On October 20, 1944 (sixty two years ago this Friday), Allied Forces led by the powerful United States of America began its liberation of the Philippines - skippered by the great Douglas Macarthur - by landing on the shores of Palo, Leyte.

The sun-glassed, aquiline-nosed and towering American general (later portrayed by Hollywood legend Gregory Peck in an epic film simply called "Macarthur"), Douglas Macarthur led 200,000 American troops into one of the greatest war stories ever told.

It was in the Battle of Leyte Gulf that saw hundreds of warships and several Japanese kamikaze dive-bombers engage in a sea war battle that had few equals in the annals of World War II in terms of ferocity.

The three famous words: "I Have Returned" reverberated through the wavelets of Leyte's shores as Macarthur waded through the seawaters with American and Philippine officials including war-time president Sergeio Osmena Sr. "By the grace of the Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil." - Macarthur's voice boomed to signal the beginning of the end of Japanese imperial rule in the country.

It is said that former US president Gerald Ford was one of the brave American soldiers who landed with the barges on the shores of Palo, Leyte in 1944.

The Great Macarthur had once suggested that the allies bomb the exit corridors of Mainland China into a state of destruction such that they will not be habitable by any living creature for many generations.

The idea was to stop the communist ideology from making incursions into the rest of Asia, particularly Korea, Vietnam and Thailand. Unheeded, the botched advice resulted into the expansion of the ideological hegemony of communism in the Asian world.

Macarthur, was proven by history, to be right again.

The nation should remember the gallant men and women of the Philippines whose corpses lay side by side with those of the American soldiers in the fatal defense of the country's sovereign integrity and freedom from the Japanese invaders. Many of the American and Filipino soldiers wallowed in their mixed pool of blood within the valleys, creeks and shorelines of the archipelago.

If there was truly a defining moment of the American-Filipino mutual defense relationship, it had to be found in the textbooks of what happened in World War II. It was in those battlefields that the two countries shared a sense of common destiny and a devotion to the legacy of freedom and democracy. That great bond has withstood the test of time.

Yet, if in victory they were two - in defeat they also shared the same cup. Less than two years earlier, on April 9, 1942, the end of the Fil-Am resistance to the advacing Japanese Army was announced over a make-shift radio station inside a Corregidor tunnel called "The Voice of Freedom."

The combined Allied forces withstood all what human endurance could bear in the three months of air and sea bombing of Bataan until it finally fell. The Fall of Bataan took that long for the enemies forgot the unshakable faith of the defending soldiers who stood firm in their hearts and souls. This was the something that soldiers relied on the face of so much devastating adversity and unspeakable hardship.

Yet as the message rang through the nation - the gallant soldiers in Bataan slowly gave in - for the faith may be strong but the flesh is not impervious to steel. So the narration ensued: "The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away and the end of the battle must come." So Bataan fell.

The Death March that followed where 70,000 Filipino and American soldiers marched 160 kilometers from Bataan to the Japanese camp in Capas, Tarlac saw only 54,000 survivors at the end of march to Calvary.

On March 29, 1942, the Japanese relentlessly bombed Corregidor and captured the island fortress on May 6 of the same year.

As the nation celebrates Liberation Day on Friday (October 20) - we actually honor the gallantry, the courage and the nationalism that made our fighting men and women defend the country and flag during the most difficult circumstances in World War II.

We hope that our Armed Forces of today remember them in the spirit that they lived and died. The reforms (on-going) inside the barracks should turn around the poor image of the Filipino soldier from one who is soft, lazy, corrupt and selfish.

When that day comes, that will also be the Filipino soldier's own day of liberation. That will be a great event to celebrate.