MANILA, Oct. 18 (PNA) — President Benigno S. Aquino III will lead Monday the 70th anniversary of the Leyte Landing that liberated the country from Japanese rule, the Palace said on Saturday.
The Philippines will mark Monday, October 20, the 70th anniversary of the Leyte landing, when US General Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines to liberate it from Japanese occupation.
On the morning of October 20, 1944, American forces led by General MacArthur landed on Red Beach in the municipality of Palo, near Tacloban, Leyte.
The invasion of Leyte began the campaign for the liberation of the Philippines from the Imperial Japanese forces, fulfilling MacArthur’s promise to return to the Philippines more than two years earlier.
The Leyte landing also marked the re-establishment of the Commonwealth Government on Philippine soil after years of government-in-exile in the United States.
The Battle of Leyte lasted from October 20 to December 31, 1944, resulting in a victory for the Allied forces.
It is also a milestone in the war in the Pacific that culminated in the end of almost three years of Japanese occupation of the Philippines. (PNA)