Posthumous honors conferred on PH’s oldest war veteran

Fernando Javier Jr. receives the Philippine Legion of Honor award from Philippine Veterans Affairs Office administrator Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina on behalf of his father, the late Fernando Perez Javier Sr.

World War II veteran Fernando Perez Javier Sr. has been conferred a posthumous Philippine Legion of Honor with the rank of officer for being the oldest Filipino veteran prior to his death last month.

Javier’s son, Fernando Javier Jr., received the award from Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, on Thursday during the necrological ceremony at Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City, PVAO said in a news release on Friday.

The award was given to Javier for “for showing true heroism when called to the colors as a third lieutenant of the Philippine Army and serving in the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), fighting in the Battle of Bataan and enduring the Bataan Death March and imprisonment in Tarlac alongside thousands of Filipino and American soldiers.”

According to the citation, President Benigno Aquino III conferred the award on Javier “for being the oldest living veteran and being a symbol of the resilience of a great generation that went through unimaginable hardship for the fight for freedom; for his professional career before and after the war including contributions to public works as an engineer, building roads in Palawan, working as a project engineer in South Korea and civil engineer in Japan, and for receiving recognition for his sanitary works as an environmental engineer in Guam and for his lifetime of service as soldier, veteran, and distinguished alumnus of the University of the Philippines including being a Centennial Man, earning him distinction and affection among his peers and younger generation of veterans, thereby constituting life achievements of commendable merit deserving of recognition from the President of the Philippines.”

The Philippine Legion of Honor is the highest honor the President of the Philippines may grant to an individual without the concurrence of Congress.

Javier died on June 29 in Baguio City due to an illness. He was 107.

He was a prisoner of war with his brother Jose, a military doctor at Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac. After the war, he was promoted to captain and was honorably discharged in 1946 after serving the 9th Battalion Constabulary Corps.

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