Day Of Valor

Today, the Phillipines is celebrating Araw ng Kagitingan a little sooner than usual:

Weekend warriors are in for another treat, thanks to the Arroyo administration's "holiday economics."

Malacañang Wednesday declared next Monday, April 7, a nonworking holiday marking Araw ng Kagitingan two days ahead of the official World War II memorial date.

Also known as The Fall of Bataan, Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) commemorates the surrender of some 75,000 Filipino and American troops to the invading Japanese forces on April 9, 1942.

Sick and starving, the Allied prisoners of war led by their American commander for Luzon, Maj. Gen. Edward P. King Jr., were later forced to endure the infamous, 90-mile (140 km) "Death March" from Mariveles, Bataan to Capas, Tarlac.