WHEREAS, The Leyte Gulf Landing on October 20, 1944, led by General Douglas MacArthur that commenced on the eastern Philippine island of Leyte is remembered as the liberation of the Philippines during World War II; and

WHEREAS, After General MacArthur had been evacuated from the Philippines in March 1942, all of its islands fell under the Japanese occupation from mid-1942 until mid-1944, which was harsh, accompanied by atrocities, and with large numbers of Filipinos pressed into slave labor; and

WHEREAS, When General Douglas MacArthur was ordered to leave he had already established a strong rapport with the Filipino people and the guerillas; he vowed, “I shall return” to liberate them and the fulfillment of his promise is the reason that General MacArthur was declared a hero; and

WHEREAS, During the war the efforts of Filipino and American defenders during the Battle of Bataan were widely covered by the press, as were the actions of the 100th Infantry and the 442nd Infantry, including the 1951 film “Go for Broke!” portraying their endeavors; and

WHEREAS, By contrast, the activities of the Filipino Infantry Regiment and its sister units were largely unpublicized and it was not until the documentaries “Unsung Heroes” and “An Untold Triumph” that any significant visual media covered the history of the regiment; and

WHEREAS, During the American reconquest of the Philippines, the Filipino guerrillas began to strike openly against Japanese forces, carried out reconnaissance activities ahead of the advancing regular troops, and took their places in battle beside the advancing American divisions; and

WHEREAS, One of the outcomes of the Leyte liberation was the arrival of GI war brides coming home from the Philippines after World War II to the United States, thus enlarging the growth of a new generation of first and second generation Filipino American-born offspring in the United States, a new milestone in the population growth of Filipinos in the United States; now, therefore, be it