Ang tinig kaugnay sa pagbagsak ng Bataan

Kilala niyo ba kung kaninong tinig ang pinakinggan sa radyo noong Abril 9, 1942, na nag-anunsiyo sa pagbagsak ng puwersa ng mga Filipino at Amerikano sa Bataan na nagtatanggol sa kalayaan ng Pilipinas laban sa mga mananakop na Hapon. Mula sa lihim na kinaroroonan sa Malinta Tunnel sa isla ng Corregidor, binasa ng sundalong brodkaster na si Lieutenant Normando Ildefonso “Norman" Reyes, ang mensaheng sinasabing inihanda ni Captain Salvador Lopez, tungkol sa pagbagsak ng Bataan. Inanunsyo ni Reyes ang pagbagsak ng Bataan sa tinatawag na “Voice of Freedom" radio broadcast, sa panahon na pinupulbos din ng mga sundalong Hapon ang Corregidor. Narito ang bahagi nang makasaysayang pagsasahimpapawid ni Reyes sa pagbagsak ng Bataan: “Good evening everyone everywhere. This is the Voice of Freedom broadcasting from somewhere in the Philippines. Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy. The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more that three months. Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear. For what sustained them through all these months of incessant battle was a force that was more than merely physical. It was the force of an unconquerable faith—something in the heart and soul that physical hardship and adversity could not destroy! It was the thought of native land and all that it holds most dear, the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in these most priceless of all our human prerogatives. The adversary, in the pride of his power and triumph, will credit our troops with nothing less than the courage and fortitude that his own troops have shown in battle. Our men have fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the most superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last in the face of overwhelming odds. But the decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of unshakable faith are made of something more that flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come. Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand—a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world—cannot fall!" Halos isang buwan matapos ang makasaysayang pag-anunsiyo ni Reyes sa pagbagsak ng Bataan, napasakamay  rin ng mga sundalong Hapon ang Corregidor noong May 6, 1942. -- FRJimenez, GMA News