Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone
Remarks
at the “Paggunita Sa Capas”

Observance of Araw ng Kagitinaga
Capas National Shrine
Wednesday, April 9, 2003, 10:00 am

H.E. President Macapagal-Arroyo, Secretary Reyes, Ambassador Takano, Governor Yap, Commander Estrada, honored veterans and soldiers of the Philippine and American armed forces, ladies and gentlemen.

Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat.

It is an honor to join you this morning to commemorate both the suffering and the heroism of the soldiers and citizens of the United States and the Philippines now nearly a lifetime ago. And it is especially moving to be able to join living witnesses to those extraordinary events that so stir us to this day.

Veterans of Bataan Day: today, the lessons of your experience are particularly meaningful to your successor generations, for this year, we gather on this solemn day and at this sacred place in a time of war. We, your children and grandchildren, draw inspiration from your example, and from that of those who fell from Bataan to Capas.

Thousands of courageous men fought unceasingly for over three months, suffering the ravages of malaria, dysentery and malnutrition. Many were severely wounded, barely able to walk. Thousands more Filipino civilians, men and women, showed equal bravery in their selfless acts of mercy toward the suffering soldiers, too often at sacrifice of their own lives.

Today, however, the most meaningful lesson of Bataan Day must be that despite the unspeakable cruelties and horrors of war, there is something even stronger in the spirit of humankind that enables us to overcome, to heal, and even to transform and advance our human condition. For today, on this spot where our countrymen once fought to the death, representatives of our three great democracies stand together as the closest of friends and allies. Our three peoples enjoy and share freedoms, prosperity, national strengths, and human potential that those who fell here could not have imagined.

As combat continues half the globe away, we salute the forces of the coalition fighting to liberate Iraq from dictatorship and to make our world safer from the most satanic weapons of terror and tyranny. But we look ahead to the day when free Iraqis and representatives of the countries who did not shrink from this cause can stand together, just as we Filipinos, Japanese, and Americans do here today, to celebrate the victory of freedom over tyranny, of humanity over cruelty, of peace over war.
On behalf of the United States, let me take this fitting occasion to thank our two fellow members of the Coalition for the disarmament and the liberation of Iraq, the Philippines and Japan, for standing with us in this high purpose. I especially salute you, Madame President and Secretary Reyes, for your unflinching support in this noble endeavor, particularly now as we turn all the more urgently to the task of humanitarian relief and recovery in that land wracked by generations of tyranny and war.

Maramaming salamat sa inyong lahat, at mabuhay.

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