New feature: MacArthur’s landing in Dagupan
PVB’S WW II TRAVELING EXHIBIT
THE Philippine Veterans Bank’s award-winning World War II Traveling Exhibit, “War of Our Fathers,” is back in Dagupan for the third time, this time with a special message: General Douglas MacArthur first disembarked from his flagship USS Boise and landed on January 9, 1945 with the First Corps in Bonuan Blue Beach.
PVB Vice-President and Corporate Communications head Miguel Villa-Real disclosed that records obtained from the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A. confirmed this fact.
“Records show that the General landed south of San Fabian, that is Dagupan, and from the position of USS Boise, we are certain that the General, indeed, landed in Bonuan Blue Beach,” Villa-Real said.
PVB Vice president Villa-Real gives city officials and guests some trivia on the War of our Fathers exhibit at the City Museum
Viila-real said photographs showing Mac Arthur landing with the troops include in the background groves of coconut trees which, historians said, were teeming during the war in the shores of Dagupan and not in Lingayen.
Dagupan and Pangasinan hold separate yearly commemoration of Lingayen Gulf landing of US liberation forces on January 9 of every year. A 30-foot statue of Mac Arthur stands and a marker in Bonuan Blue Beach where the First Corps landed.
The reference to the MacArthur Memorial that Mac Arthur landed in Dagupan may have settled a long historical debate on where Mac Arthur first landed in Luzon on his way to free Luzon Island.
Villa-Real told local newsmen that PVB is willing to help the city in filing a petition at the National Historical Commission to rightfully establish that General Douglas MacArthur first landed in Dagupan when he led the liberation forces to the Lingayen Gulf from Leyte.
Meanwhile, he said the exhibit will be open to the public for free starting December 11 until December 23 at the second floor of the city museum.
“To make this stop extra memorable, the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) Traveling Exhibit will highlight a panel featuring World War II scenes that took place in Dagupan City itself,” Villa-Real said.
The War of Our Fathers exhibit officially opened on December 10 in a simple ceremony led by Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, 2014 City Fiesta Hermano Mayor Jeslito C. Seen, PVB officials and representatives of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines (VFP).
The exhibit was brought Dagupan for the first time in 2006 and again in 2011.
The VFP and the city government of Dagupan are co-sponsoring the 12-day exhibit.
“As the Philippines celebrates the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation in 2015, PVB hopes to make the exhibit an even bigger and more relevant endeavor in the hopes of forever etching in the hearts of Filipinos everywhere the valor of our World War II heroes and the immeasurable sacrifices they made for the price of freedom,” Villa-Real said. (Leonardo Micua)
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