The 4th Pag-Aeaw Aeaw

Historical Reenactment of the Banga Crossing Massacre
October 21, 2013

Organized by the Banga LGU in cooperation with DepEd
Banga, Aklan 

By order of the Mayor − Lorenzo Duran, Jr. − the Banga townsfolk prepared to welcome the Japanese Imperial Army arriving from Iloilo in the morning of October 21, 1942. They organized themselves into two groups – the first group headed to Libas, while the second group stayed at the Banga Crossing. Everybody was excited. They brought food. They were singing and drinking tuba. There was dancing, too.

One survivor, 79-year old Edgar Rigodon-Orola, who was aged eight at the time, was at Banga Crossing on that day with his father. He is present in today’s reenactment. He speaks about how the Japanese forces killed the first group who went to Libas, how they rounded up the second group at the Crossing, ordered them to squat, fired upon them, kicked and stabbed some with bayonets. He also recalls how he was saved by his father who covered him, how he was kicked and stabbed, how he pretended to be dead, how he observed what happened next with his eyes half open, and how he was finally saved and lived to this day.

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