A two-storey General Douglas MacArthur Memorial is set to rise in Bonuan Blue Beach in Tondaligan Park in Dagupan City on the same spot where the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces set his foot when he began the liberation of the whole Luzon from the Japanese on January 9, 1945.

Senator Grace Poe, whose office is funding the P60 million to be used for project did the honor in leading the groundbreaking rites, along with Mayor Belen Fernandez, Vice Mayor Bryan Kua, members of the city council, and World War II veterans, with James Zobel, historian and official archivist of the General Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, USA as a special guest.

The occasion was attended by Raymond Manaois Cabrera, a 100-year old veteran of World War II and now the oldest among his ranks in Dagupan and Pangasinan, who was personally honored during the rites.

The Mac Arthur Memorial will be a depository of all memoirs, diaries and rare photographs and artifacts about General Mac Arthur during the war, especially during his short-lived stint in Dagupan at the Home Economics building of the West Central Elementary School which he made as his first command post in Luzon.

To be built by DPWH starting March this year, Phase 1 of the project is expected to be completed within one year, said Julius Gazeta, planning and design engineer of DPWH Region 1.

Mayor Fernandez said the project shall reconfirm to the future generations of Dagupan’s pivotal role in the fight for freedom and democracy as the landing place of General MacArthur when he fulfilled his promise “I shall return” to the Filipinos that finally freed them from four years of Japanese occupation. (Leonardo Micua)

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