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CNN Live Today

U.S. Defeat in Philippines Remembered, as New Troops Fight

Aired April 09, 2002 - 12:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Another theater of World War II is being remembered, with somber observances. They mark a U.S. defeat at the hands of the Japanese. Ironically, U.S. military personnel are back in the Philippines, helping in a new fight, even as dignitaries gather for the Battle of Bataan Memorial.

CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sixty years after thousands of Filipino and American soldiers died here in World War II, Philippine President Macapagal Arroyo, flanked by the American and Japanese ambassadors, came to honor them. After the bloody battle of Bataan, U.S. forces surrendered to the Japanese, on April 9, 1942. An estimated 70,000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers were forced on what they now call a death march, to prison camps where many more would die.

Now 84, commander Romeo Hernandez (ph) came out physically shattered, needing new teeth and a reconstructed jaw.

Others say many more would have survived if the U.S forces had not been so ill equipped and overstretched.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United States couldn't decide whether or not to defend the Phillipines or to evacuate. The lesson to be learned from there is never put American troops in harm's way without supporting them.

MACKINNON: This memorial honors the thousands that did not survive the ordeal. And now American troops are back in the Phillipines, but this time under a very different set of circumstances, against a very different kind of enemy.

Six hundred sixty very well equipped troops have been in the southern Phillipines since January, in a noncombat advisory role.

GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO, PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT: Today, we stand shoulder to shoulder in yet another historic fight, the fight against terrorism.

MACKINNON: Specifically, the Abu Sayyaf. The Muslim rebel group still hold two Americans and one Filipino they kidnapped for ransom last May, and have been linked to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

Meanwhile, yet another demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy underscored that not all Filipinos are happy that the second largest U.S. troop deployment outside Afghanistan is in their country.

Filipino veterans say they and the majority of their countrymen do support the Americans now, as they did 60 years ago, but hope that the high-tech equipment and strong focus of the new U.S. forces will lead to victory this time around.

Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, on the Bataan Peninsula, the Philippines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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