PHILIPPINE Consulate General in San Francisco officials attended the Bataan Legacy Historical Society’s 6th Conference on World War II in the Philippines on September 23, 2023 at McLaren Conference Center of the University of San Francisco.
Deputy Consul General Raquel R. Solano, Consul Rowena Pangilinan-Daquipil, and Vice Consul Adrian Baccay, represented the consulate at the event. The conference discussed war crimes during WWII in the Philippines and the Pacific, and how they continue to resonate in today’s world.
In her remarks, Deputy Consul General Solano thanked Cecilia Gaerlan of the Bataan Legacy Historical Society for providing a venue to deepen understanding of the events in the Philippines during World War II. She underscored that the effects of WWII can still be felt at present especially by those whose lives had been shattered and forever changed by the war. She added that given the death and destruction that war brings, it is imperative that wars are prevented from happening again. But if they must happen and wars become inevitable, the institutions created to hold accountable those who commit excesses and atrocities must be strengthened.
Speakers during the event include Vice Admiral Andrew Tiongson, Commander of U.S. Coast Guards Pacific Area and Defense Force West; Philip Kearney, a former war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague; Benjamin Hall, a former war correspondent for Fox News; Jose Custodio, a Fellow at the Consortium of the Indo-Pacific Researchers; and Cynthia Bonta, a survivor of the Los Baños Massacre.
Prof. Mark Hull, a Military History professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, served as the conference chair.
(PCGSF Release)