Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
On the 42nd anniversary of the Battle of Yultong

[Delivered at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, Fort Bonifacio, April 22, 1993]

A tradition of courage

IN THE ANNALS of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Battle of Yultong is among its finest hours. On that day in April 1951, the 10th Battalion Combat Team of the Philippine Army wrote a testament to the gallantry of the Filipino fighting man.

A little more than a year afterward, we in the 20th BCT remembered that tradition of courage—when our own time of trial came at Hill Eerie.

This day, then, is a proud one for every Filipino soldier. But it is also a sad one—for those of us who remember comrades who died at Yultong and on other battlegrounds in Korea 42 years ago.

Freedom is indivisible

The United Nations forces went into Korea in the belief that if freedom is extinguished anywhere, the whole free world would be endangered.

That sacrifice of so many brave men on the Korean peninsula was not in vain. Not only was the promise of freedom preserved for the Korean people. That action manifested the determination of the democracies to resist aggression with force.

The prospect before us today is the enlargement of the frontiers of freedom and prosperity in the world. And it is only fitting and proper that we should pause to remember our comrades who gave their lives for freedom in its time of trial—in the early spring at Yultong four decades ago.

The 10th BCT was the first Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea—which we call PEFTOK for short. It arrived in the peninsula on September 15, 1950—barely three months after the war broke out. Immediately it was plunged into the fighting to defend the peninsula from the North Korean invasion.

The annals of Yultong

Of the many engagements in which the 10th BCT took part—under the command of then Colonel Mariano Azurin and then Colonel Dionisio S. Ojeda—Yultong was the most memorable. Yultong was a key town in the so-called Iron Triangle, formed by the cities of Chorwon, Kumhwa and Pyonggang.

On orders from Allied headquarters, the 10th BCT on April 22, 1951, took up its position in the center of the U.N. line in defense—which also covers the area of Yultong. The 10th BCT replaced a Puerto Rican regiment, which was redeployed to another part of the line that same afternoon.

After completing their occupation of the new position that afternoon, the boys of the 10th waited—little realizing how soon the enemy attack would come. Just after sunset on that same day, the enemy jumped off from their fortified positions—assaulting in force, simultaneously, every strongpoint in the battalion’s areas of responsibility.

The fighting went on throughout the night and through the next day. After stubbornly defending his platoon perimeter for seven hours, then Lieutenant Tomas G. Batilo of Able Company was captured by the enemy. Then Captain Paulino Sanchez, commanding officer of Baker Company, was wounded—together with several other casualties among enlisted members of the line units.

The commander of the 10th BCT’s tank company, Captain Conrado Yap, held his men steady against the enemy attack. His gun crews fired as fast as they could. In Captain Yap’s sector, the attackers fell at the rate of 17 to 1.

Despite orders to withdraw from Major General Robert Soule, commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division, U.S. Army (to which the PEFTOK unit was attached) the 10th BCT—true to its motto of “Steady On”—stood fast up to the afternoon of the following day, the 23rd.

The 10th BCT would not withdraw, because one of its platoons—the one commanded by Lieutenant José Artiaga Jr.—had been overrun by the enemy. Artiaga and his men were defending a strategic hill in the village of Yultong—a key point in the whole battalion’s defensive network. Wave upon wave of assaults broke against Artiaga’s position—until finally the enemy prevailed.

The Filipinos would not leave without their dead and wounded. Captain Yap organized a mission to assault the hill now held by the enemy—to recover the bodies of the dead and to collect the survivors. The fierceness of the 10th BCT’s counterattack smothered enemy resistance and—for a brief while—the hill was back in Filipino hands.

Captain Yap—his mission accomplished—now ordered a withdrawal. While making a head count of his boys and directing the withdrawal, he was hit by machinegun fire. Like Lieutenant Artiaga, he was killed in action at Yultong.

The “Fighting 10th” came home in triumph—having written a glorious page in the Filipino martial tradition.

The spirit of Yultong

It is that tradition we uphold today—through these simple ceremonies—which we undertake jointly with the ambassador of the Republic of Korea, who has graciously come to commemorate this day with us. This day, too, marks the growing partnership of the Filipino-Korean peoples in the new battle for the development and sustained progress of the Asia-Pacific region.

I urge all of you—comrades and friends: fellow veterans of the Korean War—to rededicate ourselves to the spirit of Yultong.

Today, our country calls on us to live—and not to die—for it. But the civic responsibility we now bear is in every way as grave as it was 42 years ago. The new enemy is poverty, and fighting it, each one of us is called upon to take up his share of civic responsibility.

Steady on. This is the same call I ask of our nation and of all freedom-loving Filipinos.

Steady on as we face the challenge of our present problems.

Steady on as we seek a just and lasting peace for the country.

Steady on as we build our nation, and unite our people. May God grant that we carry out this mission as gallantly as our dead comrades did, when sacrifice was asked of them.