BERKELEY, California – A delegation of Filipino American community leaders attended the March 24 meeting of a key committee of the state’s teaching quality commission, to press for the implementation the law urging the inclusion of the role of Filipino soldiers during World War II in California’s school curriculum.

The Bataan Legacy Historical Society (BLHS) led the delegation to a meeting of History-Social Science Subject Matter Committee (SMC) of the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) in Sacramento, California.

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The Bataan Legacy committee has been working since 2014 for the execution of AB199, a California bill passed in 2011 but never implemented. The bill “encourages the inclusion of the role of the Filipino soldiers during WWII in the history social sciences curriculum framework for Grades 7-12.”

The BLHS has gone beyond the mandate of AB199 and was able to expand the initial proposed curriculum framework of two sentences to a page and a half to include World War II in the Philippines.

Chaired by Bill Honig, the SMC Committee reviewed the comments received during the 60-day public review in January and February with the California History Social Sciences Project (CHSSP), which wrote the text of the curriculum framework and made its own recommendations to the SMC.

Although the meeting was open, the public was not allowed to participate in the discussion until the very end during the public comments portion of only one minute per person.

The SMC Committee approved two key points from the BLHS recommendation: that the Filipino and American soldiers served under the U.S. Army and that the retreat to Bataan was a strategic move (based on War Plan Orange 3).

Bataan Legacy received numerous letters of support for its recommendations: Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco; Hydra Mendoza, Commissioner San Francisco Board of Education; Fiona Ma, Chairwoman, State Board of Equalization and one of the sponsors of AB199; Philippine Consul General Henry Bensurto, Jr.; Major General Antonio Taguba; Major General Eldon Regua; Brigadier General Oscar Hilman; Filipino American Development Foundation; Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc Philippine American Press Club and United Federation of Filipino-American Educators Sacramento and Vicinity Chapter.

The BLHS delegation led by Executive Director Cecilia Gaerlan and Filipino American Arts Exposition President Al Perez included Filipino and American community leaders from the Bay Area, Davis and Sacramento areas.

The group also met with California Appointments Secretary Mona Pasquil to apprise her of the current status of the AB199 implementation and to get her advice moving forward.

BLHS and its supporters vowed to continue working for its recommendations on the curriculum framework until its approval by the State Board of Education in May, after which it will start work on developing the curriculum template.

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