Leyte: Veterans Park and the Battle of Ormoc Bay

A short visit to Ormoc City was highlighted by a quick city tour in the afternoon. Walking distance from OCCCI Hostel (where Tutubi stayed at) is a public space on Ormoc Bay, called Veterans Park, with a pylon honoring the courageous war veterans of the Second World War in the Pacific Theater.

Ormoc Bay with Cebu Ferries waiting to leave for Cebu at 2pm every Monday and Wednesday at Ormoc City pier. Cebu ferries services Ormocanos taking them to Cebu, Dumaguete, Iligan, Jagna (Bohol), Nasipit and Ozamis.




the Veterans Monument in front of Ormoc City Superdome

A colorful monument to the guerillas during the war, the guerilla warfare forces, near the Veterans Monument in front of Ormoc City Superdome.

Ormoc Bay was the site of the historic Battle of Ormoc Bay in November 1944, just a few days after the Battle of Leyte Gulf began. It was on Ormoc Bay where Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita sent reinforcements to Leyte against Gen. Douglas MacArthur's army who had landed on Red Beach in Palo town on October 20, 1944 (the same day when the first Kamikaze strikes were launched from Pampanga), ten days after Yamashita arrived in the Philippines and assumed responsibility of the defense of the Philippines.

With the defeat of the Japanese in The Battle of Leyte Gulf and the succeeding Battle of Ormoc Bay, Allied forces affirmed control of Leyte. From there, they launched attacks re-claiming other islands before the the disastrous Battle for Manila in February 1945, when Manila was leveled to the ground by American carpet-bombing on the (unnecessary) order of Gen. Douglas MacArthur combined with Japanese demolition.

On World War II Veterans:

Filipinos fought side-by-side with Americans during the war against the Japanese juggernaut. After the war, the Americans promised help, including US citizenships, to their brothers-in-arms, but the promises were never fully fulfilled. War veterans today are very old, sickly and dying one after the other without the promised aid...some were given but never enough to commensurate to the sacrifice and hardships they endured.

To Uncle Sam: Cuando, cuando, cuando?