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Transcript
00:00Today is the 180th anniversary of the Liberation of Manila.
00:05At the same time, it was transferred to the St. Augustine Church Columbarium
00:08the dozens of victims of the Remedios Hospital Tragedy of 1945.
00:13Bona Kino has the first news.
00:2080 years after the Battle of Manila of 1945,
00:24patients, volunteers, and civilians were brought to their final resting place
00:30during the American bombing of the Remedios Hospital.
00:33But at the same time,
00:35the 13 out of 22 people buried in the mass grave at Malate Catholic School
00:41were identified.
00:44All of this became possible because of Matthew Westfall,
00:49the grandson of one of the victims of the tragedy,
00:52Nikolai Prokopov, who was shot by a Japanese sniper and was taken to the Remedios Hospital.
00:59In July 2019, he found the mass grave at Malate Catholic School.
01:05Nobody knew it was destroyed, nobody knew it was there.
01:07Even all the other families thought it just got relocated or lost.
01:12So I rediscovered that destroyed grave,
01:15and right there, I remember coming back that evening,
01:18and I wrote the family in Connecticut and I said,
01:20one way or another, I will get those bones up.
01:23Their identification process went through a meticulous process
01:29that took more than five years,
01:32including the exhumation of the remains,
01:35forensic anthropology,
01:37and forensic DNA analysis.
01:39Now it's time to put them back together
01:43and put them to rest together.
01:45So they're pretty much where we found them
01:48but within a much more dignified place
01:52with the honor that they deserve.
01:57A mass was held for the victims,
02:00which was also attended by their relatives.
02:06After this, they were taken to their final resting place
02:10at St. Augustine Church, Columbarium.
02:13In a short program, the relatives of the victims thanked
02:17the descendants of Maria Orosa,
02:20one of the heroes of World War II.
02:23As somebody who loved her country above herself,
02:26my grandmother wanted all of them at home during the war,
02:29but she refused.
02:30She wanted to stay here because she was helping,
02:32you know, smuggling food to the prisoners in USC,
02:37to the guerrillas.
02:38There was no place where family could gather to remember her.
02:43Finally, by your efforts and the blessings of the Augustinians,
02:48Tita Mary, Lola Mary to me, has a resting place.
02:53Thank you, Matthew.
02:55By memorializing them, we are ensuring that their deaths
02:59were not in vain.
03:01After the final burial,
03:03the relatives of the victims planned to build
03:06a grave memorial for them.
03:09The recognition and re-burial of the victims of the Remedios Hospital tragedy
03:13is hoped to be a way to not forget the memories,
03:18history, and heroism during the war.
03:21This is the first news.
03:23Von Aquino for GMA Integrated News.
03:27Don't miss the latest news and updates.
03:30Be the first to know and subscribe to the YouTube channel
03:33of GMA Integrated News.
03:39GMA Integrated News

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