The city council on Monday approved appropriation Ordinance 100-2010, funding the annual commemoration of Victory Day every Sept. 3 in Baguio, in support to Republic Act 11216.
The law declares Sept. 3 of every year as a special working public holiday throughout the country, in commemoration of the official surrender of the Japanese military forces led by Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita at the American High Commissioners’ Residence in Camp John Hay, Baguio City.
The ordinance, which was submitted for signing to the Office of City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, appropriates P100,000 each year to fund fitting rites and activities in compliance to Presidential Proclamation 653, s. 1993 which directs local government units concerned to commemorate annually the anniversaries of the significant events related to the liberation of the Philippines during World War 2.
The ordinance has assigned the setting and conduct of memorial rites in an appropriate venue to the event committee composed of the offices of the city mayor, Baguio Tourism, sangguniang panlungsod, City Budget, and Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO).
The ordinance cited Resolution 229- 2020 “institutionalizing the celebration of the signing of the Instrument of Surrender by General Tomoyuki Yamashita at Camp John Hay on Sept. 3 of every year to be known as the Victory Day in the City of Baguio.”
From related articles and based on accounts of veterans and records from the PVAO, Yamashita was captured in Sept. 2, 1945 by Company A of the 11th Infantry Filipino guerrillas attached to 121 after his forces were cornered in Mt. Napulawan in Hungduan, Ifugao.
The Japanese general was then turned over to the Americans and was brought to Kiangan, Ifugao and then ferried to Bagabag Airport in Nueva Vizcaya. From there, the general was flown to Baguio.
Also on Sept. 2, 1945, the Japanese delegation formally signed the instrument of surrender onboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, marking the official ending of WWII.
“On Sept. 3, 1945, one day after the official Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay, Yamashita formally surrendered Japanese forces in the Philippines at Camp John Hay’s American Residence in the presence of Lieutenant Generals Arthur Percival and Jonathan Wainwright.”
Yamashita was tried by an American Military Tribunal in the ballroom of the U.S. High Commissioner’s residence in downtown Manila.
Also approved through an ordinance is the 2020 Revised Children’s Welfare and Protection Code of Baguio City.
The measure amends the old code under Ordinance 074, s. 2009 by incorporating numerous laws that have been enacted for the past 10 years to make it more effective, efficient, and appropriate for the present time.
Among the updates included in the revised code are significant provisions from RA 10627 or The Anti-Bullying Act, which prohibits all forms of bullying on children; RA 7610 on child labor, which refers to the illegal employment of children below the age of 15 and the situation of children below the age of 18 who are employed in hazardous occupations; the Anti-Child Trafficking Law; and the protection against online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, among others.
In Resolution 399, s. 2020, the council has approved a public-private partnership modality for the development of the Baguio City Public Market over two other modalities, the equity financing using city’s own money and availing of loan from banks or other financing institutions to fund/construct the project.
In related Resolution 400, s. 2020, the architectural design of the master development under Resolution 39, s. 2020 was adopted and integrated in the PPP modality for the city market development.
