Bataan Day? What’s that?

Err… Uhm… I don’t know.

Several individuals in Caloocan City could not quite summon a response when asked if they knew why April 9 had been declared a holiday.

Joey Isaias, a jeepney driver who plies the Malabon-Monumento-MCU route, took a few seconds to think before answering that the extra day was in anticipation of the heavy influx of motorists returning from the provinces after the Holy Week break.

“Isn’t it because (the government) didn’t want vehicles to build up on the streets on Sunday or something?” the 45-year-old asked.

Isaias said he had not watched television for a long time and had heard about the day being declared a holiday from friends.

Asked if he had heard of the Fall of Bataan, or Araw ng Kagitingan, he said: “Yes, I think I have.”

However, he said he could not remember what it was all about, he said.

Even younger people were at a loss when they were asked why they thought government offices remained closed Monday.

An engineering sophomore at a Malabon-based university who identified himself only as “Caloy” said that all he knew was that Monday had been declared a holiday.

He did not really know why but it “didn’t really matter,” he said. What was important was that he had more time to play his favorite computer game.

“Actually, I don’t know. I just know I’m playing Dota with my friends later,” he said with a laugh.

He admitted that he had a history subject way back in high school, but everything that he had learned “had gone down the drain.”

“After my exams, I completely forgot about everything already,” he said.

He has not had any history courses in college yet, he said.

Kat Villaruel, a stall vendor in her early 20s, scratched her head when asked if the Fall of Bataan rang any bells.

Villaruel, who sells DVDs, admitted that she had never heard of the event, much less read anything about it. She doesn’t do much reading in the first place, she said.

“I usually get information by watching TV, but I haven’t been watching lately,” she said.

Asked why she thought Monday had been declared a holiday, Villaruel replied, “Honestly, I don’t know.”