Amends,” here are my recommendations:
– Manuel Roxas Sr. and all those who were granted amnesty by Roxas should be posthumously tried for treason.
– Now Cory Aquino & her son Aquino III should be tried for treason, posthumously or otherwise, and other members of her cabinet possibly including Fidel V. Ramos, Juan Ponce Enrile, should be investigated for possible involvement as accessories or witnesses.
– Their children and grandchildren (Aquino III, Roxas II, Raffy Recto, Ayala, Zobel, Soriano, Lopez, Osmena III, Benigno Ramos etc) must be removed from positions of power and authority. Their properties confiscated.
– All Filipinos who are residents of an industrialized G-7 type country will be given Temporary Protected Status.
– For them to earn back their citizenship, they must take and pass a Philippine History re-education course.
In the meantime all international organizations like the World Bank, IMF, ADB and the UN must be required to submit an accounting of all the funds loaned or given to the Philippines.
An investigation of past and present employees of the World Bank, IMF, UN and members of the US Congress Committee on Foreign Relations must be started.
I believe we could all agree that after WWII everyone in the Philippines was poor. So how did the so-called “old money” of today that are in Forbes list of 50 Richest Filipinos became rich? By 2012 they are richer than the British monarchy. Did they steal U.S. taxpayers money intended for the reconstruction of the Philippines after WWII?
Roxas and other oligarch-traitors were in Yamashita’s safe keeping in Baguio while the Battle for Manila raged. Later, in another twist of irony, to divert the people’s attention from Roxas’s power grab, Gen. Yamashita was charged, tried and executed for war crimes he never committed. Roxas never lifted a finger, and he was in fact with his protector Yamashita in Baguio while the Japanese-Korean marines were pillaging and burning Manila. I was wondering that if Yamashita knew he would be charged and executed as a war criminal for Roxas’s ambitions, would he have asked Roxas to commit seppuku as the war was ending?”
From: Collective Guilt and Atonement: Manila (Bienvenido Macario, USA) Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 6:52 AM
http://waisworld.org/go.jsp?id=02a&objectType=post&o=73652&objectTypeId=65667&topicId=17